Mutt's comment strikes a chord and I am aware how he sets about trying to overcome that problem.
In my case, many years ago, I was employed by an airline style operation as an engineer with a number of responsibilities including ops engineering. At that stage I held a CPL and thought I had a handle on the operational side.
Some time later I joined an airline as an F/O on F27 and was quite alarmed the first time I saw the end of the runway disappear under the coaming on a critical runway .. with us still on the ground. Over the following months I had a progressive conversion to my now long held views.
Like Old Smokey and Mutt ... either the ops engineers work VERY closely with the operations folk or they need appropriate operational background themselves.
I can recall two similar sized airlines one of which adopted the work closely philosophy .. and that worked not too badly. The other adopted a third philosophy .. viz the "don't you pilots worry too much about this .. we have it under control" .. in my view .. not quite as effective as the competitor's approach.
One of the problems in the real world is that the mighty dollar drives the horse and cart. While it is a fine high ground to seek to be appropriately conservative, the reality is that there is a risk analysis to be done .. real or notional .. when it comes to settling on a philosophical approach to these things.
If you have a sensibly conservative operations management .. as I did with one long standing client .. we espoused the dollar thing .. while being a tad more conservative in the back room.
If, on the other hand, operations and/or commercial management is dollar ruthless, this may not be feasible.
Then again, if I may paraphrase two points which Professor Richard Wood is fond of making...
(a) if you keep doing the same as you did last week .. don't be surprised to get the same sort of results
(b) if you think safety (ie risk controlled to low levels) is expensive .. try an accident on for size.
Having had aircraft with my design modifications crash for unrelated reasons and having been tied up with legal actions as a result .. I opt for a slightly conservative approach to life as an engineer (and pilot) .. not as much sweat .. and I sleep like a baby ..
Last edited by john_tullamarine; 27th February 2005 at 22:00.