>>> SAFETY & TRAINING INITIATIVES

The Philips Search & Rescue Trust has been operating for over twenty years and to date, has remained accident free.
This has been achieved by the high standards of its pilots’, training and equipment combined with a culture of risk assessment and risk avoidance.
The Trust has a substantial depth of experience with the average age and experience of the helicopter pilots’ being 43 years and in excess of 7000 flight hours.
The Trust regularly sends pilots’ on training courses and conferences in order to keep up with technology and safety initiatives.
Some of the more recent ones are:-
1. CRM (Crew Resource Management) course in the USA,
2. NVG (Night Vision Goggles) conference in Australia
3. NVG training course in Dunedin by United States FAA certificated training provider.
4. Breeze Winch conference in Auckland.

The Trust’s internal training is comprehensive and covers all operational aspects.
The Philips Search & Rescue Trust also recognises its responsibility to the wider aviation community. The Trust recently organised (at its expense) an NVG and EGPWS forum in Taupo, to which representatives from other air ambulance providers in New Zealand were invited.
In August this year the Trust, with one of its contracted providers, will be running a CRM (Crew Resource Management) course to the European Joint Aviation Authority standards.
This involves a lecturer from Flight Safety in the USA travelling to New Zealand to run the three day course. Once again, places will be made available to other members of the EMS sector of the industry.
Whilst these courses are not compulsory, the Philips Search & Rescue Trust believes this is essential training for the operational environment the crews are expected to operate in.
The Trust’s aircraft are required to fly at night and at times when the weather is less than favourable. In order to maintain the highest level of safety all pilots’ are required to hold an instrument rating and remain current in instrument flying. Although this goes far beyond what the CAA require as a minimum, the Trust believes this skill is vital in reducing the inherent risk in night flying operations, to provide safety for unplanned entry into cloud.

ELITE FLIGHT SIMULATOR
The Trust has recently purchased a Flight Simulator, which is based at the Westpac Waikato Air Ambulance hangar facility at Waikato Hospital. This is the only CAA approved helicopter simulator (and the first of its type) in the Southern Hemisphere.
The pilots’ use this on a scheduled basis to train and remain current in instrument flying techniques, emergency procedures and night operations. The simulator allows them to train much more realistically than what is possible in a real aircraft, e.g. engine failure at a critical moment, as it provides the ability to train right “to the edge”.
The Trust has made the simulator available to other EMS operators, who have since taken up this offer.
The cost of the simulator was in excess of $200,000, however, the Trust believes it is a worthwhile investment in safety and has enhanced training for real life situations.
The Trust’s aircraft are fitted with an extensive array of instruments, to instrument flight standards to enhance the pilot’s situational awareness.
This equips them to operate with a high degree of safety by cross reference to instruments only, should they inadvertently encounter adverse flying conditions.
This was the result of risk assessment work undertaken, where operations at night were established as being of medium risk.
The upgrading of onboard equipment, additional training requirements for the pilots’ before operating at night and the purchase of the simulator are all part of the mitigation strategy. During this study it was established that twin engine aircraft offered no safety advantage; this was accepted by CAA based on statistical information obtained internationally.

MOVING MAP GPS
All of the Philips Search & Rescue Trust aircraft have moving map GPS with embedded terrain information which is being reinforced with Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning System (EGPWS). This equipment ‘looks ahead’ and predicts potential conflict with terrain.
The United States FAA mandated the fitting of EGPWS some years ago for turbine aircraft with more than 6 passenger seats in order to reduce the number of aircraft that were destroyed when they flew into terrain. This is known as CFIT or ‘controlled flight into terrain’. Since then no aircraft fitted with this system has been destroyed due to CFIT.
Once again, although there is no CAA requirement to fit this to the aircraft, the Trust believes the provision of this equipment, along with a radar altimeter, greatly reduces the risk associated with EMS operations and considerably enhances safety.

TRAFFIC COLLISION AVOIDANCE
Traffic collision avoidance is another area where the Philips Search & Rescue Trust has moved to reduce the risk. Each aircraft has been fitted with a unit called TPAS.
TPAS looks at surrounding aircraft that are fitted with a transponder and calculates the distance and altitude relative to the operator. An aural and visual alert is given to the pilot when there is a potential conflict with surrounding traffic.

NIGHT VISION GOGGLES
The Trust has been operating with NVG (Night Vision Goggles) at the Taupo base for the past ten years. These will be upgraded to the latest specifications once USA State Department export approval has been gained.
The Trust is moving with a growing international trend towards the use of NVG at all its bases. New Zealand’s most experienced RNZAF NVG pilot has been commissioned to train all the Trust’s pilots’ in their use and limitations.
This will further increase the safety margins already in place for night operations.

SPECIALIST INSTRUMENTS
All of the Trust’s aircraft have instruments to CAA instrument flight rules (IFR) standard installed, even those that operate under the visual flight rules (VFR). They include dual aviation radios, VOR, ADF and GPS for navigation, including the IFR approach plates overlaid on the moving map display, along with radar altimeter and a stand-by artificial horizon with emergency power provision.

AUTOPILOT
All the aircraft are fitted with an autopilot (to reduce the pilots’ workload at night and during busy periods), a cell phone, Marine / Forestry / Civil Defence radio, Police and Ambulance radios. They are also fitted with direction finders to track aircraft / marine and personal locator beacons. Some have HF radios and those that don’t are about to be fitted with satellite phones.

WEB-BASED OPERATIONS MANUAL
The Trust has a web based operations manual along with a database of routes, airports and heliports. This enables pilots’ to access vital information from anywhere there is a computer with an Internet connection or using cell phones with data ability.
The most frequently used information available is also kept in the aircraft. Each town or frequently visited helipad has a route guide and landing plate. These are put together to provide safe operations to and from regularly visited places including the provision to receive weather reports, communication details, direction and safe altitudes into and out of the landing area. They contain information on fuel planning, obstacles en route and any low level alternatives. The helipad information includes a colour photograph of the landing area, its dimensions and surface, best approach and departure direction along with other important details.

QUALITY ASSURANCE / SAFETY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM
The Trust also operates a vigorous all encompassing quality assurance/safety management system, once again, more extensive than the systems required by CAA.
The Trust has its own Quality Assurance Manager who carries out internal audits of all the Trust’s operations at the various bases, biannually as a minimum. In addition, Trust operations are subject to other audits carried out either by clients of the Trust or other third party entities, for example audits by Health Board clients, Health and Safety.
In addition to the internal audits undertaken by the Trust Auditor, the Trust is also contracted with an ex CAA and current Air New Zealand Auditor to carry out yet another level of auditing, ensuring a completely independent third party audit is undertaken.
These processes are in addition to annual audits conducted by the Civil Aviation Authority. The Summary Statement from the last CAA audit carried out in Sept/Oct 2004 states:
“This is assessed as a very mature operation, strongly lead, with sound risk management culture – as evidenced by the investment decisions being made in equipment purchases and safety initiatives”