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 a PDF of the slides 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!
Topic of the Month Slides: The Importance of Maintaining Aircraft Control at All Times.
Background:
NTSB accident data strongly suggests that distractions, poor decision making and inappropriate responses to in-flight situations are key precursors to loss of control accidents.
Pilots must maintain aircraft control at all times (aviate). Then take the time to restore situational awareness (navigate), and only then worry about talking to ATC or whomever (communicate). In other words: Fly the Aircraft First!
Learning Points:
Other Safety Resources:
Here is a quick reminder of just some of the resources available to all pilots:
FAASTeam:
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 down, 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.
AOPA Air Safety Institute:
https://www.aopa.org/training-and-safety/air-safety-institute
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. There, 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.
