SHAG, anyone ?

[The Nr Fairy]

The CAA held the second Small Helicopter Safety Seminar at Qinetic Farnborough on 20th November. It was previously known as the "Cormorant Group" to sensitive souls in the CAA, and the Small Helicopter Advisory Group to those with a sense of humour.

Quick run down of agenda :

1. Rod Dean, CAA Head GA honcho giving an intro.
2. David Cockburn, GA Safety man giving a presentation on light helicopter accident trends in the UK from 1985 - 2001.
3. Ray Leach from Transco giving a presentation on practical applications of GPS in the pipeline survey work they do.
4. Trip to AAIB / lunch. HIGHLIGHT of the day - seeing the PanAm 747 still on its scaffold, seeing the bomb hole, very sobering. Lots of other mangled / bent aircraft - few helicopters.
5. Colin Hague and Nigel Maggs, respectively Chief and Senior Test Pilots at Westlands, gave a presentation on safety hints and experiences.
6. David Patterson, Chief Helicopter Examiner and Torquemada to Whirly gave a presentation on the JAR PPL(H) syllabus.

That's it in a nutshell - lots of useful stuff, especially the trip to the AAIB.

Most memorable bit other than the AAIB - Nigel Maggs having to be reminded of the word for the other type of helicopter engine - it's P I S T O N, Nigel !!

If anyone else who was there has comments to make, feel free.

[t'aint natural]

Fairy:
Can you give me a quick synopsis of what was said on item two, small helicopter accident trends? I know the Small Helicopter Action Group was set up because of a perception at the CAA that helicopter fatalities were increasing. I've crunched the numbers, and it's clear to me that small helicopter fatalities have stayed substantially static for the past decade, while the number of small helicopters has increased by half.

[pilotwolf]

Had a good day. Only gripe was that it was all a bit rushed. Would have been nice to have a 'social' extension in the evening to mingle..

[muffin]

Where do they advertise these seminars? I have not seen any mention of this one in the aviation press or on any of the newsgroups..

Perhaps they are fully booked and they don't need to advertise?

[The Nr Fairy]

muffin :

I saw a very small bit about this in GASIL. Phoned David Cockburn, got on the list, went and had a good day.

There was nothing on the SRG web page that I remember seeing about it either.