Category Archives: 2018

Sting in the tail: keeping the back end at the front of your mind.

Following the accident at Leicester City Football Club at the end of last month, all of which was caught on camera, and replayed very publicly, tail rotor failures are back in focus, and for those of us who fly the machines, are very much at the forefront of our minds. It was following a similarContinueContinue reading “Sting in the tail: keeping the back end at the front of your mind.”

A machine for jumping to conclusions:

Human Decision-making: Extracts from Daniel Kahneman’s Thinking Fast and Slow. Daniel Kahneman, a Nobel prize winner for his work, first became famous for his article Judgement under uncertainty (1974) Heuristics and Biases. The Article was produced from research funded by US Department of Defense and Office of Naval Research. He expanded this into a bookContinueContinue reading “A machine for jumping to conclusions:”

Aviation safety culture and the paradox of success:  Can safety innovation keep pace with technological progress?

The aviation industry is hailed as a pioneer of safety practices, of open reporting, of just culture, and in learning from its mistakes. And given its remarkable safety record, this reputation is perhaps justified. Nevertheless, it would be both complacent and counter to those values themselves to believe that the goal of safety has alreadyContinueContinue reading “Aviation safety culture and the paradox of success:  Can safety innovation keep pace with technological progress?”

“PF & CM:” Pilot Flying & Crewman Monitoring

Training Monitoring for Helicopter Technical Crew (Part 2) The response to my last post underlined how little technical or non-technical material out there is written with the niche skill-set of the helicopter technical crew community in mind. There is certainly an interest and appetite for its consumption among those who play a part in thisContinueContinue reading ““PF & CM:” Pilot Flying & Crewman Monitoring”

EBT & ATQP…What now for CRM?

  Let’s start by unravelling that jumble of acronyms: EBT – Evidence Based Training ATPQ – Alternative Training and Qualification Programme CRM – Crew (Cockpit) (Complete) Resource Management What is Evidence Based Training? EBT is a shift in philosophy away from traditional, prescriptive training and checking methods in which, for example, you repeat the setContinueContinue reading “EBT & ATQP…What now for CRM?”

Human perception & the mental model

Memory and meaning I cdnuol’t blveiee taht I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd waht I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid. Aocdcrnig to rscheearch at Cmadrigbe Uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in waht odrer the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt thnig is taht the frist and lsat ltteer be in the rghitContinueContinue reading “Human perception & the mental model”

TEXTING AND FLYING?

Texting & Flying: Pilot distraction & the myth of multi-tasking. On August 26, 2011, at about 6:41 pm CDT, a Eurocopter AS350 B2 helicopter operated by Air Methods on an EMS mission crashed following a loss of engine power as a result of fuel exhaustion a mile from an airport in Mosby, Missouri. The pilot,ContinueContinue reading “TEXTING AND FLYING?”