Backcountry Safety Culture

Many of todays workplaces seek to create a formalized safety culture, an environment where employees practice behaviors that minimize accidents, look out for their co-workers and where reporting unsafe conditions is encouraged, not subject to retaliation, and frequently rewarded. It can be a great goal, but it often creates an exaggerated sense of safety where people need safety training to use a power strip and posters about how to get out of a car without tripping. The goal of creating a safety culture often ends up a corporate farce, since the best safety cultures are not created by artifice, but happen naturally because people really care.

Key Takeaways:

• The backcountry pilot community fosters an organic safety culture characterized by mutual support, free advice, and continuous information exchange, which is more effective than formalized corporate safety programs.
• Backcountry flying presents unique challenges including line-of-sight radio limitations in mountainous terrain, high traffic on shared frequencies, and unconventional hazards like wildlife and recreationists.
• Key safety practices for backcountry pilots involve diligent pre-flight study of local reporting points and SOPs, overflying airstrips for reconnaissance, effective radio reporting, and actively participating in community-based knowledge sharing.

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