30 people attend turned out to hear Leo Murray of Air Accident Investigation unit deliver the inaugural Dave Ryan Memorial Lecture at Kilrush on Saturday 7th April on the crucial subject of permit aviation safety
Soup and rolls were there ready for all when they arrived. The time before the lecture was time for people to meet up and catch up with fellow aviators. While the weather was good at the airfield, it was not as good in other parts of the country. Nonetheless, four aircraft flew in for the event and the rest attended by road.
Charles O’Shea opened the lecture by speaking about Dave Ryan and his contribution to aviation, as well as acknowledging Eamon Fitzgerald. Leo Murray from the AAIU then gave his presentation.
The presentation was split into two parts. The first part of the presentation focused on the process the AAIU has in place to handle accidents, beginning when an accident is reported, then the onsite procedures, followed up by the lab and the final report being issued. He mentioned the regulations they must follow: Annex 13, SI 460 2009 and EU 996/2010. In the second part of the presentation, Leo spoke about different problems that single engine aircrafts experience including induction icing, He also covered the safety aspects of BRS parachutes and inappropriate landing sites
Leo gave an overview of the report issued by the AAIU in relation to Dave’s case. Given the occasion and the number of us who knew and admired Dave Ryan, this was difficult for all in the room. However, it was done in a positive way to raise awareness and was all the more effective because of that personal connection.
Leo displayed an interesting chart in which Irish meterological data over the last 30 years was mapped onto the familiar chart showing the risk of induction icing. The vast bulk of the data points fall within the induction icing curve and almost half of them fall within the most serious risk area. This demonstrates what we all know but need to take more heed of; there is scarcely ever a day in Ireland without risk of induction icing.
Leo spoke about BRS parachutes, advantages, disadvantages, costs and safety precautions. He showed some videos of BRS being deployed in a test environment and an emergency situation.
Leo spoke about the difficulties of choosing landing sites other than airfields, in particular about the dangers of unknown slopes and hills. If it is not an emergency, he recommended performing a flyover and possibly walking the site first to make the landing and take-off safer.
All AAIU reports are on the website www.aaiu.ie and if you sign up you can get email notification of when reports are issued. Leo encouraged people to read the reports and gain knowledge and lessons learned from them. On average, Ireland has approximately four fatalities a year and everyone would like to see it reduced to zero.
After the main presentation, Loman introduced John Todd who gave an update on Dave Ryan’s Little Wing 3 project which he has taken over. He showed pictures of the progress made to date and discussed the build and plans.
The information contained in this lecture was very important to all of us. Hopefully we all took something away from the day so we can improve our own practice. As pilots, we are always learning.
