APPLICATION FOR BGA BEST PRACTICE AWARD
Club: Cambridge Gliding Centre
Site: Gransden Lodge
Current membership numbers:
Name of Applicant:
Contact telephone number:
Postal address:
E- mail address (confidential):
Please describe briefly the “Good Practice” that is subject of this application. We have intoduced a Flight Safety Audit/Review document using a "traffic light system" that enables the club officers to see at a glance where there are issues that require attention. The audit covers all the items suggested in the BGA check list, plus others that have been added to meet local needs. The document is updated on a regular basis by the Club Flight Safety Officer and is reviewed by the Club Committee. Has this involved any changes in order to improve practices at your club? If so, what? Resulting from the document, a number of processes have been tightened up, such as: - ensuring our parchutes are re-packed in a timely manner, - aerotow ropes are regularly checked, - pilot medicals remain current, - accidents and incidents are properly reported and learnings promulgated etc - there are many examples that can be seen in the audit document

How did you identify the need for change, if any and what investigations were carried out? We have always tried to ensure that we properly manage all aspects of flight safety but recognised that we did not have one overall process to handle the multitude of items that need to be regularly monitored and managed.
How long have the ideas been in operation at your club? We started in 2004. The audit/review document is a living document, and is updated at least twice per year by the Flight Safety Officer.
Costs and resources: What financial and other resources were required to implement the proposals? There are no costs involved. The format uses MS Excel, and once the structure has been set up and the first audit completed, the ongoing updating takes very little time.
Evaluation: What are the results, to date? We now have a process where we can see at a glance whether we have any outstanding issues. We know for each issue who the action holder is and the target completion date. Hot issues are highlighted in red and these need urgent attention. Issues that need attention but are not critical are highlighted in amber. Completed items are marked as green Has future club policy been affected? If so, how? The major change is that we are rather more proactive in dealing with flight safety issues. Also, whilst the Flight Safety Officer reports to the CFI, he is invited to attend Committee meetings from time to time to provide an update and to seek support if any issue resolution needs Committee action.
What recommendations have you to share with other clubs that might benefit from your experience? We are happy to share our Flight Safety/Review process with other clubs. Note that we have attached our audit/review document but request that this is not distributed to Clubs at this time as we may first wish to tidy the document.
Do you know of any other club that has adopted this idea? No, but the process was presented at the Flight Safety Meeting at Burn earlier this year and it received positive feedback from other Club Safety Officers.
Please return this form to Roger Coote, British Gliding Association, Kimberley House, Vaughan Way, Leicester, LE1 4SE, or email it to office@gliding.co.uk