The newly formed General Aviation Safety Benchmarking Group (GA-SBG) has been set up with the goal of improving airfield safety for General Aviation users by making it easier to collate and share data across the UK.
Founded by Harry Harrad, Safety and Compliance Manager at London Oxford Airport and Ben Spiers, Head of Safety and Compliance at London Biggin Hill Airport, London Southend Airport and St Athan in Wales. the group aims to give all GA aerodromes a voice which Ben says can sometimes get “drowned out by commercial airports at equivalent forums”.
Based on the Centrik Platform, aerodromes will feed data into the system and performance will be based on 9 safety performance indicators (SPIs) which are:
- Damage to aircraft
- Wildlife strikes and hazard management
- Significant FOD events (Foreign Object Debris)
- Runway and taxiway incursions and excursions
- Near misses on the apron
- Airspace & drone infringements
- Airprox
- Laser strikes
- Air Traffic Engineering Failures, ie ILS or Dewpoint sensors failures
Andy Wilkinson, Head of Aerospace at Centrik, said: “As a provider of Operational Management support to aviation businesses across the globe, we are delighted to sponsor and work on this project for the GA community. Our existing, well-established relationships with both Oxford Airport and Biggin Hill meant we were able to take a genuinely collective approach when developing the new General Aviation Safety Benchmark system,”
Ben added: “There is currently not much knowledge sharing within the General Aviation Aerodrome community and the GASBG aims to share safety information so GA Aerodromes can make collaborative decisions into steering safety within the industry.”
Aerodromes wishing to join the group and feed data into the system must have a maximum of Code C aircraft operation and have Fire Category 6 cover or have a minimum of two flying schools that make up at least 40% of air traffic movements.
They can find out more by contacting either Ben Spiers (Co-Chair), London Biggin Hill Airport or Harry Harrad (Chair), London Oxford Airport for additional information via ben.spiers@bigginhillairport.com or hharrad@londonoxfordairport.com.
So far 28 different aerodromes across the UK have expressed an interest in joining the group.