Seaplane Pilots Association

Seawings

Seawings and Safety Things

By Dr. Dale De Remer, PhD.
Water Flying Annual, 1996

SEAWINGS Requirements: Advisory Circular 61-91H: Pilot Proficiency Award Program

The seaplane accident rate was terrible this past year. It was disgusting. Disgraceful. For more information about this, see John Kelly's well-written article: "What is Pilot Integrity" on page 16 in the November/December 1995 issue of Water Flying. As Kelly points out, if allowed to continue it will most likely damage the rights of all of us to fly seaplanes as freely as we now do.

"Now wait a minute", we say, "driving to the seaplane base is still more dangerous than the seaplane flight itself. True - general aviation, including seaplaning, is inherently very safe. But, we can't be very proud of our record. Secretary Peña recently called for "zero tolerance" in aviation accidents, which calls for improvement in our already generally good aviation safety record. The record is ok...but we can make it better, is the message. We can heed that message and get personally involved or we can sit back and let seaplane activities purge themselves of the careless: those with inadequate training and retraining, and those with bad attitudes. Flying does this purging with the mechanism called accidents. This purging is effective. It kills, maims or brings the FAA down on the offender. But it also puts innocent passengers and people on the ground at massive risk and it adversely affects the rights of all of us!

In order to protect ourselves and our privileges to operate seaplanes...each and every one of us must join the fight to reduce seaplane accidents. Rather than take the attitude that we are not our brother's keeper and turn our heads the other way, the most important way we can protect ourselves from freedom-damaging legislation against seaplanes is to help each other operate more safely. Anything else we can do is damage control, which is what we have to do if we don't practice risk management. If we don't know how to operate more safely, then it's time we learn...but we also need to encourage others to do the same. Are we doing all we can do to make our flying safer? This question needs to be continually asked.

We are just now acquiring a new tool we can use to do that. A tool like it, called the FAA WINGS program, has been tried and tested and has proven its effectiveness at dramatically improving safety with general aviation landplanes. The general aviation accident rate decreased nearly 25% in the two years following the inception of the Pilot Proficiency Award Program in 1977. We can take our tool, made specifically for seaplanes, and show our landplane pilot friends how to use it better.

What is SEAWINGS?

This new tool is called SEAWINGS. The SEAWINGS program is our very own WINGS program, created and designed by seaplaners...for seaplaners. It's happening because some very farsighted FAA folks weren't afraid to act, and were willing to ask us what WE needed, and were willing to let us add what we needed to Advisory Circular 91-61, thus creating the program.

Also, thanks to the leaders of SPA, such as Jay Frey, Bob Richardson, and others, SPA quickly volunteered to provide the jewelry we can all wear with pride when we have earned our SEAWINGS. The SEAWINGS pin will look like the logo you see at the top of this page.

To participate in the SEAWINGS program, we seaplane pilots must attend an approved safety seminar (preferably a seaplane safety seminar), pick up a WINGS card, write the word "SEAWINGS" on it, then get three hours of enjoyable flying done with a qualified seaplane flight instructor that covers the seaplane operations spelled out in AC 91-61 (to be published soon in Water Flying, as soon as the FAA fully approves it). Then have our flight instructor sign off those three hours in our logbook and on the WINGS card, then submit the card to the local FAA office. The FAA will send us our SEAWINGS pin and certificate. This process can be repeated each 12 months until we have all 10 versions of the pin.

Then, we - every one of us - need to encourage all the other seaplane pilots to do the same. We are not finished with our part in the SEAWINGS program until we continually do this!

Why do the SEAWINGS?

Neat, distinctive pin!
A better, safer pilot! Statistics from the WINGS program overwhelmingly prove this.
Automatically takes care of the BFR (biennial flight review)
Provides a safer flying environment for all and helps preserve our flying freedom
Will probably be required by the better insurers or will provide us with reduced rate insurance
For a few of us and our loved ones, it may make our lives longer.

How do we use SEAWINGS Most Effectively?

Easy! Three steps:

Get involved. Get our SEAWINGS.
Stay involved. Ask our friends if they are getting/have gotten their SEAWINGS. The Airplane Single Engine Sea rating in our pockets is the invisible document giving us the right to fly seaplanes. The SEAWINGS pin is the visible emblem of our ability to fly seaplanes with safety-in-mind that is there for everyone to see. It should be displayed! Its active use may be what gives us the right to continue to fly seaplanes.
Ask for safety! Ask other pilots to display their SEAWINGS pin and gently shame them if they aren't participating. (Hard to do if we don't have ours, isn't it?). Ask for a safety briefing if you are a passenger in a seaplane. Ask the pilot to work hard at conducting an especially safe flight because you are aboard. Pilots, ask yourself: "Might there be a safer way to do this next maneuver I have planned?"

One of the most important functions of any safety program is to remind us often to think safety. We all need to be reminded...regularly. We all need to help each other with this. We need to thank each other for any safety reminder we get because it may be a gift as valuable as getting a life-extending pill. If a pilot doesn't appreciate a safety reminder, he has an attitude problem...don't fly with him. Do him a favor...suggest he get his SEAWINGS.

Pilots, this article doesn't mince words. I feel it needed to be said. If you don't agree with something it contains, hold me accountable, not the SPA. I take full responsibility for its contents. If you have an opinion, please write me. My address is available from the SPA.

Will the flying world notice if the seaplane pilots of North America do an especially good job with this new safety program called SEAWINGS? Maybe...and maybe not. But we will know...and some of us will enjoy life longer. Let's do it!



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