How do you teach Situational Awareness?
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Australia
Posts: 1,957
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
(Shawn Coyle) how do you know you've lost SA? What replaces it??
An old mate of mine once said, "You old dogs can skite about your hard roads, but me being a puppy, I'll just stick to the soft pads." That possibly says it all. He of course was no pup at that stage.
I know at times when I've been a tad stressed, for other reasons, I've landed, walked around behind and been bloody amazed that some cheeky little devil musta put a anthill right under my tailboom after I landed. That's when I make mental notes to myself, unprintable mental notes.
To answer the original question,
1. We used to often put trainee aspirants (slaves) on a ride on lawn mower when they first arrived.
2. They, thought it was just a chore.
We, closely observed their awareness and dexterity.
Motto, do a good job on the lawn, don't wreck the lawn mower and they might score a check ride.
3. An aptitude to remember where the rotating bits always are (without looking) and to keep them away from immovable objects was essential for their successful check rides.
4. An awareness of where all the cattle were in a paddock and being able to predict their location upon return up to half an hour later was needed for commercial realism. Remembering which way we were pushing them was fairly handy too.
5. Being smart enough to be ahead of every client in a well mannered way, a definite prerequisite.
6. Predicting the next evenings cool amber supply for all of the senior staff and attending to it in a timely manner was absolute suvival.
7. one other, being able to understand that when I asked, "what's the time, Einstein?" i wasn't worried about the time of day as I could quite clearly see the sun to work that out, that it had a lot more to do with the slaves' awareness of our fuel status.
SA or peripheral awareness, call it what you like, any contact sport always helped develop it, but I think it was more inherited that taught. We just developed it.
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: US
Posts: 186
Likes: 0
Received 0 Likes
on
0 Posts
The holy grail of SA in helo flying - 'a quiet sense of desperation' - to get it right - you know, the little knot in your stomach that says you're paying attention and double checking, and talking to the other pilot, and......on and on.
When ya lose the knot, ya lost SA!
When ya lose the knot, ya lost SA!
