The Soaring Safety Foundation is proposing a major series of accident prevention programs in 2006.  The recently announced “First Flight” program encourages every pilot to make their first flight on 2006 with an instructor.  You can read more about this program the December issue of Soaring, on the SSF web site, or in the Oct 18, 2005 issue of SSA e-NEWS.  SSAI’s were also sent an email encouraging them to participate as well.

 

In addition to “First Flight” the SSF is pleased to announce that it will begin publishing first person accident prevention stories.  The SSF “Accidents that almost happened” series will allow pilots to share their personal experience type stories with the rest of the soaring community.  This program will allow pilots to learn from the experiences of others.  The primary distribution mechanism will be the SSF web site, while some articles will also be published in Soaring magazine.

 

As the title indicates, the purpose of this program is to publish first person accounts of flight experiences that teach a lesson.  Pilots are encouraged to write up their experience and submit them to the SSF for review.  The ground rules are:

 

1. All articles must be first person accounts of a soaring flight experience. 
2. All articles must be signed and the pilots name will appear in print with the article.
3. All articles must conclude a lessons learned paragraph.
4. No death, serious injury, or substantial damage may occur.
5. No FAR’s may be broken.
6. A standard disclaimer will accompany every article.

 

To participate in this program, simply write up your experience and send it to the SSF webmaster <webmaster@soaringsafety.org>.  Articles will be reviewed to ensure that they compile with the stated ground rules.  Once that is done an editorial process will occur to ensure that the article is ready for publication.  The purpose is to make it clear to the reader what happened and what lessons the pilot learned from this experience.  The article will then be placed on the SSF web site for distribution. 

 

The SSA e-NEWS letter will be used to announce when new articles are published. Articles will be considered on a case-by-case basis for submission to the SSA editor for publication in Soaring magazine.

 

So sharpen your pencils, put on your thinking caps, and send us your articles.  You too can help your fellow soaring pilot avoid the painful lesson you forced yourself to learn.

 

The SSF Board of Trustees recognizes that this series emulates the AOPA “Never Again” and Private Pilot “I Learned About Flying from That” series.  We hope that our “Accidents that Almost Happened” series can provide the same benefit to the Soaring community.