Safety Talks
On the last day of the Uvalde Pre-World Gliding Championships and 18m Nationals, I was asked to give a safety talk to the competitors and organisation. It’s something that we’ve done in Australia too in the past, but not of recent years so much unfortunately. I think it’s a really good initiative, no matter how quick or small the topic presented by the speaker, it puts safety at the forefront of our minds for the day. Not only do I think that these safety talks should happen daily at competitions, but at the daily club operations briefings. No matter what the experience of the individual selected, we can all learn something from someone! Being the end of the championships, rather than give a safety talk about gaggle safety and awareness, I thought I’d hit lots of different topics on the head that were relevant to the last day's activities, this is what they were…
Hydration
We hear it time and time again, but I felt that it was particularly important to highlight it on this day. At the time of briefing, we’d all been doing additional activities to start packing up our gliders and trailers for the long drive home. We’d probably started our preparation slightly earlier and exerted more energy before getting to the briefing stage. Then I reminded the crowd that when we land, we’ll all be in a mad hurry to pack up our gliders in order to make it to the presentation dinner. Naturally, in cases like this, it’s very easy to forget about hydration, causing heat stroke & poor decisions on the drive home the following day...
Fatigue
Not only had it been a long competition, but it’d also been a hot competition with big humidity, add into this people probably traveled 3200 miles round-trip. So, it’s important to remember that from the exertion of the morning, the stress of the competition, and your hydration that probably wasn’t kept optimal, your fatigue levels, as a result, can be far higher. So, allow a level of margin, especially at the end of the flight onto final glide, circuit pattern, and landing.
It’s just a game
Rich Owen made a great safety talk one morning too, one key point he hit was that when the Military is ordered to conduct a mission, it’s their national duty to carry it out, perhaps with a lot fewer margins than usual or they’d like. With this in mind, our game is only that, a game. We don’t need to fly over unlandable terrain to secure a climb without a landing option available, after a few years, a limited few will remember who won what anyway. So give yourselves some margins considering the above two points made! Sadly, people only remember the bad stuff, though you’ll always know you can hold your head high and know you did the safest thing, you’ll have the respect of your peers too.
Driving Home
I didn’t have to talk much about this due to the size of cars/trucks(!) in America, so I just made two statements. If your trailer starts to sway, then you should accelerate to pull out of the situation, and then slow down in a controlled manner. Secondly, don’t speed on the way home. Often all we do when we get home is sit down and have a refreshing beverage. What does this mean? You were literally speeding for no reason, there was nothing to be gained except putting yourself and others at risk.
I hope you’ll get something out of these small topics, that you’ll continue a quick safety talk at your club each morning by a random member in the room, or if you don’t do this already, then I encourage you to take the initiative and start it up.
Safe circles, Adam
Banner photo by Sean Franke
Adam Woolley was born into the gliding world, being the 3rd generation in his family. Going solo at 15, his thirst for efficiency in soaring flight & quest for a world championship title to his name has never wavered. One big passion is sharing his experiences & joy with other glider pilots all around the world. Adam is an airline pilot in Japan on the B767 & spends his off time chasing summer around the globe. He has now won 7 national Championships & represented Australia at 5 WGC's & 1 EGC.