2019 Safety Review

As we welcome the start of 2020 and the new decade, it is an opportunity to reflect on 2019, review our safety statistics, and focus on our safety objectives for 2020.

With the RAAus Occurrence Management System (OMS) now 4 years old, a focus for 2020 is to look at improving how we manage our data in order to offer you, our members, more visibility of RAAus safety information, occurrence types and safety focuses. This should also give members insight into how RAAus collates, analyses and utilises your reports to distribute information to members.

So let’s take a look at the data

RAAus members lodged 299 reports through our OMS throughout 2019, which consisted of:

Report Type Number of Reports Accident 58 Incident 170 Hazard 5 Defect 24 Complaint 42 Total 299 Accident & Incident Breakdown Nearly half of our accident and incident reports can be categorised as operational occurrences, many of which are due to aircraft control management issues, runway events, communications, flight preparation / navigation and fuel related occurrences.

Injuries RAAus had a total of 5 fatal reports throughout the 2019 calendar year, 2 more than 2018. We also had 3 occurrences resulting in serious injury, and 16 occurrences involving minor injury.

Injury Type Number of Occurrences Fatal 5 Serious 3 Minor 16 Nil 203

Damage to Aircraft Throughout 2019 we had 15 occurrences reporting an aircraft being destroyed, 38 occurrences resulting in substantial aircraft damage, and 53 occurrences resulting in minor damage.

Damage to Aircraft Number of Occurrences Destroyed 15 Substantial 38 Minor 53 Nil 106 Unknown 16

Breakdown of occurrence types From the data gathered within 2019, we are able to identify commonly occurring accident types. These can be split between our two primary departments, Flight Operations and Airworthiness and Maintenance.

Airworthiness & Maintenance

Occurrence Category Number of Reports Engine Failure or malfunction 35 Landing gear issues 13 Flight control issues 6 Brake malfunction or failure 4

Our most common technical related report received throughout 2019 was due to engine failure or malfunction, with many submissions reporting partial or full loss of power, or engine vibrations. Other common technical related occurrences include landing gear, flight control and brake issues.

This reinforces the importance of members ensuring maintenance schedules are carried out as per the manufacturer’s maintenance schedule. The manufacturer maintenance schedules are modified based on reports of failures or other issues, hence the importance of reporting. RAAus forwards relevant reports to manufacturers, as does the ATSB and international equivalents. Recent examples include advice from a manufacturer to reduce the number of hours between replacement of parts due to reported failures.

RAAus will continue to provide L1 maintenance training throughout 2020 to better equip owner maintainers with the basic knowledge and skills required to safely maintain their own aircraft. Keep an eye out for E-News correspondence related to upcoming L1 Maintenance courses near you!

Flight Operations

Occurrence Category Number of Reports Loss of separation, loss of separation assurance, or near miss 21 Runway loss of control or runway excursion 20 Hard landing or ground strike 18 Loss of control 14 Aircraft preparation 6 Airspace infringement 7

Loss of Separation and Near Miss Events One area of increasing concern is the number of loss of separation related or near miss events being reported by RAAus members. It is important that members remain vigilant when it comes to keeping your eyes outside the cockpit and maintaining good lookout practices. This is particularly relevant with current smoke conditions in the atmosphere from the ongoing bushfire tragedies. RAAus has received reports from pilots advising of loss of VMC, including in the circuit at aerodromes. Loss of separation in the circuit is potentially the most serious of events and members should be proactive in

maintaining an active lookout, and avoid operating in potentially low visibility conditions.

This data also enforces the importance of making regular radio calls and maintaining a good listening watch when flying. Members should not rely solely on radio communications as means of confirming the location of other nearby airspace users as there are a number of reasons why other aircraft may not hear your transmission.

Runway Events Runway events, including runway loss of control, runway excursions or hard landings make up a large number of RAAus occurrences, many of which may have been unavoidable with improved situational decision making. Ensuring pilots establish and maintain a stabilised approach on final will be an important factor in achieving a good landing. Remember regardless of how long you have been flying, refreshing some skills with a local instructor can be a valuable way to improve knowledge and safety. When was the last time you went out and simply practiced circuits, setting targets like maintaining height +/- 50 or 100 feet, airspeed to within 5 knots, applying discipline to your checklists and reviewing your decision point as to when you will commence a go around, or even practicing a goaround! This can be one of the most challenging parts of a flight, applying power when the trim is set for glide approach, flaps are set for landing and dealing with the resulting yaw and pitch from the power application requires pilots to be on top of their game. Conducting a go-around is always less embarrassing than running off the side of the runway, or worse! We should be handing out awards to pilots who elect to conduct a go-around, as a nod to their superior decision making and aircraft handling skills. Loss of Control Events Loss of control events are the single largest cause of fatal accidents not only for RAAus, but also in light aircraft around the world. It is vital that members understand their aircraft, including required speeds, handling requirements, and characteristics. Members should also be familiar with the symptoms of a stall and regularly practice these skills. Remember that increased angle of bank increases stall speed which may require an increase in power. A stall may be initially quite benign in your aircraft, but by observing the Vertical Speed Indicator, a sneaky indicator of a stalled condition will be present in the form of a increasing rate of descent. The first step in an engine failure situation for pilots in low inertia aircraft like the majority of RAAus aircraft must be to lower the nose in order to maintain airspeed. These skills should be instinctive for all pilots and reviewing these skills may just save your life - Perhaps consider adding a reminder to lower the nose in the event of engine failure as part of your pre-takeoff checklist emergency brief. Another focus for 2020 is to try and share more member flying experiences involving close calls, incidents or accidents, or stories of when pilots got things wrong. If you have an experience you believe could help others, please send a copy to safety@raaus.com.au. Many of our OMS outcomes and reports mirror those received internationally, making these issues not just a RAAus problem. Remember, safety is everyone’s responsibility. If you see something that isn’t right, say something, or report it to RAAus so that we can work with members to improve safety for everyone.