June, 1998

Safety Program Notes*

by Scott E. Allen

Tweet's Farewell: To all my friends, it's been real. My new job is Air Carrier Staff Specialist at the Western Pacific Region Headquarters in Los Angeles, and I'm really excited about the job and its challenges. Working with all of you has been one of the best experiences of my life, and aviation safety will always be close to my heart, but this opportunity was just too good to ignore. Pat and I plan to return to Hawaii on a regular basis so we will meet again. For now, thank you for all your efforts and success in making and keeping Hawaii a safe place to fly. Keep up the good work! Aloha. Your Bird-friend, Tweet.

Farewell, Tweet: Tweet, you are a tough act to follow. A few of the less important things we'll miss about you are your aeronautical skill and experience, your nationally recognized skill at facilitating meetings (and teaching others how to run them), and your instructional mastery of blood borne pathogens. (The latter comes as no real surprise considering your background, but I bet a lot of your friends out here never knew that before you chose aviation you were an Operating Room RN and had served as a nurse in the Peace Corps and VISTA!)

A few of the more important things we'll miss about you are your pinwheel-fireworks energy, your inexhaustible ideas, the scholarship program you established to encourage women to pursue aviation careers, and your unswerving and selfless dedication to aviation safety. Most of all, we'll miss how you made us feel special, challenged us, and left us knowing that we are better people for having known you. Little-bitty feet, great big shoes to fill. In the months and years ahead, I will count my professional life well-lived indeed if I am able to bring what you've brought to this office. Tweet, you are a tough act to follow. ALOOOO-HA. SEA.

High Wing Water Entrapment/Fuel Contamination: A recent CALLBACK, the NASA Aviation Safety Publication, reported a "high-wing aircraft" with long-range tanks that hadn't been flown for two months and was stored outdoors. After a thorough pre-flight (including fully draining the gascolator and draining the sumps twice) the engine was ground run about 40 minutes at 1,200-1,700 rpm with normal indications. After normal takeoff, the aircraft transponder was inoperative, so Departure Control requested that the aircraft return to the field. Right crosswinds necessitated an extended slip on the otherwise normal approach. Taxiing to the hangar the engine quit, and wouldn't restart.

The plane had a history of left wing damage and "...one or both wing tanks may have become warped or wavy, allowing water to collect at points other than the fuel drains. This allowed water to remain undetected during a normal ("normal" - when's the last time you fully drained the gascolator and drained the sumps twice?-SEA) pre-flight, a 40-minute ground run and in flight. Although it is not recommended in the pilot's operating handbook, rocking the aircraft wings during aircraft pre-flight might move any distributed water to the fuel drain. Any rocking of wings should come early in the pre-flight, so that the water and contaminants have plenty of time to settle in the sumps. Many flight schools make this standard procedure." (Emphasis added.)

Noise Sensitive Area: There have over the past few months been several noise complaints from the Waipahu Area, especially in the vicinity of the elementary and intermediate schools. Please plan your flights accordingly; this issue concerns us all. Read someplace that the old cliché's get that way because they're true; accordingly, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure (and sometimes a couple pounds.)

* Contest: Come up with a catchy, politically correct new title for our safety notes. Judges' decision final. Prize: Soda (6-pack) of your choice. (Must be available on Oahu. Please re-calibrate your oscillator if you're visualizing me driving to Siberia to pick up your childhood-favorite Yak-Butter Cola.)

SAFETY SEMINARS

Location - Hilo
Date: Tuesday, June 9, 6:30-8:00 P.M.
Contact: Scott Allen (808) 837-8307; Jim Hein (808) 837-8335

Location - Maui
Date: Thursday, June 18, 7:00-9:00 P.M.
Where: Cameron Center
Contact: Scott Allen (808) 837-8307; Jim Hein (808) 837-8335

Hawaiian Flyers Toastmaster - Honolulu
Date: Thursday, June 4 and Thursday, June 18, 5:30-6:30 P.M.
Where: FAA Flight Standards District Office - upstairs conference room

Hawaiian Flyers Toastmasters invites anyone interested in improving their listening and speaking skills to attend our fun-filled meetings. We meet on the first and third Thursdays of each month from 5:30 to 6:30 P.M. at the Honolulu FSDO office. For more information, call Dennis Noll (808) 837-8324 or Jim Hein (808) 837-8335.

Note for all Seminars - No reservations are required unless otherwise noted. - Never a fee. - For more information contact the Safety Program Managers listed on the front page. All FAA Safety Seminars satisfy the requirements of AC-61.91H; the Pilot Proficiency Awards Program (wings) and /or the Aviation Maintenance Technician Awards Program; AC-65-25A.

IN THE HANGAR

WITH JIM HEIN

HUMAN LIVES - A GOOD REASON FOR BETTER COMMUNICATION

Communication is an issue that is becoming a significant safety problem. Communication, that is, between you the pilot/owner, the maintenance technician, and the Federal Aviation Administration. In a time of aging aircraft problems, corrosion and suspected unapproved parts, and mind boggling changes coming in the airway system, the safety-related problem of communication can be simply stated: "If we don’t talk, people die."

There are two reasons of equal importance for the current state of poor communications. The first reason is your fault. Many aviators believe in a mind-set that assumes there is a super bureaucrat in FAA headquarters that is somehow wired to the pulse of U.S. Aviation. This belief, I think, results from a huge misconception. That is, when pilots and maintenance technicians encounter a safety related problem so obvious (to them) that there must be someone, somewhere, somehow who has already reported the problem and surely the Feds already know. So why bother to tell the FAA something that they already know and look absurd in the process?

The second reason for poor communication is the FAA’s fault. Most aviators have an excellent memory and can easily recall the days of "zero tolerance enforcement campaigns" the FAA ran in the late 1980’s. (It’s even uncanny how some people who weren’t in aviation in the 80’s have those bad memories.) Sure, we (the FAA) found lots of safety related problems as a result of those campaigns; but, in solving them, we took the short term punitive approach.

Today, we are still paying a huge price for those increments in aviation safety because it cost us the trust of the people we work for .... you .... the civil aviation public. In the 1990’s, Admiral James Busey, our former FAA Administrator, recognized the FAA’s side of the communications problem and encouraged a more measured, pro-industry approach to enforcement. However, bad memories of those ‘80s years run deep, and good people are still not talking to us.

So, what is needed to solve this multi-sided problem? Perhaps it could be as simple as a piece of paper, a phone call, a fax, a heads up, or a visit to the FAA FSDO when you see something wrong - no matter how small you perceive it to be. Talk to us. Good communications will give us the most precious of all commodities to solve safety related problems ..... time. Time, so we don’t have to "overreact". Time to fix problems before they turn into incidents or accidents. Time, so we can save lives.

The FAA has set up several ways that you can communicate safety related problems to us. These systems work very well for collecting information, collating it into useable data, and distributing it back to you. Hopefully, today’s safety related problems can become yesterday’s problems and we can get in touch with tomorrow’s problems and solve them today.

One communications program which isn’t being used to its fullest potential - especially within the general aviation community - is the FAA Form 8010-4 or "M&D" or Malfunction or Defect Report. It’s purpose is to identify aircraft design and maintenance problems and has been in place since airplanes switched from skids to wheels.

Air carriers and repair stations are required to report to the FAA whenever they find a problem. They’re pretty good about it too. However, priority and attention that they give to the program still leaves much to be desired. Statistics indicate that the FAA receives only one M&D per repair station per year. This suggests that there are hardly any problems out there; or maybe that they are interested in compliance with the rule only and have no real interest in safety. I have my doubts if either of those theories are true.

Even worse, maintenance technicians and IAs are not required to send in M&Ds, so the majority don’t. In our general aviation fleet, those are the people who see maintenance problems on a daily basis and solve them. Much like the Lone Ranger, they keep the mask on by not utilizing the reporting systems which are available.

But did you know that ANYONE can initiate an M&D report? As an owner/pilot/mechanic, when was the last time you recognized a problem with the aircraft, fixed it or got it fixed, and then failed to inform the world by use of an M&D form? Did you bother to think that someone else out there might experience the same or similar problem? The presumption being, "it’s so obvious that someone, somewhere, somehow surely told the FAA."

Many of you are smiling to yourself now and thinking, "You’re talking to the choir, Jim. I DID fill out an M&D for a very big problem I saw and nothing happened." Maybe those of you who have completed an M&D and sent it in didn’t get a feeling of satisfaction. Maybe you felt that you sent the form in, and for all intents and purposes, it disappeared down a bureaucratic black hole where it never will be seen or used. Well, that simply is not the case. If that was so, I’d be the first to tell you not to waste your time. The saddest news about authoring an M&D report is that you may never know that your particular report saved some lives.

In reality, M&Ds go to Oklahoma City where a team of six inspectors screen each of them. The reports that involve things such as in-flight structural problems or engine failures get immediate attention. Then, the information you give is entered into a computer which sorts by make, model, and ATA code. This information adds to a safety data base for use by the FAA engineering department and your local safety inspector. They can query the computer for any significant failure trends developing on specific aircraft or components. It’s the closest thing the FAA has to a crystal ball. As a minimum, the information is compiled and used to create Advisory Circular AC 43.16, General Aviation Airworthiness Alerts, which is published monthly; but when "critical to safe flight" situations are detected, an Airworthiness Directive is issued.

All right, you sent in an M&D report and you really believe that the safety problem you found deserves more attention. Here’s what to do. Get your local Safety Program Manager involved, either myself or Scott Allen. Be prepared to provide us with a copy of your M&D, documentation, drawings, photographs, or whatever supporting "stuff" you have available. We’ll go to work with you to help get the word out. First we’ll work toward being sure it is published in the Airworthiness Alerts AC 43.16. If it is, you can be assured that your "heads up" will reach 35,000 IAs, repair stations, and air carriers around the world. However, because of limited space in the Alerts, they reserve the right to publish M&D information that (in their opinion) has the greatest impact on safety awareness.

So, you’re still not satisfied? You really believe that your safety issue needs a more immediate response? Then your Safety Program Manager or ANY FAA inspector can help you utilize the Safe Recommendation for Accident Prevention program - Form 8020.11. You can mail it in or give us the information over the telephone. You can even ask to be anonymous or request that the source of the information be considered confidential. Once the inspector writes up the report with all of the information and sends it through channels, no one in the FAA chain-of-command can stop it, alter it or delay it. It will be sent to the appropriate action authority; even the FBI or IG if deemed necessary. The receiving office is immediately under the gun to respond.

Here’s a scenario. You’ve just recognized an aviation safety situation that is of Biblical proportions and lives are at stake. To top it off it’s the weekend and you can’t get access to your Safety Program Manager or a Safety Inspector. What then? Call the FAA hot line!!! It’s a toll free number: (800) 255-1111. It’s open 24 hours a day and it’s the closest thing short of a direct line to Jane Garvey herself.

There are only three folks who take those calls. So, before you call, get your information together. Be sure you can answer the media reporter’s questions; Who? What? When? Where? Why? and How? Again, you can request your identity to be protected from disclosure under the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act.

Depending on the nature of your call, the hot line folks will either assign an FAA office to solve the problem or take immediate action. Things happen very quickly when you call the safety hot line. Bill O’Brien coined the term "B.W.S." (Bureaucratic Warp Speed) based on what happens when a call comes into the hot line. While the hot line is there for anyone to use, please be very judicious. Don’t use it as your own aviation Dear Abby. Of course it isn’t necessary to say this, but selfish or egotistical motives could possibly clog and kill an otherwise effective safety communications system. The hot line is for times when there is a serious, life-threatening matter ... and it must be dealt with NOW.

So how about it? Are communications channels open? Can we communicate? The two programs I’ve just described have been in existence for years. They’re for use by pilots, aircraft owners, operators, and maintenance technicians. If you’re involved in aviation, you probably have seen or experienced a problem that you felt was safety related. If you haven’t, you will. Please don’t fall into the mind-set that assumes the FAA is automatically wired to the pulse of U.S. aviation. Worse, don’t fall into the misconception that your observations are so obvious that someone, somewhere, somehow, has surely already reported it.

Now the disclaimer and invitation. These aren’t the only two ways to communicate safety related situations to the FAA and the civil aviation public. We also utilize the FAA Aviation Safety Programs. If you’re not familiar with all of them, let us know. We’d be happy to visit with you to inform you about them. If you’re using an FAA communications system that is effective, please share it with us. If you would like to write about a safety related issue for the Pacific Island Flyer, give us a call, FAX it over, or bring it to the FSDO.

I will close with this. It may be a harsh statement, but I challenge anyone to prove me wrong.

Everyone in the civil aviation system makes
only "YES/NO" or "GO/NO-GO" decisions.
When we fail to communicate what we know,
or we compromise those choices, people die.

WINGS PROFICIENCY AWARD PROGRAM

PHASE I
Mary Kathrine Poplawski
Catherine Lewis Kenedi
Winston W. Perreira

PHASE II
Steven D. Slade
Adelaide B. Acain

PHASE IV
Richard W. Gallagher

PHASE VIII
Charles Carlos Cantu

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