Hang Gliding and Paragliding Volume 44 / Issue 12:December 2014 | Page 15

Frank points out that reluctance to
report is not specific to our community.
“In my professional life I see similar
reluctance to reporting of adverse
event in other contexts. Fortunately,
there are many other activities where
accident and incident reporting has
become standard, and we can learn a
lot from these areas. By implementing the lessons learned in these other
domains we can work on creating a
reporting culture that will allow all of
us to benefit.”

Expand
Your
Horizons

Some people don’t file a report
because it’s difficult to gather all the
info to complete the form, or they’re
not comfortable writing about the
experience. Does the new system
provide a way for those who are intimidated by the form-filling process
to file a report?

“A great question that is spot on!”
says Mitch. “The reporting process
has to be easy and quick to at least get
the basics of the accident report filed,
and that is task one we are working
on with the USHPA staff: designing
that easy online report. The reporter
will put in the basic facts (who, what,
where, when) that gets captured as the
summary and is a five-minute process.
Once we have that, we can follow-up
and help with the rest, or the reporter
can continue on to a more detailed,
well designed online report. Or, the
truly intimidated form-writer can just
call one of us on the committee and we
will take and input the info.”
Frank concurs that reporting should
be almost a no-brainer although, he believes, “The amount of work that goes
into filing has to be enough to make
the report meaningful. I also encourage
every pilot to write down a description of an incident or accident if they
encounter one, independent of their
reporting to USHPA. Spelling out
the sequence of events is a good way to
think through the incident or accident,
and will facilitate learning, which can

* Climb to cloudbase &
shut the motor off
* Easy in-air restart
* Special offer for pilots
crossing over
* Instructor Opportunities

Miniplane-USA.com/ushpa