Flight Test Safety Committee

The Flight Test Safety Committee (FTSC) was formed jointly in November 1994 by members of the Society of Experimental Test Pilots (SETP), the Society of Flight Test Engineers (SFTE) and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA). These and numerous additional organizations presently comprise the FTSC. The purpose of the FTSC is to initiate and sustain a flight test related safety organization intended to promote flight safety, reduce the risk of mishap, promote risk reduction management and continually improve the profession's communication and coordination.
About FTSC

Flight Test Safety Fact 20-11

How often have you heard the term "Lessons Learned"? If you attended this year's SETP virtual symposium, you heard it a lot.  If you have been in this business for more than a few years, you have heard it a lot.

But how often do we really learn those lessons, and how do we pass on those lessons to the next generation? And how do we prevent the lessons from being lost?

That's a lot of questions, but one thing is for sure--we cover the topic in great depth in this month's edition of the Flight Test Safety Fact.  It includes a paper from SETP and one speaker's related article from a previous edition of Cockpit.  It also includes Turbo Talk, the Chairman's reflections on lessons he has learned about incorporating lessons learned. 

The conversations the Board of Directors has already had around this topic give me hope that you will have many similar, productive conversations.  As always, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Sincerely,
Mark Jones Jr.
Editor

For added convenience and security, you can download the newsletter here.

Flight Test Safety Database Update

The Flight Test Safety Database is once again available to everyone at http://ftsdb.grc.nasa.gov/.

Please pass this info on to your colleagues and friends within the flight test community.

Thank you all for your patience and support for the Flight Test Safety Database.

Flight Test Safety Fact 20-09

 

It seems like just yesterday I opened my email and found that Dave Houle had emailed a personal story about the C-17 first flight.  He watched it from a hill overlooking the field where he worked.  Dave was a distinguished member of SFTE and a founding member of the FTSC.  This past week when the world celebrated the first flight of the DC-10, I thought about Dave's stories again.  We corresponded a lot, but I never met him in person.  Unfortunately Dave passed away earlier this year, but his legacy for mentoring flight test professionals lives on.  Read this month's feature column to hear about the thousands of pages of flight test safety material he archived during his lifetime and the amazing effort of emeritus board member, Pete Donath, to organize and publish it in a useful format.

The careful reader will notice herein a subtle reference to the greatest flight test squadron of all time.  If you disagree, I'd love to hear from you.  Even if you don't, we'd love to hear from you, and you can even contribute to the Houle Collection or suggest ideas for a future edition or podcast.


Sincerely,
Mark Jones Jr.
Editor

PS For added security and convenience you can download the pdf here. 

Dave Houle Flight Test Accident Archive

Dave Houle collected historical documentation from many notable aircraft mishaps.  The documentation in this archive ranges from 1929-2011.  Some are anecdotal articles, and others are full accident investigation reports.  We have scanned these into searchable pdf files, available for download.  There is also a rudimentary index of the contents of each file with a brief description of each article.

  1. Review the index to find the incident of interest.
  2. Locate the FT Accident file number (1-8) and page number next in the row of the selected incident to identify which volume contains the summary.
  3. Select the hyperlink of the specified volume, and go to the page number of interest for further details.

In the spirit of sharing lessons learned, if you have similar documentation that you feel will help other test crews, please contact us at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Summary of Accidents Flight Test Accident Index
   
Flight Test Accidents Part 1 Flight Test Accidents Part 2
Flight Test Accidents Part 3 Flight Test Accidents Part 4
Flight Test Accidents Part 5 Flight Test Accidents Part 6
Flight Test Accidents Part 7 Flight Test Accidents Part 8