The Winds Of Change
The best changes are those that come from within!!!
The CAA have had a peek at the proposal and they are thinking along similar lines, although they will wait until the AAIB have put out an statement/report.
I think the harping back to the good old days is not a bad thing. It is true that the accident rate seems to have stayed the same, if not risen slightly.
However, the type of accidents we seem to have these days, generally are somewhat different.
HUMs seems to have made a pretty good job of reducing in service component failure (recent S92 aside) but the greater tragedy is when serviceable machines are lost due to crew/procedure/WX etc.
It is these kinds of accidents that we, the flight crew, have the most influence in stopping.
I believe that the advent of automatics, although far safer on paper, are not been fully exploited by us at the moment.
We need to embrace the safety features with which we have been blessed.
Alleviations afforded by MELs in some instances should be removed. Why are we expected to operate a machine that has a broken leg before its even leaves the warmth of the hangar.
We tend to weaken the argument for better equipment when we seem incapable of fully exploiting the new kit when we get it.
CAA Standards Doc 28 (new) makes a pretty good fist of allowing training during checking. This is long long overdue. Also it actually encourages the operators to train and check using the full suite of displays and automatics.
The old and bold have a point. They had one way of doing things, they got good at it, and the balance of the cosmos was maintained.
Today, in a modern helicopter, there are several different ways to skin the same cat. And this leads to problems in itself.
Allied to all this, the trend of replacing old school Chief Pilots/Operations Directors and AOC postholders with non-aviators just cos they are the cheaper option seriously weakens the strength of an AOCs Flight Operations management to effect real change when it conflicts with the organisations commercial interests.
Personally I have never had a conflict with an Oil Company rep. I have many many with my Operations Staff trying to "force" a flight.
Most Oilys are happy to accept an explanation that "there is doubt" so there is no doubt. The bears we fly on the NS are trained in this ethos in their own walks of life.
But while we have crews who will happiliy launch into an airmass that is actively producing lightning (on the false promise that they can avoid by 10Nm), while we have crews that will fly when the freezining level is way below MSA, while we have crews that will not use automatics, while we have crews that will do anything....just to get the job done...........
WE SEND A VERY POOR MESSAGE TO OUR MANAGEMENT AND CUSTOMERS.
It is time to raise our game, the offshore helicopter industry, to the level of proffessional responsibility that it demands of us.
I often say that "The Enemy is always closer than you think"
In some cases we are our own worst enemy.
DB