NAAREF, NAAA’s sister organization, has produced several high-quality educational, safety and training videos over the years. Typically, the videos aired at a specific PAASS Program or safety session at NAAA’s convention, and usually that was that. People who were unable to attend those functions were unable to take advantage of the material presented. No longer.
NAAA and NAAREF have made several education and pilot safety videos available for viewing on-demand through NAAA’s website. Now aerial applicators can view and review these important safety videos as often as necessary at AgAviation.org/safetyeducationvideos.
The newest addition to NAAA and NAAREF’s online video library is “Dealing with Tragedy,” a thought-provoking video produced for the NAAREF Safety Session at NAAA’s 2016 convention. Each year we lose valued ag pilots to fatal accidents. Dealing with the tragic loss of a co-worker, close friend or family member is very painful. Grieving is a natural process that helps us deal with the pain. Although there is no right or wrong way to grieve, there is one feeling that is universally shared and that is the feeling of isolation and of feeling alone during this process. There are healthy ways to cope with the pain, which in time can renew us and help us move on.
Although we don’t like to think that something like this could happen to us, there are some things we can learn and do to prepare for such undesirable situations. “Dealing with Tragedy” focuses on the steps to take to deal with such situations should they occur. In the video, the real-life experiences of two ag pilot/operators that dealt with the loss of a fellow crew member friend and relative are addressed as well as their suggestions on how to prepare for such situations.
More Safety Videos Available Online
“Dealing with Tragedy” joins “First Response: Responding to a Pesticide-Related Aircraft Accident,” “Wires and Obstructions,” “Ethics: The Movie” and “Stall Spin Avoidance” as the fifth video available in NAAA and NAAREF’s online safety video library.
NAAREF’s pilot-rescue video, “First Response: Responding to a Pesticide-Related Aircraft Accident,” is a free resource aimed at instructing emergency responders and aerial applicators on how to respond in the event of a pesticide-related aircraft accident. A First Response Study Guide and additional study materials that accompany the video are also available for download.
There is a need to make the public, first responders, fire departments and ambulance services familiar with the agricultural aviation industry. NAAREF encourages emergency response personnel and local aerial applicators to arrange a meeting to demonstrate and explain the aerial applicator’s equipment to first responders so that they better understand the content of the video.
In “Stall Spin Avoidance,” NAAREF president Rod Thomas interviews Wayne Handley, a former California ag operator and aerobatic pilot, and Dusty Dowd, a Kansas ag operator and aeronautical engineer. Their discussion on flying techniques and aerodynamic forces at work on an aircraft in flight is guaranteed to make you evaluate your own techniques while flying near the ground.
“Wires and Obstructions” focuses primarily on wires as a hazard to pilots operating in the low-level airspace, along with other obstructions such as trees, wind turbines and towers. However, the video also raises the specter of a new collision concern: hard-to-see UAVs that may be operating in the same airspace with ag aircraft.
“Ethics: The Movie” explores the various components that make up ethical behavior and asks viewers to determine how ethics relates to the ag aviation industry. The goal is for each person to examine his or her own attitudes and operating practices to discover changes that may be needed to exhibit the highest ethical standards to customers and the community.
Each of these safety and education videos are available on the public side of NAAA’s website to allow anyone in the aerial application industry to view and review them as often as necessary. Additional videos will be added to the page as they become available.
If the direct address of AgAviation.org/safetyeducationvideos is too hard to recall, go to AgAviation.org, then hover over or tap the “Media” tab and select “Safety & Education Videos” from the drop-down menu.
