http://www.aviationtoday.com Aviation Today en-us 2013 Tue, 21 May 2013 20:55:47 EDT Most things that happen in helicopter aviation can be viewed from more than one perspective, and sometimes achieving access to the correct viewpoint can end up feeling like a matter of life and death. During the 1970s, out of Borinquen, Puerto Rico, we enjoyed not only the pleasure of covering the largest... http://www.aviationtoday.com/rw/issue/columns/safetywatch/Safety-Watch-A-Matter-of-Perspective_78895.html Mon, 1 Apr 2013 0:00:00 EDT The conscientious helicopter pilot is almost always engaged in active accommodation of at least two completely separate sets of safety challenges. The first, of course, is the actual accomplishment of physical safety. The licensing and qualification mechanisms conventionally observed in U.S. helicopter... http://www.aviationtoday.com/rw/issue/columns/safetywatch/Safety-Watch-Multiple-Levels-of-Safety_78388.html Fri, 1 Feb 2013 0:00:00 EST Even with today’s advancing technology, good radio communications, absolutely vital to safe operations, sometimes seem to have become a lost set of arts. Radio traffic in all helicopter communities, to include operationally ancillary activities, should be made consistently effective through both... http://www.aviationtoday.com/rw/issue/columns/safetywatch/Safety-Watch-Good-Radio_78033.html Sat, 1 Dec 2012 0:00:00 EST In the early days of civilian EMS helicopter activities it was comparatively easy to identify that aviation operators were creating many of their own safety problems by promoting their product as a function of trying to fulfill sometimes excessively optimistic marketing promises through consequently... http://www.aviationtoday.com/rw/issue/columns/safetywatch/EMS-Helicopter-Safety-2012-Perspective_77419.html Mon, 1 Oct 2012 0:00:00 EDT Safety is not an entity in and itself. Pilots need to develop a healthy perspective for safety, not think of it as an obstacle to mission accomplishment, but a means to mission accomplishment. I’d like to highlight the links among management, standardization, training and safety. These items “go... http://www.aviationtoday.com/rw/issue/columns/safetywatch/Safety-Goes-Hand-in-Glove-with-Mission_76941.html Wed, 1 Aug 2012 0:00:00 EDT I began recounting an adventure which unfolded in Haiti during the 1970s as part of an unusually challenging Coast Guard case which aspired to recover a number of deceased American air crash victims, and which also happened to lend itself as the perfect model illustrating that helicopter missions can be... http://www.aviationtoday.com/rw/issue/columns/safetywatch/Cat-Skinning-Part-2_76664.html Sun, 1 Jul 2012 0:00:00 EDT Having always stood with one foot set lightly in airplanes and the other planted firmly in helicopters, I’ve often enjoyed contending to fixed-wing-only operators that safely accomplished rotary wing aviation will always maintain a smug status as much more challenging and demanding than their version... http://www.aviationtoday.com/rw/issue/columns/safetywatch/Safety-Watch-Cat-Skinning-Part-1_76463.html Fri, 1 Jun 2012 0:00:00 EDT This month we’ll look at safety within the rotorcraft industry. After attending Heli-Expo in Dallas this year and talking with safety professionals in the industry, I decided to look at the safety management system (SMS) programs for several helicopter operators. In order to get a more accurate account... http://www.aviationtoday.com/rw/issue/columns/safetywatch/Leading-the-Way-in-Safety_76465.html Fri, 1 Jun 2012 0:00:00 EDT When I was 19 years old I knew everything. After all, I had a private pilot license. Looking at life from the perspective of unchastened youth, I can recall an unflinching belief that all things were imminently achievable. The possibility of penalties for failure did not show up for me at the time on any... http://www.aviationtoday.com/rw/issue/columns/safetywatch/Safety-Watch-Achieving-Experience_75860.html Thu, 1 Mar 2012 0:00:00 EST Bullying is a topic often spotlighted across almost every venue within common ground-bound American news media, but one aspect of this disruptive behavioral phenomenon somewhat surprisingly occurs far too often within rotary wing aviation operations. This column has regularly presented a running suggestion... http://www.aviationtoday.com/rw/issue/columns/safetywatch/Safety-Watch-Dont-Be-Bullied_74449.html Sat, 1 Oct 2011 0:00:00 EDT