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VAI Air Tour Safety Conference Agenda

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ATSC 2026 Preliminary Agenda

*Agenda topics, dates, and times are subject to change*

  1. Willful Blindness and Safety Drift: Confronting the Constructed Reality of Risk
    • Safety rarely erodes overnight. Discover how organizations unknowingly normalize risk and learn practical strategies to recognize and reverse safety drift.
    • Matthew West, CISM MRAeS, President and Principal Consultant, Hawk AeroSafety LLC
  2. Training or Learning?
    • When the goal is operational excellence, simply delivering training isn’t enough. Discover how to develop and deliver meaningful learning that transforms compliance into competence and proficiency.
    • Bruce Webb, Senior Director of Education, Airbus Helicopters
  3. Wire Cutters Are Not a Strategy: Four Pilots. Four Stories. One Life-Saving Message
    • A powerful session featuring four pilots with firsthand experience of wire strikes, from witnessing a fatal accident, surviving impacts, and challenging the industry’s reliance on wire strike protection. Their stories may change the way you think about low-level flight forever.
    • Moderated by Jake Harmon, Chief Pilot, Maverick Helicopters, VAI Board Member / Liaison to Helicopter Air Tour IAC
  4. Using AI to Enhance Safety Intelligence: Turning Data into Decisions
    • AI is rapidly changing how some aviation operators identify hazards, detect emerging trends, and turn data into actionable safety intelligence. Learn how industry experts address known limits and demo how AI can enhance human expertise and judgment in the pursuit of safer operations.
  5. Proven SMS Implementation Strategies: Are You Ready?
    • We’ve heard about SMS for several years now. How’s your journey working out for you? Whether you’re still preparing for the May 2027 compliance declaration deadline or looking to strengthen an existing program, this practical session shares proven implementation strategies, common pitfalls, and lessons learned from organizations that have already made the journey. If you’re not quite ready, this session could make a big difference. If you think you’re ready, consider offering tips to help others our shared airspace a bit safer.
  6. Straight Talk – Stories from the Field: The Lessons We Never Forget
    • Some lessons come at an extraordinary cost. Hear several short but candid stories from aviation professionals whose personal experiences continue to shape how they think, fly, and lead. Back by popular demand.
  7. Reporting and Responding to Your Top Hazards: It’s OK to Be a Data Nerd: It Saves Lives
    • Every report tells a story, but the greatest value comes when the data is analyzed, and the lessons are shared. Discover how to turn reports into actionable intelligence, identify your highest-risk hazards, and use shared safety data to help your organization, and the industry, prevent the next costly accident.
  8. Other Sessions
    • Helicopter Air Tour Industry Flight Plan – Confront the Challenges – Shape the Future – Protect Your Industry – Save Lives
    • Discovering a World of Safety Resources Tailored for Your Unique Needs
  9. Before the Blades Turn: Evaluating Your Operating Environment
    • The safest flights begin long before engine start. Whether operating from an airport, helipad, beach, or mountaintop, this session explores practical methods for auditing fixed infrastructure and austere sites, identifying hazards, and managing the effects of downwash and outwash to protect people, aircraft, and surrounding operations.
    • Kathyn Wright, President, HELIPLANNERS