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Old 28th Aug 2009, 21:29
  #58 (permalink)  
Bealzebub
 
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When this question was first posed, I did wonder what was the point. Supplying an example of an approach brief would be fairly pointless, since it would be a personal embellishment of a template. If a thousand of us did it there would be a thousand variants. Most would contain the salient points, but all would omit the real world variables that change all of the time. So what?

One thing that has been highlighted by the thread, is some of the perceived value that different people apply to these briefings, and that is certainly interesting. The idea that presenting an approach plate to somebody in lieu of any briefing certainly causes a raised eyebrow in front of this screen. The briefing is supposed to be a verbal comunication that tells the other flight deck crew how that pilot is going to conduct that approach. Whatever is contained within that brief, it allows one additional layer of safety, in that any errors or misinterpretations, or personal observations can be accepted or queried.

I have had people brief me an approach that contained a complete misinterpretation of a plate. I have misread category minima, and missed important points, and used wrong or outdated charts, where the listening pilot or engineer picked up the error. That is the whole point. It almost doesn't matter what actually happens, or changes, or the style of presentation. What matters is that the crew are all being brought back into a focused loop where an opportunity to agree or question should afford some degree of additional safety. If you simply say "there is the plate, that is what I am doing." How does anybody else know that you haven't misunderstood something, or made an error in your own personal mental model?

The biggest danger is always one of complacency. Like some of you, I have sat there in a warm shirt sleeved environment, cocooned for over 3 decades listening to much of the same thing every day. It is sometimes very much easier to say rather than actually do, when it comes to avoiding complacency, or irritation over repetition. The problem is that this can be an insidious enemy, where routine, reliability, familiarity, experience and ego can all combine to make these briefings less effective than they should be, and clearly in some cases completely worthless.

A lot of people who flew into mountains, or the ground, or the sea had also flown safely and effectively for decades, until the fateful day. Knowing what somebody intends doing or how they interpret an approach can be very helpful before things start going wrong, and the rapid cascade of events and distractions makes it too late to revisit that particular element.

Maybe some of us need to remind ourselves that we are not as invulnerable as we have led ourselves to believe we are.
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