The Federal Aviation Administration will host the 2018 International Rotorcraft Safety Conference featuring about 35 presentations and seminars in an effort to reduce the national helicopter accident rate, particularly among small operators.  

The three-day event will offer Inspection Authorization and FAA AMT and WINGS credits. Admission will be free.

The conference will take place October 23-25, 2018, at the Hurst Conference Center in Hurst, Texas, a Fort Worth suburb. The audience is expected to be diverse with pilots, mechanics, small company owners, industry executives, operators and government regulators from the United States and abroad.

The conference’s first day, October 23, will open with introductions and a speech by national personal resilience speaker Jack Harris. The conference will then feature programs designed to appeal to the entire helicopter community with presentations about the latest accident data, surviving a helicopter accident, occupant protection research and panel discussions. We will break into separate sections the next day, with pilots discussing U.S. Helicopter Safety Team initiatives, night vision goggles, how to avoid inadvertent IMC and presentations from major helicopter associations. Mechanics will discuss preventive maintenance for rotor blades, flight data monitoring, safety cultures and managing maintenance operations. We will regroup the third day into a single helicopter community for sessions on bird strikes, airworthiness directives, accident investigations and unmanned aerial systems.

The information gained at this conference will help pilots, mechanics and others prevent a catastrophic accident. We will have rooms available for meetings and networking.

If anyone has questions, please contact Gene Trainor at 817-222-5123, at [email protected] or at the FAA Rotorcraft Standards Branch, 10101 Hillwood Parkway, Fort Worth, Texas 76177. You can register and find details about the FAA conference at www.faahelisafety.org.