flight - Aviation lifestyle blog. Airlines, Flight Training, Travel.
We are reviewing Decision Making Models at the moment. On the 777, we’ve used FORDEC, which is very close to the European model, except we’ve replaced “Check” with “Communicate”, which may or may not have been a good thing. Other fleets in our airline are using GRADE or NMATE. There are several reasons why Decision [...]
Currently I’m evaluating research on the roles of the Captain vs the First Officer in the detection and correction of procedural errors on the flight deck. Fortunately I’m not looking at our entire operation, just one small corner of it. First, some background. Delaying Final FMC Performance Data Entry Our SOP’s are pretty much based on Boeing’s [...]
Ok, so this one may be a little controversial. As you read it remember that unlike many of my professional brethren, in my dim dark past I actually have been a Cruise Relief First Officer (actually a Second Officer, or more accurately at times, the Captain’s sexual advisor) on a ULH operation for almost 3 [...]
There’s an old adage in aviation that reads, “There are two types of pilots: Those that have landed gear up, and those that will.” I’m not a big believer in these silly phrases — their purpose being to bring solace to the group of pilots that are most likely to make the mistake. That doesn’t [...]
On January 13, 2011, Air Canada Flight 878 departed Toronto for Zurich on a scheduled passenger service with 95 passengers, 6 flight attendants and 2 flight crew. After approximately three hours of flight time, the First Officer expressed a desire for a ‘controlled rest’ – a standard practice used in many (usually non-US) airlines that [...]
A Runway Change, particularly once the aircraft has begun to move under it’s own power, can be a profound change to implement on the flight deck. If you sit on the flight deck in cruise, look around and consider the worst sequence of runway change – say from a long runway away from terrain and [...]
For the last two years I’ve had the privilege of working closely with Karlene Petitt on a number of projects – including a number of websites and a podcast. As a group, we’ve followed the progress of her first novel with great interest. In fact, in the early days of our collaboration, her book was [...]
“Without Knowledge, Skill cannot be focused. Without Skill, Strength cannot be brought to bear and without Strength, Knowledge may not be applied” – Alexander the Great’s Chief Physician The recent tragedy of the Air France Flight 447 has left the aviation community baffled, and later scandalized over the shocking revelations shared by the investigation. What [...]
The Australian Civil Aviation Safety Authority has released a draft Civil Advisory Aviation Publication (CAAP) [5.14-2(0)] for Aeroplane Flight Instructor Training. The CAAP should be of interest to any Australian organisation involved in flight instrutor training; or any pilot undertaking training for the initial issues or upgrade of their flight instructor (fixed-wing) qualifications. According to [...]
The ensuing controversy on the Airbus continues. Two years ago an Airbus A330 fell to her death in the Atlantic Ocean. We’d heard rumors she’d fallen apart in the sky. That she’d lost all her flight instruments due to a known pitot static problem, that Airbus would immediately fix. We’d heard that we would never [...]
Radio National’s excellent Background Briefing program had a story today called Fatigue Factor. Although it commences on an aviation related theme – quoting particularly the now infamous Jetstar memo to pilots telling “toughen up princesses – you’re not fatigued; just tired” – the program rolls on through a number industries (Trains/Trucks) – and non-industries such [...]
Longhaul always presents it’s unique issues. One if which is sitting next to Joe Bloggs copilot for hour upon hour. It’s amazing the connections you make, sharing the stand out moments of your shared passion. Sometimes you can walk away from a flight enjoying the company more than the flight itself. There are however occurrences [...]
The Australian Civil Aviation Safety Authority released a Crew Resource Management training package mid-2010 designed to provide training material to general aviation and Low Capacity RPT (LCRPT) operators. Titled “Safety Behaviours: Human Factors for Pilots”, the toolkit includes a DVD and a number of work booklets that can be used to supplement existing classroom-based group [...]
Highly automated aircraft — the reality of the airline industry. A great concern paralleling this automation is the inbreeding of complacency. We’ve moved away from teaching pilots how to fly jets, to teaching them how to program and manage — performance lapses. Automated airplanes identify and report system failures — systems knowledge lapses. We fly [...]
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