2003 Super Safety Seminar

Today I went to my first Aviation Seminar. The 2003 Super Safety Seminar was scheduled for 8:30 am in Springfield, IL.

I left home at 6:40 am. This is earlier that I leave for work.

The seminar was held at the Harry R. Hanley Building so it was about 1:10 minute drive.

I didn't really know what to expect. I didn't know if there would only be a few people or a lot. As it turned out there were about 233 people (they announced the number.) It was, or close to, a new record.

There were all sorts of people there. Young, Old, CFIs, Students, Renters, Owners, a good mix.

I got there a little before 8:00 but other people were already going inside so I joined them.

The seminar was in the downstairs auditorium. There were tables set up for coffee and doughnuts, provided by the local Explorer Troop. There was also a display area of books and other aviation related information for sale. I looked but didn't buy anything.

The Seminar started at 8:35.

There were some initial introductions and announcements and then the programs started.

The first speaker was Edmund Dorner, Ph.D.
He was a professor of safety at Illinois State University and a pilot for 30 years. He has an instrument rating with 1800 mishap free hours and is an FAA safety counselor. He talked about What is Safety. It was a very interesting talk. He got the audience involved and asked questions and talked about the answers. Even I answered one - what is an accident.

After the break, the second speaker was Kerry Gambrel.
He is a Aircraft & Powerplant Mechanic (A&P) that now works for the FAA and is the principal maintenance inspector and airworthiness safety program manager for the Springfield FSDO. He talked about What Pilots Should Expect From Their Mechanic. This also was a good talk. He discussed what responsibilities the owner/leasor/renter have as well as what the mechanic is suppose to do. He rattled off a lot of regulations and parts but it was very informative. It makes me want to go check the airplane/airframe/engine/etc logs for the planes at Langa just to see if they do it the way he says they should.

The third speaker was Rogers V. Shaw II.
He is the team leader in airman education programs of the Aeromedical Education Division, FAA Civil Aeromedical Institute in Oklahoma City. He is a retired U.S. Air Force pilot with over 3,000 hours in the C-7 Caribou, B-52 bomber and Bell Helicopters. His talk was on Human Factors. He was probably the most entertaining of the speakers. He talked about his 7 children and how their sucking him dry causes stress and how his wife, an artist and kindergarden teacher, corrects him and questions how he can teach. He encouraged everyone to come to Oklahoma City to do training.

Lunch was nothing exciting. I had a salad and bar-b-que beef sandwich. I was looking forward to sitting with some people and talking about flying and where they were from, but the three people that sat down by me were deaf. They conversed, with sign language, but I didn't say much except, "hi."

After lunch the SIU Aerobatics Team was introduced and given awards for their second consecutive first place finish in the national aerobatics championships.

The two talks after lunch were both by E. Allen Englehardt. He is a captain for United and currently flys Boeing 777. He is a past recipient of the FAA National Flight Instructor of the Year Award and is a desinated examiner. He gives talks throughout the US and is a featured speaker at the annual EAA Oshkosh event. His first talk was on Cause & Prevention of Landing Accidents. It was ok. I thought he talked too much about himself and didn't give enough detail in his talk. What he had to say was basically, don't land too slow, keep everything under control.

They added a short break after his first talk and told people that the second talk was going to be about IFR Operations and if anyone wanted to leave they were welcome to as they knew not everyone would be interested. A few people left, but most, like me, stuck around.

The second talk was IFR Operations Under Part 91. He talked about approaches to airports without radar vectors. It was interesting. He showed various approach plates (Jeppesen and NOS) and talked about how you would approach, make procedure turns, where to hold, what constituted being on an approach segment. Even though I didn't understand all of it, he held my interest.

The seminar concluded with a few more announcements and we left at about 3:40.

I got home right at 5:01 p.m. All in all a worthwhile trip. There is another Seminar in St. Louis on Jan 25 that I will probably go to.