14 November 2013
On Thursday 31 October over 150 pilots and other members of the North West’s aviation community gathered at the AJ Bell Stadium, Salford for the a Flight Safety evening hosted by the General Aviation Safety Council (GASCo).
This was the first Flight Safety Evening to be held at the stadium, which is immediately adjacent to City Airport & Heliport.
The evening also included the first viewing of a produced by City Airport in conjunction with NATS and Mainair Flying School. The video followed a flight departing from City Airport en-route to an airfield in Yorkshire to demonstrate what happens in the event a controlled airspace is infringed. The audience were able to see from the perspective of both the pilot and Air Traffic Control how situations like this are handled and the safeguards available to help prevent them, such as proper planning, listening squawks, use of the ‘Aware’ Airspace Warning Device available to pilots and the Airspace Infringement Warning system used by Air Traffic Control.
GASCo’s Regional Safety Officer, Nils Jamieson led the audience through a virtual flight, starting with the preparations all pilots should make before flight, the take-off phase and cruise followed by the landing and shut down. During the virtual flight, Nils highlighted the six major risk areas for General Aviation (Decision Making; Airborne Conflict; Airspace Infringements; Loss of Control, Runway Excursion and Controlled Flight into Terrain) challenging those present to think about their flying and what could be done to help prevent accidents in the future.
All those present found the evening extremely informative and, in addition to highlighting the importance of flight safety, over £300 was raised in donations to the North West Air Ambulance charity.
Nick Duriez, Operations Manager at City Airport & Heliport commented, “It is excellent to see there are so many pilots flying from City Airport and in the North West region that hold such a high regard to safety, as demonstrated by the record breaking attendance. The atmosphere following the presentation was buzzing with excitement and safety related discussion. Evidently presentations like these are an essential tool to further enhance flight safety for pilots of all ranges of experience. With the production of our ‘Infringement Video’ we were pleased to be able to have a valued contribution to the evening.”
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