The Safety subcommittee met in Taipei last month under the chairmanship of Frenchman Raymond Caux. It was the first meeting of the subcommittee and was attended by 35 persons. The key points…

Structure and activity of the Safety SC

A good competition safety record is critical, not only for saving lives, but for the continuation of our sport: attracting organisers, sponsors, competitors etc.

The SC should contain a mix of people who are prepared to work, representing pilots, manufacturers, organisers and other technical experts, as well as the chairs (or their representatives) of each discipline subcommittee.

The PG Competitions Safety TF activity and report was exemplary, and recommendations should be followed up.

Safety issues need to be actively raised and discussed during the year. SC should be informed/involved on a regular basis.

How to address/communicate safety issues – new media, at competitions, understand psychology and develop Safety Culture.

Actions: Formalise SC members; set agenda of short and long term issues by discipline and/or overall; set timetable and distribute actions. 

Incident reporting

A small group of volunteers was formed to pursue this initiatie and take in recommendations of Task Force.

Actions: Simplify online form for pilots, introduce short form for organisers to complete (linked to processing results for WPRS), consider DHV-like summary of incidents for information and awareness, create a ‘safety index’ (ie incidents/pilots/task) to show evolution of safety record.

Research on equipment

PG Reserves: Interest in initiating some research into reviewing PG reserve parachute deployment systems (ie 2 reserves, 2-sided reserves, automatic deployment systems).

Action: Experts to be consulted and a research programme defined and costed.

Live Tracking

Mixed views on making it compulsory due to cost and reliability issues. No conclusion on whether this is something CIVL should provide. Discussion on current costs (around €3000 or $4000 per event, plus cost of tech support).

Cross communication

FAI has just created a safety experts group, CIVL should be involved. Me should also liaise with organisations like OSTIV, EHPU, PWCA, testing houses, manufacturers.

Action: Pursue and determine best CIVL representative to join group and liaise in each case.

Improving pilot education, awareness, psychology of safety issues.

Some ideas emerged on how to communicate more effectively with pilots about safety and creating a safety culture.

Action: Create a template/agenda for mandatory safety briefings with re-usable ideas (short video clips, top pilot talks, interactive, varied speakers etc). Define key topics and create some informational films (aka HG sprogs) using top pilots, and/or other experts.

Raise skills for pilots in cat. 1 competitions

Task Force and PMA recommending an SIV-style qualification for competition pilots. Strong views in favour. Some concern about cost and availability of courses. PMA experts working on proposed program. CIVL could help by funding trainers to run courses in other geographic areas and train the trainers.

It was agreed it should be a high priority to find ways to increase pilot skills and eduction.

Actions: Liaise with PMA expert group on SIV-style program. Investigate skills available worldwide to deliver such courses. (Delegates can be asked for information, and their inclination to support the initiative). Consider other initiatives, timescales, costs and effectiveness.