Back in the Saddle 2015 stresses test safety through lessons learned, reporting hazards Published Jan. 7, 2015 By Rebecca Amber Staff writer EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- Early Jan. 5, Airmen gathered at the base theater for the annual Back in the Saddle briefings. The theme was re-focusing on safety with a big emphasis on mitigating the human factor risks associated with flight test. One individual was recognized for doing just that. Jay Dunham from the U.S. Air Force Test Pilot School was the recipient of the quarterly flight safety award for his actions in a T-38 last October. When his flight leads mission was cancelled, he taxied out for an alternate instrumentation training mission. His ground checks and all other indicators were normal, but Dunham refused the aircraft when he determined that the horizontal tail was not displacing fully with the stick in the forward position. Maintenance workers later discovered that the actuator had failed to the full forward position and Dunham had prevented a possible significant mishap in the T-38. The first speaker of the morning, Lt. Col. Kyle Schlappi, 412th Test Wing chief of safety, addressed what to expect if a mishap does occur. According to Schlappi, the first 72 hours are crucial, an Interim Safety Board is formed to collect and secure evidence. This is especially important for perishable evidence such as witness testimonies. Since anyone has the potential to be assigned to the ISB, it's important that everyone is willing to participate if necessary. After the initial actions have been completed, the evidence is relinquished to the Safety Investigation Board for analysis. The next speaker, Maj. Andrew Faust, 412th Test Wing, Flight Safety deputy chief, spoke on preventative safety. "We forget to fear what rarely happens," said Faust. He encouraged Airmen to use the Air Force Aviation Safety Action Program, a confidential forum to share lessons-learned. ASAP is a voluntary, web-based reporting tool to report errors and hazards.The program is something Faust noted that has been done among commercial airlines for years and is endorsed by the chief of staff of the Air Force. The information is collected voluntarily and shared Air Force-wide. The author's identity is always protected. A report takes less than 10 minutes to file and can be used to identify and track community trends. Use of the ASAP is encouraged to promote a "safety culture" and can be accessed through the Air Force Portal. Maj. Lucas Karnes, 445/370th Flight Test Squadron, shared how an aircraft becomes a re-fueler. He stressed that a refueler will have a different clearance at each stage of the process and it's important to select a refueler with the proper clearances for your aircraft. He also talked about low-level obstructions, any object that is within 100 feet of the low-level floor. An annual survey reveals new obstructions and the trend observed over the last year was uncharted towers. The most common is a 197-ft general use tower, often used to collect wind telemetry data. There were also a significant number of new cell towers as well as a new non-standard high-line that was 300 feet. Because this survey is only done once a year, pilots are encouraged if they see a new obstruction, report it. Overviews and lessons learned were shared from the Global Hawk RQ-4 Block 30/40, B-52 Quickstrike Mine Test program and F-22 program. Capt. Ryan Hefron, 419th Flight Test Squadron, talked about the B-52 program and the work they have done to integrate a new tail kit and failures they ran into along the way. Two elements of their safety planning proved to be very important. The first was development of their safety footprints by range personnel, which accounted for the possibility of slick weapons (parachute not deploying). The second was explicitly defining slick weapons releases as not being an unexpected test event. Along the way, they learned that just because something works on one aircraft doesn't mean it will necessarily work on your aircraft. They also learned that if they involved their local developmental test engineers early on, they may be able to catch things that would have otherwise been missed. Hefron concluded that though they have not determined the cause of the failures, they were able to mitigate the consequences of uncertainty because of detailed safety planning and testing discipline. Karnes encouraged everyone in the room to start the New Year knowing where their support assets are located and with a renewed emphasis on their habit patterns.