Flight Safety Foundation programs have always offered a lot for business aviation, and nowhere are these offerings highlighted more than at NBAA-BACE. This year is no exception. The Foundation continues taking the study of risk data and making it useful to business aviation professionals who are managing real-time operations.

For example, the FSF is pushing the industry toward more collaborative data-sharing arrangements and making risk-mitigation plans more effective. “Our Global Safety Information Project [GSIP] has produced a series of toolkits [available on our website] to describe current best practices and some that may be on the horizon,” officials told AIN. The first phase of the foundation’s GSIP, which ran for three years, was completed last fall and focused on how stakeholders in the Pan America and Asia-Pacific regions are using aviation safety data.

This year, efforts have focused on a new safety performance survey, which asks operators to share how and what they measure for safety across broad high-risk accident categories, and anything else they measure to manage the success of their efforts against safety performance objectives and targets. “Once the survey closes later this year, we will analyze the results and begin work on a Safety Performance Monitoring Handbook, which will provide guidance and best practices for safety performance monitoring as detailed in ICAO Annex 19, Safety Management.”  

Meanwhile, the Foundation completed a “go-around decision making and execution project,” and a final report was published in March 2017. Since then “we have been working with [analytical firm] Presage Group to spread the word about the recommendations through workshops and other venues.” A number of operators have begun their own studies of the report’s recommendations and started to implement them on at least a limited basis, according to the Foundation. 

Students Now Have Access

The Foundation recently restructured its Academic membership category to better serve students interested in aviation careers. Previously, membership benefits in the Academic category applied only to faculty, but under the revised structure, membership benefits will be extended to students at member schools and training organizations. Now, students and faculty will have instant access to key safety articles, Foundation news, seminar proceedings, and projects that will be useful to them in their academic teachings and studies.

“Flight Safety Foundation is committed to inspiring and educating the next generation of aviation professionals,” said Jon Beatty, president and CEO of the Foundation. “With our newly enhanced Academic membership, we can provide access to a breadth of aviation information, safety guidelines, and tools and resources. This not only prepares students for a career in aviation, but it also allows them to connect and network with other industry professionals.”

Since last October, the Foundation has added 25 new member companies, and three organizations—Aer Lingus, GE Aviation, and Pulsar Informatics—have upgraded their memberships to Benefactor status. Eighty individuals also have joined as members. During the same time, the Foundation Board of Governors has continued to evolve. In the past 12 months, four new members have been elected to the Board: Holger Paulmann, CEO of Santiago, Chile-based SKY Airline; Marco Tulio Grassi, v-p, engineering/product ntegrity, Embraer; Peggy Gilligan, FAA associate administrator for aviation safety (retired); and Cesar V. Arroyo, deputy supply chain director, UN World Food Program.

NBAA-BACE attendees here this week may sign up at the FSF Booth 881 for the Foundation’s 64th Business Aviation Safety Summit, which is produced in partnership with NBAA and is scheduled for May 2 and 3 in Denver. Soon after NBAA-BACE wraps up, the FSF will host its 71st annual International Air Safety Summit, from November 12 to 14 in Seattle.