Safety First at Rogue Aviation
If you’ve spent any time on our website or with us, you’re hopefully aware that Rogue Aviation was founded on three values: safety, integrity and community. What you may not know is that there is a very intentional reason that safety comes first in that list. We strongly believe that it’s time for the aviation community to raise the bar on safety requirements for training future and current pilots.
The number one reason we started Rogue Aviation was because we saw a deficiency in the focus on safety in the flight school community. While a large portion of this responsibility lies in the hands of the flight schools, the problem actually starts with the system itself.
Did you know that there are very few standards of accountability for flight schools under Part 61? Let that sink in for a minute. As a flight school, we are training the people who are flying machines over your heads, and no one checks to make sure we uphold safety standards. No one ensures our flight instructors receive ongoing training. No one holds us to any standards at all really. When accidents happen and lives are lost, even if there is a paper trail of evidence pointing to a lack of safety training, no one is held accountable. It isn’t until we begin to accept money from the public for tours or charters that safety standards become enforced. To us, this is unacceptable.
We believe that those who are charged with providing the training that shapes the habits and skills of future pilots should be held to the highest of standards. We also believe that safety must be chosen over financial gain at every turn. (The lack of standards make it WAY too easy to choose making a quick buck over doing things the right way.)
In short, the bar for safety standards isn’t going to be raised for us. We’re going to do it for ourselves. After all, whether you’re a member of the aviation community, a Pilot-in-Training or simply a member of the public going about your lives as we fly overhead, YOU trust us to keep you as safe as we possibly can. We feel the weight of that trust and accept that responsibility.
Of course, we realize that no matter what, accidents can happen. However, our job is to identify the risks and do our absolute best to minimize those risks. That is the journey we are on. We’re not perfect and we don’t have it all figured out, but we’re constantly striving to learn more and improve our approaches to safety in flight training, aerial photography and cinematography, and tours.
Beginning with this post, we’re going to be sharing our approach to safety with you at least once a month through our blog. We want you to know how important creating a culture of safety is to us and to understand the various ways we raise the bar for safety in helicopter flight training.