CRM and A320

[shuttlebus]

A word of warning for your test.

I have just finished a round of test exercises in an engineering related discipline involving a number of parties.

Make sure that your participants are briefed on the objectives of the test and that all the background details are sorted out.... beforehand.

Our first exercise was a painful lesson in simulation vs real time. You need to make sure that you don't surprise the participants with something new, or you will suffer from comments of "...but in real life, this would happen..." or "... we would do this....".

In your case this wil cover everything from interaction with the cabin crew (confirmation of secure cabin) to interaction with ATC. If these issues are not sorted out, suddenly exercise planning can get seriously muddled with exercise objectives and the whole lot comes crashing down.

The participants are having to react to the scenario and make decisions that are not relevant - "OK, lets assume assume the cabin is secure", or "... normally, we would get this info from ATC, what do we use in this instance...". Telling the crew to make it up will not be a satisfactory answer and will dilute the learning experience.

I would let them fly the simulator and get used to it before throwing them in a the deep end with the emergencies - say one or two sectors. That way the "house-keeping" will be sorted out and you can actually test for your objective - CRM.

This approach will also split (and I take this from your last post) the sim test bit from the CRM test bit.

Best of luck.

Shuttlebus

P.S. I'll bail out now, so to speak, and let the professional pilots comment on whether this is good advice or not....

Another edit:

Another useful point is that during the initial briefing you remind everyone that it is a learning experience and unlike their normal sim scenarios, NO-ONE IS MARKING THEM! It is a test of the system (CRM), not the individual.

We made this very clear at the start of every exercise - we didn't care if the participants detroyed anything or not - it was a test of the comms and decision making.

Also, in the de-brief, be very careful with the "you" and "he" phrases. Once criticism becomes personal, it is hard to retreat from the blame mindset. Often a frank open discussion is the best way to de-brief the participants with everyone chipping in the learning points. Sometimes you can learn more by keeping your mouth shut!!! We de-breiefed in a round table seminar format (others were tried) and this proved to be the most constructive, as it encourages people to bounce ideas off the previous responders info....