Here is a question for all my fellow corporate pilots. Does your company's flight department have any sort of safety program or safety officer?

My anal retentive boss made me the company's "safety officer" for no apparent reason. The kicker is that I get to do more work with no increase in pay (already making peanuts to begin with ).... I'm ****ed beyond belief. I could justify this entity creation if our company had a large flight department with many pilots and aircraft, but we only have 1 plane and 2 pilots for pete's sake.

 

How about your first act is to mandate an "all hands" FOD walkdown at 0800 each morning, followed by manditory safety meetings each week...

Seriously, have you asked if it's a FSDO mandate or what exactly what outcome they want (other than not crashing which you already have covered).

 

KA,

My company has a small department too (2 pilots). I hold the role of safety dude, while the other guy holds the role of chief pilot dude. My job- maintain the manuals and various items that we use operationally (MEL, Flight Ops Manual, Emergency Response Guide). His job- take care of everything administrative that keeps the plane in the air (MX, Budget/Bills, Coordinating Schedules/Training, etc).

My primary function in this role has been to develop a response plan should there ever be an accident/incident and both of us are incapacitated. Since we are a flight department with only two pilots, there isn't anybody else in the company that has the knowledge of what to do if we don't arrive at our destination. I've been working with the company safety guy (the guy that handles OSHA and HAZMAT and other safety stuff for the entire company) to bring him up to speed on aviation related topics.

IMO, it's not a whole bunch of additional work or hassle. (I spend about an extra hour or two a week on the various projects.) I also have been able to score free magazine subscriptions to just about every aviation publication out there as a result of the title.

 

They basically want me to conduct weekly safety meetings on any topic of my choice; ranging from icing to accident case reviews.

 

For who? The other pilot? That's kind of ridiculous. How about meeting somewhere in the middle. You can be in charge of a safety related bulletin board in the hangar or office. Post NASA ASRS stuff and other worthwhile articles.

 

For Who?

This is what I also find to be ridiculous. The briefing will be given to the other pilot, and the company owner (he flies his Lancair one time per month ). By simply posting articles as you said, it would be much simpler and perhaps more productive for all three parties involved.

 

Is there a large pro pilot community in your area? Police / Military aviation in the community?

Maybe you can open up the session to them as well and get some face time with other pilots / HR types / chief pilots and network a little bit...Snoop around - this may be a good opportunity for you to showcase your leadership / initiative and make it work to your advantage.

-LA

 

Since you didn't indicate you're going to leave this job, I would recommend you milk this extra duty for all it's worth. Explain to your boss that you really need to attend the USC Safety Officer Course, and then get him to spring for every seminar and convention you can find. You may find that at some point in your career (such as I face now at age 65 and REALLY glad I had some experience as an additional duty Safety Officer in the Air Force - to help me get a follow-on job) you will be glad you have this experience on your resume.

Best of luck.

George

 

Our Safety guy goes to the Safety Stand-down put on by Bombardier every year and really enjoys it, really good time to network with all the large corporations that attend. I think you could work this into a career enhancing
position.
Dave

 

I can see appointing a safety officer for FOM/SMS/ISBAO purposes, or developing contingency plans as flyerjosh mentioned...but making "safety presentations" on a weekly basis to TWO people, the other professional pilot who seemingly is too lazy to learn anything on his own and the piston single-flying owner?

Your department is the same size as mine and all I can think of reading your post is YGBSM...