Heli-Expo Meeting Saturday, February 25th.
The Annual TOPS meeting is scheduled to begin at 0800 and will be followed by the HTOC meeting at 1400. Please note that this is a change in the earlier notices and was accomplished so that non TOPS HTOC members would not have to travel a day earlier to attend an HTOC meeting at 0800. Both meetings will be in the same room which has not yet been assigned by the HAI. That information will be promulgated as soon as it is determined. This NewsGram will serve as the Official Notice of the Annual Meeting as required by the By-Laws
The Draft Minutes for the Maui meeting are attached to this NewsGram. All members are requested to review the Draft Minutes to determine if they are responsible for any Action Items which are listed at the end of the Minutes. If you have not received the attached Draft Minutes please advise and a copy will be sent immediately. Please be prepared to correct any items that need to be changed and then to vote to accept the minutes.
All officers and committee chairmen are required to make a report during the annual meeting. It is requested that a copy or outline of your report be provided for inclusion in the historical records of the corporation.
The agenda for the meeting will be sent out shortly. If there any items that you would like to see on the agenda please contact me ASAP.
I am asking for volunteers to sponsor a Continental Breakfast and Lunch for the meeting. Please contact me if you would like to sponsor one of these events.
Heli-Expo Booth
The TOPS booth is # 3335 is a corner booth and is located close to the Bell Helicopter Display. The exact location can be found by going to the HAI web site http://www.rotor.com/ and then navigating to the Virtual Trade Show which has a map.
The following was published in the last NewsGram and is repeated here for your planning convenience. I am requesting that all TOPS members try to give some of their time so that the booth can be fully manned at all times. Please note that the times for the HTOC and TOPS meetings have been changed.
Friday 2/24 Booth set up. This does not take much time to
accomplish however all are welcome to assist.
Saturday 2/25 0800 to 1400 TOPS Meeting
1400 to 1600 HTOC Meeting
Sunday 2/26 1100 to 1300 Time Slot #1
1300 to 1500 Time Slot #2
1500 to 1700 Time Slot #3
Monday 2/27 1000 to 1200 Time Slot #4
1200 to 1400 Time Slot #5
1400 to 1600 Time Slot #6
1600 to 1700 Time slot # 7
Tuesday 2/28 1000 to 1200 Time Slot #8
1200 to 1400 Time Slot #9
1400 to 1600 Time Slot #10
International Helicopter Safety Team (IHST)
The IHST met in Washington on January 10th at HAI headquarters to approve the Charter and move forward with developing the organization. Matt Zuccaro (HAI) and Dave Downey (FAA Certification Branch) were elected as Co-Chairman. The next step is to form an Executive Committee that will be made up of members from operators and manufacturers and a Joint Helicopter Safety Analysis Team (JHSAT) which is a group that will gather and analyze all helicopter accident data for the past 20 years and develop a matrix of that data by type of operation. The JHSAT will also determine what metric will be used to measure the data ie: Flight Hours or Total Number of helicopters in operation and will then analyze the cause of the accidents and what remedial measures should be taken to prevent future accidents.
The product of the JHSAT is then passed on to the Joint Helicopter Safety Implementation Team (JHSIT) which will be responsible to implement the remedial measures.
The IHST will hold a press conference and a public meeting during Heli-Expo, the dates and times to be announced. There will also be another meeting of the IHST at the American Helicopter Society (AHS) Annual Forum in Phoenix May 9th through may 11th . Details on the AHS Phoenix meeting are on their web site http://www.vtol.org/ and the exact time for the IHST meeting are to be announced.
Membership Data Base
All members are requested to check the TOPS web site to see if their Membership Data is correct. Please advise me or Ed DiCampli of any changes that need to be made. The Membership Data Base is constantly changing and I would like to have it current and up to date for the annual meeting. Some Regular Members have not listed their Main Contact Person or their Safety Officer. Please provide that information.
Incidents and Best Practices
Tops requires that each Regulator member submit at least two reports of Incidents/Best Practices annually which are then discussed at the Regular TOPS meeting. I have only received a very few of these required reports so I am asking each Regular member to please submit the reports as required.
Pictures for the New Brochure
All members are requested to Email current images of significant areas of their operation for the new brochure.
TOPS Air Tour Operations Survey Form
All Regular Members are required by the Program of Safety to annually submit their Operating Statistics. The form for accomplishing this is located on the Web Site in the Members Only/ Download Library section and titled Air Tour Operations Survey. The form can be downloaded directly from the Web Site and I have attached a copy for your convenience. Please submit the completed form 30 days prior to Heli-Expo (January 27th) so that they can be compiled and presented at our meeting.
See you all in Dallas
Pat Mallen
TOPS Executive Director
TOPS is dedicated to assured safety in all helicopter tour activities
www.topsafety.org