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Old 30th Jun 2012, 13:09
  #65 (permalink)  
Helinut
 
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: UK
Age: 70
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Geoffers,

Your desire to push the idea of a competence management system is admirable. The opposition it receives is similar in most cases: filthy lucre, cash and the lack of it, the desire to make money (in a commercial organisation) or reduce costs in a government one. And the thought or assumption that accidents are unlikely to happen. I am not saying this is right, just that it happens.

My understanding is that many IAC pilots leave as soon as they get a decent amount of experience to add to their training to build their competence levels, to be employable elsewhere.

I would venture a guess that they go because they can get paid more somewhere else. Probably the main reason that the default option for Irish government helicopter ops is to use the IAC is money (or a least a belief that using the IAC is cheaper).

If you can keep your accident rate down and not have a CMS you can save money/increase profit. However, if you start to amass a significant helicopter graveyard you maybe need a rethink. Even then, current cash and capital assets are often considered differently, for example in countries that are broke.

In some cases, it would appear that having accidents has pretty immediate serious adverse consequences to the operator (e.g. Bond losing offshore contracts after gearbox failures). In others (e.g. IAC) the same sort of consequences do not seem to have occurred yet.

Helicopter aviation is significantly different to most other industries. Its decisions are based on short term gain or loss considerations, more than pretty much any industry I can think of. Whilst pilots can move and are expected to move so often, the extent to which an operator will invest in training (and other things necessary for the achievement of competence) are limited.

Last edited by Helinut; 30th Jun 2012 at 13:18.
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