Safety Matters

Safety is the main consideration of Southend Flying Club. Below is a selection of recent safety news and matters.

We have an open reporting culture (a "Just Culture") that encourages free and frank safety reports without fear of reprisal except in the case of illegal activity, wilful misconduct or negligence.

We encourage all our staff and members to report safety events or potential risks however insignificant they may consider them at the time, please ensure you are familiar with our safety reporting system.

Southend Flying Club is committed to:
An accident free environment,
Improving towards the highest safety standards,
Complying with all applicable legal requirements, and applicable standards whilst considering best practices.
Providing appropriate resources.

Gliding Sites

A recent safety report has been made about overflying gliding sites. As part of our Just Culture, no one will be named and shamed and no one is in any form of trouble, however we should all learn from other peoples experiences as no one wants to end up in the "Red Book".

The Red Book

A safety report has been made after a call from Wormingford gliding club (west of Colchester) that one of our aircraft overflew the runway at 1800' whilst gliding activity was taking place.

Wormingford winch launch gliders to 3000' above the the ground (look on YouTube if you aren't familiar with the process) and the cable descends back on the airfield. The cable is approx. 8mm diameter and would be completely invisible to a pilot. Colliding with a cable could cause an accident with awful results. The gliding club maintain a look out for any aircraft above and delay launches if needed. In this case it wasn't an issue but they want us to highlight their existence and educate all local pilots about their operations.

The pilot was spoken to and has learned some valuable lessons from the experience, which should be shared:

The pilot wasn't aware of the glider site, although it is marked on the chart, because they didn't recognize the symbol (see picture).
The pilot reported seeing gliders well below that didn't pose a risk, however they were not aware that Wormingford launch to 3300' altitude and that this is marked on the chart as /3.3.
As it was a relatively simple local flight, for a very experienced pilot, there may have been a level of complacency in the flight planning process.

Glider Site launching to 2,500' altitude

Threat & Error Management - TEM

All flights need planning and Threat & Error Management should be used. In this case the threat was airborne collision, compounded by the errors in map knowledge. This threat could have been managed by identifying the glider site in preplanning and changing the route, or by overflying the site well above the published launch altitude (careful of airspace). Simply calling the club from the number on the website would let you know if this was required or not. Avoidance could be by using nav aids such as SkyDemon or simply having a ground feature to follow to keep away from the runway. In this case the railway running north/south to the west of the airfield would be have been suitable.

Conclusion

In this instance there was not a problem but everyone must learn from the errors made to improve safety. Just because you are above the launch altitude or avoiding the runway doesn't mean there aren't multiple gliders out there so keep away or at least a good look out.

Finally: Glider pilots hunt in packs and take off knowing they have to make a forced landing during their flight, so know what you are messing with!

An interesting narrative from the CAA about a Southend airspace infringement.
Two of the main points were complacency as it was a familiar route and lack of detailed planning due to using a nav app (Skydemon etc). Click below for link.

CAA LINK

Engine Fire on Start Up

It is that time of year when the cold weather makes starting aircraft harder.
Proper technique improves starting, reduces wear and also the risk of engine intake fires. Important points to note are:

Pumping the throttle increases the risk of fire.
Excessive cranking will destroy the starter and increase the risk of fire.
If you have failed to start after 3 attempts wait 10 minutes before trying again.
Always ask for help if you are unsure.
Cessna C152 are known to be tricky in sub zero temperatures. Follow this link to the POH to revise the correct technique. Also note later revisions also recommend carb heat hot on starting.
Sometimes it is just too cold and you need to give up.

Halton ATZ

Following the infringement of the Halton ATZ by one of our aircraft they would like to remind you to be aware of them and share the following update;

To recap: although we are a non-standard military flying station due to our flying being 99% civilian, we operate (7 days a week, 0900-2000L or SS+15) all year round except three days (Christmas day, boxing day & New Year’s Day).

Since my last email to yourselves, we have had 1 ATZ infringement and a drone incursion directly along one of our runways. The aircraft that infringed at approx. 1500ft AGL flew directly over the runways intersection with what seemed to be blatant disregard for where they were operating and not receiving any form of service from local aerodromes. The aircraft was a small flex-wing whereby they are not required to carry SSR equipment which resulted in the aircraft not being able to be identified. The drone incursion had the drone fly at approx. 300ft AGL directly along our runway during powered and glider operations.

Both of the above situations are examples for yourselves to note for your own airfield safety and awareness. For both situations, if you were speaking with us on Halton radio (130.425MHz) we could be in a situation to firstly warn you of the safety implications to yourself and would allow you to improve your situational awareness whilst providing aircraft already in our ATZ of your location.

Runway incursion

Runway incursions are a risk to all pilots and the results can be very dangerous.

A pilot recently involved in one recognised that it was largely down to distraction at the holding point due to social chatting about non critical matters.

We strongly recommend that you adopt a "sterile cockpit" mindset once at the holding point and brief all crew and passengers that once at the hold, the only conversations should be operational matters or safety concerns.

DON'T CROSS RED STOP BARS!