Originally Posted by
A and C
The bottom line is that H & S is an industry that is out of control and spending most of it's time inventing things to give it,s self something to do. Perhaps I have just been unlucky but all the "elf & safety" have done for me is make it harder to teach the people new to the industry to look out for danger and think about the results of actions that they might take by bringing a "safety first" attitude into disrepute.
I think more accurately the implementation of H&S is frequently ALLOWED to run out of control. Many of the concepts are solid - but one of the most important concepts is that real and accurate risk assessments are done and the people on the front line understand the risks and take personal responsibility for themselves and others. There are lots of processes that help implement this, but without the people who risk getting injured believing and understanding, you don't get real safety.
I say this from the perspective of someone who is actually one of the legally accountable people, employs some of the best H&S people available and operates a large scale business with the best safety record in the industry. H&S is important and can work - but way to often, people do things in the name of H&S that don't add any value - when they do that, they actually take a massive step backwards because the people on the front line loose respect and stop listening.
HiViz at small airfields is one of those things. This thread goes on for pages and pages and the only facts or logic as to why HiViz is a good idea have been in the context of large aircraft ops with intense ground activity - and there it IS a good idea, along with ear defenders, toetectors, etc).
When you speak with the airfield operations people at the 'HiViz GA' airports it is clear that either the airport H&S/management team just read the CAA guidance and adopted this bit with no thought or proper risk assessment OR they have failed spectacularly in communicating to their front line staff what the risk assessment identified, the supporting data on impact and probability and why HiViz is a good mitigation.