A message from David Anderson

The BARS 26th Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) meeting is scheduled for four weeks from now. Again, due to the pandemic travel restrictions it will be in the online format and split across two sessions - one in the morning and one in the afternoon. Having the two sessions ensures participants can have a reasonable time to join in the meeting, no matter where they are in the world. This is good news especially since our international reach is continually expanding with recent new entrants into the Program of aircraft operators from; Mongolia, Greenland, Alaska, Newfoundland and Iceland.

TAC26 agenda items will cover simultaneous operations of RPAS and conventional aviation, helicopter long line safety, aerial control of animals & mustering and organizational safety culture. This last topic builds upon the wonderful material covered in the recent FSF 74th International Air Safety Summit (IASS74) held last week, the leadership discussions from the Foundation board members and the dedicated working group for the Core Knowledge for Aviation Leaders and Managers (CALM) project. 

Further to online meetings, this September the ICAO Asia and Pacific (APAC) office joined with the Australian Aviation Wildlife Hazard Group (AAWHG) and delivered an online webinar devoted to Wildlife Risk Assessments. We contributed to this webinar with material based from the BARS Program and how the contracted aviation sector deals with these important risks.  

Research shows approximately 10-20% of all hazard reporting from contracted aviation operations is orientated around wildlife or bird strike events so identifying and managing these risks is not only important but necessary and involves working with the airport owner/operator to ensure the right controls are in place and are effective. Some great information was shared across the webinar with over 150 people joining in from across Asia and the Pacific states. A big thankyou to Dr Punya and ICAO for hosting the presentation.

AAWHG will continue to deliver a series of online webinars on all matters around wildlife risk in October. If this matter is relevant to you, please register through the AAWHG website here.

Finally, the BARS Training schedule for 2022 calendar will be published next week on our website. The courses are delivered as Instructor-Lead-On-Line (ILOL) and we alternate the time of delivery to suit attendees from the Americas time zone as well as attendees in the European/African zones. We understand many of our attendees must plan well ahead to organize work rosters/schedules so we are providing an annual calendar across all our training including Building Personal Resilience, Managing Contract Aviation Risk, Helicopter External Loads and BARS Auditor Accreditation training. If your organization prefers face-to-face delivery, please contact our office for more information.

David Anderson
Managing Director
BARS Program