TEM and Airmanship
Threat and Error Management is branded as the 'new' Airmanship.
But does TEM replace Airmanship completely, or compliment it?
Both approaches put flight safety first.
TEM tends to offer a more 'professional' approach to 'airmanship' by discussing those topics before flight in a way that a seasoned (professional) pilot would do.
TEM and Airmanship consider safety, weather, perfomance, rules of the air, for example.
Now I appreciate it isn't mean't to be viewed like this, but TEM tends to be considered as a 'pre-flight briefing' exercise which, once discussed is 'boxed' as being completed.
Airmanship in the pre-flight brief likewise discussed issues to do with the flight - but it was more than that. It was a philosophy which was with you throughout the flight in everything you did as a pilot
What TEM doesn't seem to concentrate on as much as the 'old' Airmanship is common sense and courtesy to other airspace users.
Two instances in the past years serve to illustrate this:
I'm flying downwind in the circuit having made the 'downwind' call. Instructor and student cut inside me and fly the circuit at a lower level and end up landing first.
Now that is poor airmanship 'on the hoof'. Lack of courtesy and common sense. Is that a TEM issue which would be briefed and learn't, or more an airmanship matter?
Second, after landing (at the same airfield on the same day) several aircraft were holding on the disused cross runway. One aircraft jumped the queue and decided he was going to taxi back to the apron first. Again lack of courtesy and common sense (airmanship).
Now I'm sure that TEM is supposed to cover all the matters which make for good 'Airmanship'.
But is it being perceived, taught and exercised in the correct manner?
Should it replace 'airmanship' or compliment it?
The way it has been presented to me suggests it is being handed down from the professional flight academies without being adapted to the PPL environment within flying schools and clubs - and is losing something along the way.