EDIT OR’S LETTER
From the Editor’s Desk
Interesting Times
Ron Whitney Managing Editor
The debate over safety and safety initiatives in our industry can be very confusing. Clearly the goal, in a perfect world, would be to eliminate accidents all together. As unrealistic as that may sound, it is a goal that we should never stop trying to achieve. Recently the National Transportation and Safety Board (NTSB) released a list of nineteen initiatives it believes would enhance safety and reduce the frequency of ac- cidents. Implementing all nineteen recommendations, in a perfect world, would no doubt be a marked improvement. The job of the NTSB is to investigate accidents, de- termine the cause, and report their findings and recommendations. They do this very well and should be commended. Interestingly enough, the NTSB took a step out of their lane when they recommended that reimbursement rate increases be examined as they relate to aircraft equipment and safety. I cannot recall ever having heard a gov- ernmental agency stating publically that industry should be compensated for making
improvements and enhancing safety. Will every one of the recommendations be implemented? Probably not.
The ball, as they say, is now in the FAA’s court. In a perfect world the operators would take it upon themselves to make the necessary changes, the FAA would not be forced into over-regulat- ing and placing unreasonable requirements upon the industry, and we might see some improvement to the safety record. Most of the mainstream operators, and some smaller programs as well, have taken it upon themselves to implement some of the NTSB’s recommendations, while unfortu- nately some have not and will not. Until of course, the FAA leaves them no choice. Which is ex- actly what we can expect. Stay tuned; the next several months will no doubt be very interesting.
In this issue
The job on a magazine editor is to plan each month’s content to coincide with the plan outlined in the publications media guide. Well, let me put it this way…I try. The good news is we are now at the point where we have a great deal more content than we can fit within our planned publica- tion. Bad news is, sometimes some good stories don’t make the cut and have to be postponed. We promise to do our best to get those stories published at some time in the near future. This month we have several timely and very interesting articles. First off we have Contributing Editor Lyn Burks’ piece on the Heli-Success seminar to be held in October in Las Vegas. We also have first time contributor Mike Biasatti’s article Compliance with Rule Number One, which I hope will provide some insight. We also have a comprehensive article on helicopter hoists, equip- ment and operations provided to us by Goodrich. Also we have another contribution from Mike Coligny titled “Elvis Has Entered The Pattern.” Good stuff.
Featured Aircraft
Contributing Editor Brad McNally, a Coast Guard officer in real life, has written a great article on the Guard’s MH-60T upgrade. I’d like to thank Brad for his efforts on behalf of Rotorcraft Pro- fessional. We truly enjoy his writing. How he can devote so much time and effort and tend to his post-graduate studies is amazing.
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4 ROTORCRAFT PROFESSIONAL • August 2009
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