IDAHO WING HEADQUARTERS

CIVIL AIR PATROL IDAHO WING SAFETY OFFICE

28 JULY 2006 [Seasonal Reminders for Safety]{.underline} by: Maj. Gary
L. Iverson

Again, we have the infamous, \"101 Days of Summer\". The risks are no
worse than they always are, it just that ***we*** come into risk more
often by all of the great things we do in the summer!

1: Highway accidents rate very high in our risk category. Our 15
passenger vans present a very high risk for us in Idaho for both
physical and personal injuries! **[We, simply put, cannot let our guard
down even for a moment!]{.underline}** I think what I find to be most
serious is the high incidence of roll over when loaded with our most
precious cargo - our cadets!! The center of gravity is very high when
loaded - stable when empty and unstable (or more so) when loaded; that
fact, coupled with high temperatures and hot tires near maximum load
rating = a potentially deadly combo.

2: Water accidents go off the scale during this time of the year. We may
have already experienced water related deaths in Idaho this year.
Cervical neck injuries are so devastating and must be avoided: read that
as, \"Diving accidents into shallow waters.\" This subject rightly
deserves our special care. Do all of your cadets know how to swim and
perform water rescue?

3: Thinking of water, how about the lack of it? We had 90+\* days
already. The olive green or Dark Blue fatigues our personnel wear look
great, but, they **can be terribly hot**. Did you know that under
scientific study that they found that black was not the color that
heated the quickest? It was the dark olive green the \"sucked\" up the
heat the best. Oh good! Now we can all bake in the hot sun! A word to
the wise: watch out for this problem. Don\'t let your cadet (or adult)
charges in the green camo get heat stroke / prostration.

3a: With the above in mind, pilots should take several layers which can
be easily donned, or other loose clothing which can be changed to meet
the unexpected: the key word is should, and we must be careful that we
do not forget this need as pilots. But the greatest \"at risk\" group is
likely not to be pilots! It is those who operate in the open
environment.

4: Our greatest \"at risk\" group is most likely to be the CAP ground
ops personnel! They will bear the full exposure to all variability
except possibly when in a building or a CAP van. Our ground team leaders
carry a great responsibility in the care and oversight of our fine
cadets! [Our cadets simply do not have enough life experiences (yet) to
\"foresee\" the risks they are incurring when doing things that an
experienced adult would immediately recognize as being high
risk.]{.underline} Simple things like: the failure to correctly lace up
boots = ankle injuries, failure to egress from a CAP van carefully =
broken arms or wrists, climbing a rocky prominent point = fall injuries.

5: The need for protection from Lime Disease seems so remote, but it is
becoming much more common in Idaho. Always use a good repellant (like
\"Off\") liberally on clothing if field activities are planned. This is
especially so in any grassy open meadow areas. (Also, Wolfsbane anyone?)

8: The need for ORM: special care in Density Altitude and mountain
flight risks is obvious. This is a time of the year that people
needlessly die due to the unforgiving nature of such errors!

This is just a short reminder of some of the risks we live with daily.
Let\'s keep our risks low, and have a great SAFE summer season at home,
play, and CAP this year!