Safety: Risk Management

Welcome to the Safety Section of the Flying Clubs Newsletter, Club Connector!

Each month we provide resources for flying club safety officers so that they can keep their clubs informed and safe.   We also include links to the PowerPoint slides that we use for our own club meetings, so that you always have a topic for your club’s next safety meeting.  Along with the slides, we often provide links to relevant articles, videos, and other media that you may also find useful.

Alright then, let’s get on with this month’s safety topic!

January 2023 Safety Topic of the Month: Introduction to Safety Risk Management:

This month’s Safety topic is “Introduction to Safety Risk Management (SRM)”.   This sounds a bit dry, but it is a topic that is well worth our time and consideration.  This falls under the wider heading of Aeronautical Decision Making (ADM), but SRM itself is to do with the assessment, understanding (of impact) and mitigation of risks.  Flying does, of course, involve risk, but there are methods and tools available for us to assess the severity and collectively impact of aviation risks—and then to decide what to do about those risks.

Background: 

The General Aviation Joint Safety Committee (GAJSC) has studied a number of general aviation accidents that were caused by inaccurate and/or unreasonable expectations with regard to risk assessment and mitigation.  This presentation introduces the subject of Safety Risk Management and offers some examples of SRM in practice.

Learning Points:

• Flying involves risk, but there are methods and tools available to help us to assess, understand and mitigate the threat and impact of risks
• General aviation accidents continue to be associated with inaccurate or unreasonable expectations with regard to risk assessment and mitigation
• Safety Risk Management should be employed before, during, and after each flight
• Safety Risk Management aids such as PAvE, INSAFE, PPP, DECIDE, Flight Risk Assessment Tools (FRAT) and more, are available for use by all pilots

Click below to view this month's topic slides:

January 2023 Safety Topic of the Month: Introduction to Safety Risk Management

References:

• Introduction to Safety Risk Management
• PHAK Chapter 2, Aeronautical Decision Making
• Risk Management Handbook
• FAA Safety Risk Management Policy

Other Safety Resources:

Here is a quick reminder of just some of the resources available to all pilots:

1. The FAASTeam website is the portal to a vast array of courses, videos, links, and much more.Remember that WINGS not only encompasses “knowledge” activities, but also flight activities.Use the various search options to narrow done, to, say flight activities for a basic phase of WINGS and you’ll be able to find a syllabus and often a worksheet for each flight activity.

    

2. AOPA’s own Air Safety Institute, which by the way, is funded by the AOPA Foundation just like the Flying Clubs Initiative, is packed with amazing content, including exceptional videos, podcasts, accident analysis, online courses, recorded webinars and more.Completing these activities may also earn WINGS credits.Of particular interest to flying club safety officers is the recently updated Safety to Go section.Here, you can download a selection of topics, each coming with PowerPoint slides and speaker’s notes!

WINGS for Clubs:

If you are interested in using the FAASTeam WINGS program with your flying club, feel free to contact Steve, who is a Lead Representative and WINGSPro, and uses the program in his club.  More on WINGS for Clubs can be found here in Flying Clubs Radio Episode 8 and the May 2020 Question of the Month.