Content
Heliprops
Overview
HELIPROPS complements traditional pilot ground and flight training. Under the HELIPROPS Program, the Bell Helicopter Training Academy (BTA) provides the following services:
- Publishes a safety newsletter, the Human AD.
- Participates in selected safety seminars with safety briefings that focus on accident causes.
- Participates in the International Helicopter Safety Team (I.H.S.T.) initiatives to reduce worldwide helicopter accidents by 80% over the next 10 years. www.IHST.org.
- Stresses participation to industry helicopter operators in the HAI Safety "Platinum Program." It is designed to help operators establish and maintain a culture of safety in order to prevent helicopter accidents. www.rotor.com.
- Assist helicopter pilots training at the BTA with the FAA's Online Wings Program. www.FAAsafety.gov.
The Human AD newsletter is a quarterly publication that is distributed free of charge in English, Spanish and Japanese to thousands of subscribers around the world. It is written with the helicopter pilot in mind, and stresses the human factors involved in actual incidents and accidents. The Human AD can be viewed on this site, or a paper subscription can be obtained at the Subscription link. In the near future a search capability will be possible so researchers or pilots can search back issues of the newsletter.
Mailing address:
HELIPROPS Manager
Bell Helicopter
P.O. Box 482
Fort Worth, Texas 76101
HELIPROPS safety briefings are held on an "invitation basis" at "Safety Stand-down Days" conducted at some Bell customer locations. The emphasis is to reach out to owners, operators, maintenance personnel and pilots with updated industry safety information. Raising safety awareness is the objective.
Weekly safety briefings are conducted at the Bell Training Academy (Alliance Airport, Texas - KAFW) for pilots attending flight training. The briefings include accident causes and prevention with audience participation in discussions. The information presented is backed up by statistical analysis and actual video footage of accidents and near-accidents.
Classes are held at the Bell Training Academy which address the human factor elements of physiology, psychology, and ergonomics as they pertain to helicopter safety. The classes are generally in conjunction with the Professional Pilot Program (P3) tailored to cover a variety of topics that are of particular interest to experienced pilots enrolled in this advanced airmanship class.
Each of the HELIPROPS activities, the Human AD newsletter, weekly safety briefings at Bell, participation in safety seminars all have the same objective: prevent human error accidents through training and education. "Eighty four percent of accidents would still occur if an aircraft or engine never failed. We must address the human and unknown side to significantly reduce accidents."