SAFA Skysailor Magazine

SKY SAILOR 31 January | February 2020 involved, their contact details and the role they played. For example, the pilot(s) would be de- scribed as PIC – pilot in command. Witnesses as Witness 1, Witness 2, etc. If the pilot was under instruction, give the school name. The date and time are sometimes overlooked or entered incorrectly. Note the options for the time zone: Australian Eastern Standard, Central Standard and Western Standard Times are non-daylight savings times. Aust. Eastern and Central Daylight Times are for daylight savings time zones. Next is an indicator as to whether this is an Accident, Incident or a Complaint. This is followed by the location and region where the event occurred, and whether it happened in recreational, competi- tion or instructional flying. The phase of flight concludes this section. Sometimes the distinction of the phase can be a bit blurred, especially when it involves a transition. For example, ending up in a tree while heading to land or on final – did it happen In Flight or on Landing? Pilot 1 Details: This section (and Pilot 2 Details) will be auto- populated from the SAFA Member database where available. Give as much detail as possible. If you are the witness, leave ‘Pilot 1 Statement’ clear. You can enter your description of events in the ‘Description’ section. Aircraft and Equipment Details – Pilot One: Enter as much detail as possible. This may not be possible if you are a witness. Pilot 2 Details and Aircraft and Equipment Details – Pilot Two: These are duplicates of the ‘Pilot 1’ sections and would usually only be used for a mid-air collision, but may be used for other interactions and events. Site and Location Details: This section was recently enhanced with the ability to enter sites listed in the Australian National Site Guide [siteguide.org.au/index. html]. If you click the ‘Choose from the SAFA Site Guide’ field, a drop-down list of sites allows direct selection. The site coordinates will be populated automatically. Alternatively, for both the launch and landing sites you may select from a map dialog. Click on the ‘OPEN MAP’ button. A map window will open, within which you can zoom in or out using your mouse wheel and move a pin around to select a location. Press ‘Enter’ to drop the pin and record the loca- tion. Control buttons in this section also populate information on the site, such as the rating, launch and landing types. Weather Conditions: Here, you can record wind strength and direction, temperature and whether turbulence was present. Description: In this section we want to capture all the nitty gritty details: What happened? Was there any damage or injuries? If so, what was the nature of these and what were the immediate actions taken by those present? Enter as much detail as possible – it helps paint the big picture. File Attachments: Here you can upload pictures or documents that might be of use. Note: The maximum file size limit is 6MB. Don’t forget to hit the ‘Submit’ button when you’re done. Further modifications and enhancements are in the pipeline. We’re looking into how accidents and incidents are classified, as well as injuries, and aim to provide better options to record these. We are also developing an extension to AIRS: the ‘Threat and Hazard Reporting System’. With this system you will be able to report any threat or hazard you may notice around your areas of operation, or with regard to the equipment you use. Associated with this is the ‘Action Tracking System’, also under development. Safety recommendations from AIRS reports and reported ‘Threats and Hazards’ will raise ‘Actions’ to be acted on and tracked. As enhancements and refinements are made, we will keep you posted here in SkySailor, or on the SAFA blog page [safa.asn.au/news/blog] . In the meantime, keep those reports coming folks, and above all: Fly safe. Photo: Chris Cook