Originally Posted by
Ryan5252
Howdy,
I have a CRM course coming up early next month. Having looked through the relevant posts over at the CRM forum I was wondering what thoughts you good people had in relation to Single Pilot CRM courses and if you feel any benefits of them? Having looked over the book it is, to me at least, very similiar to HP&L with a significant focus on decision making (or how to not make bad ones) and airmanship.
From those of you who have been on a similar course do you have any thoughts?
Cheers
Ryan
Unfortunately this thread appears to have degenrated into a another willy waving contest so to return to the original question here is my 02 cents worth.
First off I should caveat my response by noting that when you say "CRM training" I am assuming you are talking about one of the numerous commercial operator type CRM courses. I am not aware of any formal "CRM" courses which are designed for single pilot GA operations, so my reply does not consider this possibilty.
I have been on an initial CRM course and done some refresher training. It was provided by my employer (larger T-prop airliner). A lot of the course dealt with
effective communication in Multi Crew cockpits and with the ground and company staff that are part of the operation of large aircraft.
As a current light aircraft instructor and light aircraft owner I would never want to discourage training that could improve a pilots risk management and pilot decision making skills and there will definitely be things of value to single pilot light aircraft operations, but on balance I would consider this training well into the "nice to have" category.
My personal feeling is that most light aircraft pilots benefit the most from mentored operating experience. That is going to new places with an experienced pilot along to provide advice and tips. That experienced person doesn't have to be an instructor, rather what you are looking for is someone with a lot of practical A to B flying time. Dealing with the real world issues and challenges of going somewhere you have never been before will provide you with opportunity to gain experience in real world decision making that will make you a better pilot.