Mark
 
    Thanks for your reply.
 
    Below is a response and I have included my further points in yours in caps below.
 
BUT .......... (a) How about you play the ball and not the man. Argue your case by all means but don't demand to win and don't attack the contributor because they continue to argue theirs.
 
    (b) It is interesting that my Poll on The Gliding Forum was 21 votes from people who think that Incident and Accident Reports are useful and 2 that don't. 91.3% in favour and given that 1 of the nay-sayers might have been you voting twice, I reckon that's strong support for the concept ......... but then what do I know in my vacuum?
 
    You and the other no-voters can have a meeting in a phonebox somewhere.
 
    I apologise to the other readers but Mark has demanded a response to each of his points.
 
    See other comments below in CAPS
 
Regards Geoff
 
 
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Monday, November 07, 2005 12:56 PM
Subject: Re: [Aus-soaring] ACCIDENT & INCIDENT REPORTING

Geoff Kidd wrote:

> I suggest that the main question for the GFA Board and the Management is
> something like "What is in the best way to build a safety conscious culture
> in the interests of all of our members" and I say that regular factual
> reporting is a good way to do that.

See, this is the problem with having discussions like this on mailing lists.
Mailing lists tend to favour people who argue their point of view in a
vacuum, without considering any counterpoints. THAT'S THE KETTLE CALLING THE POT BELLY BLACK

I've already described a couple of reasons why "regular factual reporting"
of the kind you've proposed is bad.  To whit:

   - It discourages people who are "sensitive" about humiliation from
     reporting accidents/incidents in the first place;. THIS IS NOT RELEVANT AS I THINK THAT THE CTOO SAID THAT THEY CAN BE ANONYMOUS IF NECESSARY.

   - It relies on people getting hurt or killed to get its point across. WRONG. I AM NOT ARGUING THAT ONLY INJURIES OR FATALITIES ARE REPORTED TO MEMBERS. SOME MAY BE THOSE TYPES OF OCCURANCES, AND SO BE IT, BUT I ARGUE THAT ALL ACCIDENTS AND INCIDENTS SHOULD BE REPORTED TO MEMBERS.

   - It adds responsibility for extra workload to people who are volunteering
     their time, and who probably don't appreciate having their spare time
     eaten up on the insistence of other people who aren't volunteering theirs. THAT WOULD BE VALID IF IT WAS FACTUAL. THE CTOO ADVISED THE WAGGA SAFETY SEMINAR THAT THE DATA EXISTS, IT JUST ISN'T REPORTED TO MEMBERS, AT THE DIRECTION OF THE BOARD. THE CTOO FURTHER SUGGESTED THAT I WRITE TO THE BOARD TO ARGUE MY CASE. I HAVE ALSO VOLUNTEERED TO DO THE TYPING AND COMPOSITION DONKEYWORK FOR THEM TO EDIT IN ANY WAY THEY WISH ............ AND BEFORE YOU ACUSE ME OF WANTING TO INFLUENCE THE OUTCOMES, I HAVE NO DESIRE, NOR DO I HAVE THE EXPERIENCE TO MAKE A FACTUAL OR EVALUATION JUDGEMENT, BUT I CAN DRAFT THE WORDS AND PREPARE THE ELECTRONIC DOCUMENT FOR THEM TO USE AS A BASIS FOR A MONTHLY EDIT.

   - It doesn't provide any deeper insight into safety than could be achieved
     by writing about precisely the same issues without having to wait for an
     accident to occur. I THINK YOU ARE DEAD WRONG ON THIS. THEORY MIGHT TURN YOU ON, BUT I CONTEND THAT REAL INCIDENTS ENCOURAGE THE READER TO ASK SOMETHING LIKE ................ WHAT WOULD I HAVE DONE IN THAT INSTANCE AND WHY WILL I NOT GET SUCKED INTO THAT ERROR SOME TIME IN THE FUTURE. AS AN EXAMPLE, WHY DOES THE CTOO GO TO SO MUCH TROUBLE TO HAVE VIDEO AND SEEYOU EVIDENCE AT THE SAFETY SEMINARS? I THINK THAT THE REASON IS THAT IT HAS MORE IMPACT AND MUCH MORE MEANING WHEN ATTENDEES SEE TRUE EXAMPLES.

"In the real world," those counterpoints would be addressed and incorporated
into any proposal that was finally delivered.  On a mailing list on the
Internet, though, someone like you is perfectly free to pretend they've
never seen any of those points, and blithely continue with their original
crusade without making a single iota of modification to their course.
Seriously, Geoff, we might as well have never had the discussion, because
it hasn't influenced your conclusion at all, has it?  You certainly haven't
responded to any of those points in any meaningful way, so as far as I can
see you've totally ignored them. NOW I KNOW THAT MY ABOVE RESPONSES WILL NOT SATISFY YOUR NEEDS FOR NON-BLITHE CONTINUANCE BUT SO BE IT.

I think that attitude is intellectually irresponsible.  I'm pretty sure
that the ops panel will agree with that conclusion and reject your proposal;
and when they do you'll probably feel disenfrancised just like Robert H
does, even though the rejection of your proposal will have nothing to do
with the intransigence of the ops panel and everything to do with the fact
that the proposal never had legs in the first place because you refused
to address the significant, serious deficiencies outlined in the four points
above. MARK. I KNOW I AM JUST A MEMBER .... BUT I DO HAVE A RIGHT TO PUT A CSE TO THE BOARD AND ARGUE IT AS HARD AS I CAN. THANKS FOR THE SUGGESTION, BUT I WASN'T PLANNING THE FEEL DISINFRACISED OR ANYTHING LIKE THAT. I EVEN PLAN NOT TO DUMP ANY BALAST ON YOU IF WE EVER MEET IN THE AIR.

> It is my contention that it is not correct management to say that Accident
> and Incident Reporting should not be done because we are too busy at the
> moment.

You've just erected a straw man.  Nobody has suggested that accident and
incident reporting shouldn't be done.  The argument has been that accident
and incident *publication* shouldn't be done, because publication is actively
harmful to the safety management culture you're trying to inspire. IN ALL OF MY POSTS, WHEN I ARGUE FOR ACCIDENT AND INCIDENT REPORTING I AM ARGUING FOR THAT REPORTING TO BE TO THE MEMBERSHIP. I HAVE ALWAYS REALIZED THAT REPORTING WAS DONE WITHIN THE ORGANIZTION ... GO BACK AND READ MY EARLIER POSTS.

What do you have to say in response to that?  How do you address the
four points I"ve raised above?  Or are you completely ignoring them and
hoping that the change you want will go through anyway and damn the
consequences? NO MARK. NOT IGNORING THEM. I JUST THINK YOU ARE WRONG AND YOUR ARGUMENTS DON'T HAVE MERIT. APART FROM THAT, I THINK WE HAVE CONCENSUS.

> There appears to be an underlying theme from some who have posted on this
> thread that they have heard it all before, all of these lessons are known, so
> why doesn't someone just write a theoretical article or example about it.
> There are three points I would like to respond to this:
>
> 1    A real example is much more sobering and forceful than theory.

It is?  Why?  If that's true, why has ATSB removed its accident reports from
Flight Safety Australia?  Can you name any other aviation magazines across
the world which publish accident reports?  Can you name any other aviation
organization anywhere in the world which doesn't have a formal accident
investigation capability but which publishes accident reports anyway? THE HGFA, THE AUF/RAA. MY USA CONTACTS SAY THAT THEIRS IS ALL FAA AND THEIR ,MEMBERS FEEL THAT THE REPORTS ARE USEFUL.

> 2    As a relatively new pilot involved in Cross-Country I want to know what
> real world mistakes others have made and I want to be able to learn from
> those.

As a new pilot involved in Cross Country, do you believe that you're
incapable of learning about safety unless your lesson has blood dripping
from it? THAT IS IMMOTIVE CLAP-TRAP. SEE RESPOSES ABOVE RE LESSONS TO BE LEARNT BY REAL WORLD EXAMPLE FOR REAL WORLD PEOPLE.

I like to think that my fellow pilots aren't so stupid that the only
lessons they can learn are the ones which have killed or injured people.
Maybe you have a different view of your peers;  If so, please tell the
rest of us where you fly so that we can avoid that part of the country. I HAVE NEVER ARGUED FOR THIS BEING THE ONLY WAY TO LEARN ... SO WHO IS ERECTING A STRAW-MAN NOW.

> 3    It is clear that there are a number of experienced Instructors who still
> make fundamental mistakes or allow their students to make them, and I quote
> the couple of examples that are used at the Safety Seminar ..... so even if
> those that have heard it all before (and say that they don't need to hear it
> again) can, by way of example, fly past a perfectly good runway in the
> circuit to get low and land short/heavily damage an aircraft, newer members
> need to know about this example and be aware that they too are likely to be
> tempted to do the same at some time in their flying ..... and it obviously
> won't hurt Instructors to hear it again either.

Do you believe publication of accident reports in the magazine will solve
that problem? I BELIEVE THAT IT WILL ASSIST. AGAIN I ASK WHY KEVIN'S SEMINARS ARE SO USEFUL? ITS BECAUSE HE PRESENTS THEM IN A STRUCTURED WAY USING REAL EXAMPLES. AND THEY HELP. AS WOULD THE SAME THING IN PRINT EACH MONTH, PARTICULARLY IF IT HAS HIS OBSERVATIONS AND RECEMMENDATIONS AT THE END OF EACH REPORT (TO THE MEMBERS).

If it doesn't solve that problem, how will you fix the inevitable decline
in accident reports caused by the fact that those who are embarrassed about
reporting their accidents will refuse to do so when they know it's going to
get plastered all over the magazine?  You'll have reduced the efficacy of
the existing accident/incident reporting system for no good reason, won't you? YOU SAY NO GOOD REASON. I DISAGREE. YOU SAY THAT MEMBERS WILL STOP REPORTING. I DISAGREE.

> Re your 2nd last paragraph, having attended the Safety Seminar in Wagga
> recently, I wonder if the CTOO really does disagree .... and I say that if it
> is worth travelling around the country to present those very worthwhile
> Seminars, then it is certainly worthwhile reinforcing them in the Magazine.

Perhaps you ought to ask the CTOO about that.  He has an email address,
and he has forthright opinions.  He'll tell you exactly what he thinks
about this if you ask him the question.  He just doesn't want to post
it to a mailing list (largely because dicussions on mailing lists tend to
be inherently useless for providing any useful real-world benefit to anyone,
as this one appears to have demonstrated) I DID ASK HIM ............ SEE RESPONSE ABOVE.

> Mark said "Is there -really- anything new to learn that we don't already know
> .....?" and I say that the answer is a definite YES. Mark may not have
> anything new that he needs to learn (how good would that be?), but I reckon
> that every newer member, and every other member with less than say 20,000
> gliding hours, can learn a lot from well written real world examples of where
> his/her peers have made mistakes.

... and are those self-same pilots so dim that they can't learn from
non-real-world examples? THOSE SELF-SAME PIOTS ARE NOT DIM AND SHOULD NOT BE KEPT IN THE DARK. YES THEY CAN AND SHOULD CERTAINLY LEARN FROM THEORETICAL EXAMPLES ......... BUT WILL HAVE A TENDANCY TO SAY "I WOULD NEVER DO THAT". I CONTEND THAT IT HAS MUCH MORE MEANING WHEN AN EXPERIENCED PILOT HAS MADE THE ERRORAND I THEN HAVE TO ASK ... "WHY DID HE/SHE DO THAT AND WHY WON'T I IN THE SAME CIRCUMSTANCES."

Ground them, I say.  We don't need pilots like that cluttering up the airspace
and presenting a risk to the rest of us. I'M GLAD THAT YOU AREN'T THAT RISK TO THE "REST OF US".

> Taking the example from the Safety Seminar, if you had asked the
> Instructor "Do you need a refresher on circuit heights and procedures" before
> you fly today, I would be sure he would have said something like "Is there
> -really- anything new to learn that we don't already know .....?", yet the
> fundamental accident still happened.

Which means that the accidents *AREN'T* being caused by lack of knowledge. THERE IS NO ONE ANSWER TO THIS, BUT OVERALL I CONTEND THAT IT IS NOT LACK OF KNOWLEDGE THAT IS THE PROBLEM. IT IS MAINLY POOR PRACTICES AND AN EROSION OF STANDARDS THAT GET YOU "SUCKED IN" TO  BAD SITUATION. I ALSO BELIEVE THAT EGO & CONVIDENCE GOES A LONG WAY TO ENCOURAGING A PILOT TO CHANCE HIS ARM ON SOME OCCASIONS, BUT YOU WOU;DN'T HAVE A PROBLEM WITH EGO WOULD YOU?

In light of those kinds of suggestions, I'm having difficulty understanding
why you think publication of accident reports will make a difference. I HOPE THAT THE ABOVE GOES SOME WAY TO EXPLAINING IT.

The pilots who have accidents *ALWAYS* understand how not to have them.
Every pilot has been taught how to land safely, taught how to avoid spins,
taught how to lock their canopies, taught how to look-out, etc. THEN WHY DOES THE CTOO FEEL THE NEED TO UNDERTAKE THE SAFETY SEMINARS

We're not dealing with a problem which is caused by lack of knowledge,
lack of competence, or lack of awareness.  The causes run deeper than that.
And I think you're trying to apply an overly simplistic solution to them. ALL i AM ADVOCATING IS ONE ARM OF THE OVERALL SOLUTION. IT WILL NEVER BE TOTALLY SOLVED ............. BUT IT DOES NOTHING NOT TO MAKE THIS VALUABLE DATA AVAILABLE.

   - mark

--------------------------------------------------------------------
I tried an internal modem,                    [EMAIL PROTECTED]
      but it hurt when I walked.                          Mark Newton
----- Voice: +61-4-1620-2223 ------------- Fax: +61-8-82231777 -----
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