Rananim – CRM has gone too far? It all depends on how
you define CRM. I quote from my earlier post and recommend that you view the paper
“The Evolution of Crew Resource Management Training”. If you then agree that CRM can be represented as Threat and Error management then this will involve the use of all resources, which includes people.
CRM is a relatively modern or a relabeled older tool for maintaining professionalism and safety in the industry. Its mentor Robert Helmreich readily accepts that that CRM is in it’s sixth phase; mix this with the three major cultures in flying (national, organisation, and profession), and then flavor with biased or uneducated viewpoints, then it is no wonder that few people understand what CRM is. CRM is promoted as a tool, a method, a process of maintaining safety through threat and error management. However, like most tools, methods, or processes, if their purpose is not understood, if misidentified, employed with inadequate instruction, or misused, then mistakes are inevitable.
Furthermore, using the definition of airmanship that encompasses skill, then you should consider the many levels of skill within our industry. A new first officer will, by regulation, be sufficiently skilled to enable safe operation of an aircraft; this includes alerting more senior pilots to threats or errors. Certainly some first officers will alert benign issues, but this should be seen as a failure in understanding either by lack of briefing / crew cooperation or a shortfall in knowledge that you can make good.
Although you may be more skillful than a new first officer, that level of skill gives little protection against you making an error. In order to progress to the higher skill levels required for good captaincy, the skills embedded within CRM training have to be understood and learnt.