Warbird Safety

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Warbird Safety
Doug Rozendaal Commemorative Air Force
International Council of Airshows
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There are some things happening at ICAS

• The ICAS leadership is committed to a Culture
  change in the Airshow Industry
• Warbirds are a Big part of that business
• Warbirds represent a significant portion of the
  airshow accidents.

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Airshow Fatalities
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The Warbird piece..
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What is ICAS going to do????

• Refocus the industry on safety
• Redefine the role of the Aerobatic Competency
  Evaluator ACE
• Mentoring
• Hire a safety officer to communicate and educate
• Feedback loop

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In 2004, The deadliest career in America was
Commercial Pilot
92.4 deaths per 100,000 employed, tied for first
place with Logging
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In 2005 Flying was the thirddeadliest career in
America

• Fishing was 1,
• Logging was 2
• Commercial aviation was the third deadliest
  career in America!!!
• 66.9 Fatalities /100,000 employed

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The 2006 Numbers are in, and...
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Flying was back up to 2

• Fishing was 1,
• Commercial aviation was the second deadliest
  career in America!!!
• 87.8 Fatalities /100,000 employed
• 101 Commercial pilot fatalities
• 7 fatalities in Warbird accidents

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That makes flying more deadly than.

• Logging
• Structural Iron work (yes skyscrapers)
• Power Line work
• Farming

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2006 Warbird Fatalities

• 6 Fatal Warbird Accidents
• 7 Lives lost
• 4 accidents 5 fatalities in Jets
• 2 accidents 2 fatalities in Props

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What about 2007????

• 7 Fatal accidents
• 9 Lives lost
• 2 accidents 2 fatalities in Jets
• 5 Accidents and 7 fatalities in Props

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Remembering them

• 3-16-07 Elion Krugman-Kadi L-39
• 5-23-07 Ralph Brown, Jim Powers PT-17
• 07-15-07 John McKittrick P-51D
• 7-27-07 Gerry Beck P-51A
• 9-3-07 Steve Hildebrand, David Burdine Y-52
• 9-7-07 Jan Wildbergh T-6
• 9-13-07 Brad Morehouse L-39

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The danger of dissecting accidents

• What they did was stupid?
• I am not stupid.
• I dont have a problem.
• Or,
• I dont do that, so, no problem,
• Or
• I do .. So that cant happen to me..

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Gerry Beck, Oshkosh 07
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Demo Race Briefing

• P-51D, P-51A, Corsair, Seafury Tigercat
• Race
• Tiger cat trade leads w/ Sea Fury Corsair,
  Mustangs follow - Tigercat wins
• P-51D would fly a tight downwind to land first -
  Tigercat lands last
• Hot-side Cold-side landing

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What happened?

• The Tigercat won the race and made a low pass in
  order to land last.
• The Seafury was way ahead of the Mustangs so he
  landed first.
• The 51A was on downwind and, at that point, the
  51D planned to follow him,
• The Corsair went high coming off the race and
  followed the Mustangs
• The 51A continued South with gear and flaps up,
• The 51D then believed the 51A was waiting to land
  behind him as briefed and turned directly to the
  Runway

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What happened cont.

• The 51A turned to the runway at exactly the same
  time putting the 51D was below and inside him
• The 51A remained right behind and above the 51D
  probably and never saw him until possibly
  immediately before impact.
• The 51A reported a one mile final, the 51D never
  heard that call. (possibly too close)
• The 51A hit the 51D which pitched and yawed
  inducing a snap
• The 51A came to rest inverted and the pilot was
  killed instantly

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The Video
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Contributors

• Loss of SA by 51A
• Out of sequence landing
• Minimal radio communication/frequency congestion
• Extremely poor visibility in the Fastback 51

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What we dont know.

• Did the 51A believe the Seafury was the 51D?
• Did 51A call the one mile final because he could
  not account for all the airplanes?
• Was there a medical issue? (radio call?)

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Topics for Discussion

• In formation flying we follow the same airplane
  for the entire flight
• In a Warbird furball Air Boss lands the airplanes
  (or the flights)
• Race Control de-conflicts the landings at Reno
• Does the airboss have a roll here?
• 2 airplanes 2 options
• 3 airplanes 9 options
• 4 airplanes 16 options
• 5 airplanes 25 options

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Could that have happened to me?
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Mistakes were made.Is there anyone here who
hasnt made mistakes????

• Taxied over a chock?
• Missed a preflight item?
• Forgot the boost pump on Take-off?
• Left a master switch on?
• Unintentionally dried out a tank?
• Lost SA in a warbird furball?

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Is this acceptable? Can we agree on the
following?

• Warbird flying is dangerous
• Pilots make mistakes.
• It is not always the other guy who gets killed.
• The numbers wont change unless we do.

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We have a choice.Do something, or
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What does the future hold???
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Why is it dangerous?

• Old airplanes
• Airshow flying,
• Formation flying
• Maneuvering flight (High Alpha Low Alt)
• Warbird Pilot egos
• Risk appetite

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Why do we make mistakes?

• Were human
• We have limited supervision
• We want to impress others
• We want to impress ourselves
• We arent as young as we once were
• We get in a hurry
• We get sucked into things were not comfortable
  with, Inertia

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I know it is dangerous and I admit I make
mistakes,What do I do about it?

• Last year we talked about Spring training
• The year before we talked about the pilot in the
  mirror
• In 2005 we talked about Peer Counsel
• 2004 was about mitigating Risk

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Spring Training!

• Florida is a great spot
• But its is not the only solution..

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Do What????

• Make it an annual priority!
• Schedule it.
• Find an Instructor, or a group of peers and have
  a discussion
• Go Flying
• De-Brief!!!

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Singles

• Basic Airwork
• Accelerated Stall Recognition
• Simulated Flame-out / Dead-stick Overhead
• Go-arounds
• Engine Failure / Emergency procedures
• Bail-out
• IMC work if you dont do that in other airplanes

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Multi-Engine

• Basic Airwork
• Stall Recognition
• S.O.Ps CRM
• Engine Failure Procedures
• Other Emergency Procedures
• Go-arounds
• IMC

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Dont Forget, Aeronautical Decision Making is
part of Spring Training.

• Most of our accidents result from poor decision
  making
• Business/Salesman pilots safety record is twice
  as good as 135/Commuter pilots
• Peer Counsel is the best method we have to change
  our decision making.

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The mirror is distorted?

• Its OK to lie to your wife
• Its OK to lie to your buddies
• It is not OK to lie to yourself

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An Honest Self assessment.

• Am I healthy
• Am I current
• Am I proficient
• Am I in the right frame of mind
• Am I Warbird airworthy
• Is my airplane airworthy

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Mitigating Risk

• Acknowledge the Risk
• Eliminate the Risks that we can
• Mitigate the Risks we cant Eliminate

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Risk Assessment

• Name a risk
• Rate the risk
• Rate the reward
• Is it worth it?
• If yes suggest a mitigating strategy

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Peer Counsel or Adult supervision

• Find a Mentor. Not an an enabler. Someone you
  respect who you trust enough to be honest with
  you.
• Empower them to give you honest critique and keep
  your ego in check.
• Many of our accidents victims have long aviation
  careers without a scratch on an airplane. Then
  get killed in a warbird. We need adult
  supervision

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If everyone does this year what they did last
year, well have 10 more dead friends

• That wont change unless we do.
• It is not always the other guys who get killed.
• Not planning to crash is not good enough.

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How many pilots plan to Crash this year?

• We can intend to do spring training
• We intend to look in the mirror and be honest
  with ourselves
• We can intend to do some establish a mentor/peer
  counsel group
• We can intend for that group to sit down and
  discuss driving the risks out of our business

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The problem is..

• While we judge ourselves based on our intentions,
  others judge us based on our actions.

It is my intention to weigh less than 200 ..
My actions aint cuttin it
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There are lots of tools that can change the
numbers. Are we using them?
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Hope Change
Are we gonna Hope? Or, are we gonna Change???
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Thank you

• Doug Rozendaal
• Clear Lake, Iowa
• dougr_at_petroblend.com
• 641-425-5432

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