ORIGINAL: David Gladwin

Not only does this issue NEED to be on the jet forum it should be on EVERY forum to remind everyone of the terrible consequences which can happen in our pursuit of this hobby, whatever type of power unit. Having been in top quality professional aviation all my life and deeply involved in air safety promotion for some of those years I have seen some dreadful approaches to safe operation of model aircraft by SOME operators and in some of my writing for RCJI and on RCU I have tried to highlight some of the deficiencies and bad practices in our operations and pass on some fullsize safety "culture". I have been lambasted by some, generally those who have no safety culture or "awareness", applauded by others, generally those who have some fullsize aircraft background, I even had one individual who, on RCU, suggested I took pleasure from pointing out that we have had had two fatalities in the UK, two fatalities too many. I have also seen some,/much first class operation of model jet aircraft where discipline and safety awarness is usually much better than seen in some disciplines.

It has long been my concern that sooner or later there WILL be a jet fatality, which with hindsight may well be shown to have been avoidable, if we continue as we are so lets use this dreadful accident in Hungary to take a long hard look at what we do and how we do it, NOW.

Here are some suggestions for starters in addition to the rules which already exist.

1. At all public events ALL models shall be scrutinized AND the failsafe operation DEMONSTRATED to the scruitineers.
This IS done at Classic jets in the UK, a very well run event.


2. ALL flying except for take off and landing (which can use the runway cenerline for reference.) SHALL be on the FAR side of the runway. There to be NO exceptions and that INCLUDES demo/show pilots, regardless of their origin/company/contest success. Minimum height 25 feet.
This is just a little more than the legal requirement (30metre rule) in Australia.


3. A safety "overseer" will monitor ALL flying and any pilot breaking the rules for any reason will be told to land. A second transgression puts the pilot out of the event.
This is similar to the "flying committee" system used at events like Farnborough and the RIAT.

4. All synthesised transmitters to be confirmed, by use of a monitor that they ARE radiating on the frequency selected and declared and NO frequency changeing to be done without the express approval and in the presence of the transmitter controller.

Safety issues in fullsize aviation are discussed continuously, and very aviation magazine includes a safety section , it is an attitude of mind and an integral part of aviation which needs to be greatly improved in model jet aviation, discussion on RCU can go a long way to achieving an improvement. In my view saying that this accident should not be discussed on the jet forum is symptomatic of our problem.

Many modellers would do well to follow suit and take very reasonable step to minimise the chance of an accident BEFORE it happens to the jet community. As well as the primary aim of avoiding the individual result of a trgedy it will benefit all jet modellers and those involved in the trade by ensuring that we are able to continue our operations with relative freedom from outside legislative interference.

Of course we could sit back and do nothing, content in our complacency, arguably the no1 problem in aviation safety.

Please discuss.

Regards,

David Gladwin.