Situational Awareness
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Mogul - what's the chances that after all the help the assembled masses gave you for your twenty minute talk......you post the script and/or powerpoint presentation somewhere for all to see, learn from and, just maybe, teach others with in the future?
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SA presentation
I'll sure do that!
It's been postponed for 2 weeks, but I did have it all ready.
I'm sitting at Cathay Pacific City, final interview tomorrow, when I'm back home in SA, I'll post the SA briefing!
Thanks for all the inputs from all.
Mogul
It's been postponed for 2 weeks, but I did have it all ready.
I'm sitting at Cathay Pacific City, final interview tomorrow, when I'm back home in SA, I'll post the SA briefing!
Thanks for all the inputs from all.
Mogul
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Have a look at www.crm-devel.org
Under the title Tiger Teams, Situational Awareness Management there is a paper written by Dr. Sherry Chappell. It is quite good.
KAFO
Under the title Tiger Teams, Situational Awareness Management there is a paper written by Dr. Sherry Chappell. It is quite good.
KAFO
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CRM
[quote=Hobbit]. The difference between surface vessels and aeroplanes is that we in aviation have to keep all that in mind in three dimensions not two. Therein lies the problem.
quote]
NOT TO MENTION THE SLIGHT DIFFERENCE IN GROUND SPEED?
quote]
NOT TO MENTION THE SLIGHT DIFFERENCE IN GROUND SPEED?
A simple but effective test of a pilot's situational awareness can be conducted during type rating training or proficiency training involving various manoeuvres within (say) 25 miles from the departure airport. At an appropriate time, simply freeze the simulator and pointing to the instrument approach chart clipped on the pilot's control column, request the current position of the aircraft with reference only to the RMI needles and DME and not to the MAP mode. It gives considerable food for thought to see the number of pilots who are unable to instantly pin-point their position correctly without the availibility of the MAP mode. Once the aircraft position is ascertained (correct or otherwise) ask the pilot to compare present altitude with MSA for that quadrant and ask if it is safe. It is my experience 30% of pilots tested got confused with sorting out which radial or bearing the aircraft was on.
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Great idea Centaurus,
And whilst it is vital to know where you are, it is also very important to know where you are going. I used to use the 'Flipper Cycle' with my studes (who were ab initio Multi Engine pilots) to help encourage them to communicate when PF (or PNF). I think the cycle embodies problem appreciation, decision making, effective communication, leadership and 'teamsmanship' and was designed to help my studes retain SA - as long as they kept it going. If they found it difficult, I emphasised the that the most important aspect is the continual review of the decisions and situation. They seemed to like it and find it helpful! What do you think?
THE ‘FLIPPER CYCLE’ ©
FLIGHT PATH -Where will we be in 10 mins (minimum)?
LEVEL -At What Flight Level/Altitude?
IMPLICATIONS -How will this affect us? (eg Controlled Airspace,ATC restrictions, Terrain, timing, other ac etc)
PROBLEM* -Is there one? If so, define it.
POSSIBILITIES -Check ALL your of the crew for input and discuss all possible solutions.
EXECUTION -Action decided by the Captain/PF (including delegation)
“Questions or suggestions?”
REVIEW -EVERYONE mentally reviews the plan. Concerns voiced early.
GO BACK TO THE START OF THE CYCLE!
* NOTE. If the captain/PF does not perceive a problem, he checks with the crew anyway – they may have spotted something he hasn’t!
Any link with my 'handle' is purely intentional and I have 'copyrighted' it. Please feel free to use the Flipper Cycle but anyone caught not acknowledging the source will be hunted down, stripped naked and abused by my legal enforcers (4 x Swedish netball players (36-24-36) - male or female - your choice!). Once you have been tortured and admitted your intellectual crime, you will asked for a £20 donation to the RAF Benevolent Fund......otherwise, the netball players will leave you alone!!!!!
Flipster
And whilst it is vital to know where you are, it is also very important to know where you are going. I used to use the 'Flipper Cycle' with my studes (who were ab initio Multi Engine pilots) to help encourage them to communicate when PF (or PNF). I think the cycle embodies problem appreciation, decision making, effective communication, leadership and 'teamsmanship' and was designed to help my studes retain SA - as long as they kept it going. If they found it difficult, I emphasised the that the most important aspect is the continual review of the decisions and situation. They seemed to like it and find it helpful! What do you think?
THE ‘FLIPPER CYCLE’ ©
FLIGHT PATH -Where will we be in 10 mins (minimum)?
LEVEL -At What Flight Level/Altitude?
IMPLICATIONS -How will this affect us? (eg Controlled Airspace,ATC restrictions, Terrain, timing, other ac etc)
PROBLEM* -Is there one? If so, define it.
POSSIBILITIES -Check ALL your of the crew for input and discuss all possible solutions.
EXECUTION -Action decided by the Captain/PF (including delegation)
“Questions or suggestions?”
REVIEW -EVERYONE mentally reviews the plan. Concerns voiced early.
GO BACK TO THE START OF THE CYCLE!
* NOTE. If the captain/PF does not perceive a problem, he checks with the crew anyway – they may have spotted something he hasn’t!
Any link with my 'handle' is purely intentional and I have 'copyrighted' it. Please feel free to use the Flipper Cycle but anyone caught not acknowledging the source will be hunted down, stripped naked and abused by my legal enforcers (4 x Swedish netball players (36-24-36) - male or female - your choice!). Once you have been tortured and admitted your intellectual crime, you will asked for a £20 donation to the RAF Benevolent Fund......otherwise, the netball players will leave you alone!!!!!
Flipster
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I suggest to discuss an aviation disater where lack of SA conduct to CFIT (e.g. AA965 at Kali -Colombia, year 1995). Can use slides of jeppesen maps and radiocomunications with Powerpoint software.
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situational awareness - conflicting information
Hadn't really experienced it till the other day - VOR/DME approach into an airfield in Turkey with lots of terrain and broken cloud close-ish to a high minimum. Both VOR receivers were tuned to the airfield beacon when, at approx 7 miles out the Captain's DME reading was still counting down as normal, while mine started increasing - within about 10 secs got to a reading of 10 miles. Then we started to wonder if we really knew where we were. Considered going around but then went visual. Not an altogether comfortable experience while it lasted.
Might be something to get people thinking about... What do you do if the information isn't consistent?
Might be something to get people thinking about... What do you do if the information isn't consistent?
Slow Descent: even at a major airport (DTW), your ADI might indicate that you are on the glideslope-a few miles before you get to the actual glideslope intercept point...but the HSI repeater might not show it.
Shuttlebus:
Are you assuming that the aircraft has some automation, or that it can have the older technology, and with two or three c0ckpit crewmembers? The subject can become ultra complex.
The twin-turbofans planes which we fly have no map mode-an ADF, 2 VORs and only two pilots, plus altitude hold.
Read up on an incident at Las Vegas (LAS), which involved a highly-automated aircraft, if you can find it. They almost crashed and apparently there were no system malfunctions. It is possible to imagine, especially if partial automation is used. When I went around at LAS years ago in a 757, due to Approach control abruptly squeezing in a B-737 on final, I told the Captain, "let's stay over the valley lights, no matter what vectors they give us, there are no mountains there".There have been many major incidents, due to the lack of understanding newer c0ckpits, and with partial automation engaged.
This type of confusion was supposedly much less common with "classic" aircraft.
Shuttlebus:
Are you assuming that the aircraft has some automation, or that it can have the older technology, and with two or three c0ckpit crewmembers? The subject can become ultra complex.
The twin-turbofans planes which we fly have no map mode-an ADF, 2 VORs and only two pilots, plus altitude hold.
Read up on an incident at Las Vegas (LAS), which involved a highly-automated aircraft, if you can find it. They almost crashed and apparently there were no system malfunctions. It is possible to imagine, especially if partial automation is used. When I went around at LAS years ago in a 757, due to Approach control abruptly squeezing in a B-737 on final, I told the Captain, "let's stay over the valley lights, no matter what vectors they give us, there are no mountains there".There have been many major incidents, due to the lack of understanding newer c0ckpits, and with partial automation engaged.
This type of confusion was supposedly much less common with "classic" aircraft.
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Supposedly the last words on the voice recorder were something like " the minimum enroute altitude is ****". Crunch.
Read it here: http://www.atcmuseum.org/museum/AAR74-04.pdf
The quote is...
33:40.0: "Minimum en route altitude here is forty-four hund..."
33:42.0 Sound of impact
33:42.0 Sound of impact
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I realise that as a Military Pilot our ideas of CRM differ a little but a lot of the previous reminded me strongly of Military decision making, well in theory anyway. Boyd's OODA Loop, (Observe, Orientation, Decide, Act), covers a lot of the previous SA decision making from a slightly different angle. You may find it interesting.
http://www.mindsim.com/MindSim/Corporate/OODA.html
http://www.mindsim.com/MindSim/Corporate/OODA.html
Last edited by Air Defender; 3rd May 2006 at 12:24.
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Great thread, my thoughts take me back a couple of days ago on a trip to a high altitude destination (6200ish), my first time there, my focus of attention was centered around the approach, expected gate, single engine maneuver. Well anyway, never considered once that there may be a performance problem on a nice (26C)day. Didn't have to defuel but it was very close (all other destinations at sea level), wasn't doing a very good job on my SA. 
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What a TOPIC
As can be seen from the previous 2 pages of replies, it is a large subject matter that can be tailored to suit any safety briefing. There are many examples of airlines that have crashed due to low SA, some have pulled finger at the last minute and got away with a cold sweat!
I like the suggestions from some early posts regarding a map with the stud drawing in the aircraft track and altitude changes. The briefing, still on standby, probably next week, is aimed at the very low time, ab initio studs.
For those interested, a saw a great documentary on a New Zealand airline having ILS problems, at night, assuming and eventually fighting there way out to safety. Picture didn't look or feel right, but the continued, most of us have been there. Was an error with the GS fault alerting due to runway work in progress.
Keep the SA flag flying high... I'll post the ppt briefing once completed.
FM
I like the suggestions from some early posts regarding a map with the stud drawing in the aircraft track and altitude changes. The briefing, still on standby, probably next week, is aimed at the very low time, ab initio studs.
For those interested, a saw a great documentary on a New Zealand airline having ILS problems, at night, assuming and eventually fighting there way out to safety. Picture didn't look or feel right, but the continued, most of us have been there. Was an error with the GS fault alerting due to runway work in progress.
Keep the SA flag flying high... I'll post the ppt briefing once completed.
FM
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Originally Posted by paco
You're welcome to work something round this:
"Part of the decision-making process, you start with the awareness of a situation, which means having some idea of the big picture (similar to the continual updating mentioned above). Situational awareness here refers to your awareness of all relevant information, past or present, conscious or subconscious, which includes your cultural background (and given all that, it's no wonder people react to situations differently). Of course, you have to know how things should be to recognise what's wrong! You need vigilance and continual alertness, with regard to what may happen on top of what is happening, which is difficult at the end of a long day. Being a pilot, most of the information you will base a decision on comes from your instruments and navigation equipment, but this can be affected by your physical state. Reading the paper on the flight deck is not conducive to situational awareness!"
Phil
"Part of the decision-making process, you start with the awareness of a situation, which means having some idea of the big picture (similar to the continual updating mentioned above). Situational awareness here refers to your awareness of all relevant information, past or present, conscious or subconscious, which includes your cultural background (and given all that, it's no wonder people react to situations differently). Of course, you have to know how things should be to recognise what's wrong! You need vigilance and continual alertness, with regard to what may happen on top of what is happening, which is difficult at the end of a long day. Being a pilot, most of the information you will base a decision on comes from your instruments and navigation equipment, but this can be affected by your physical state. Reading the paper on the flight deck is not conducive to situational awareness!"
Phil
And what surprises can cost you too much fuel to be safe?
The other day at a major airport in the New York "area", just east of a long line of weather, a jet's crew had declared an emergency due to their fuel quantity. We were parked on the ramp and watched the rescue vehicles go by.
I would guarantee that neither one of the pilots had less than about five or six years working for the company, and the Captain probably three or four times that many years there, if not many more. And many airports are in the area. Think about it-near New York City. Very congested airspace too, especially with weather.
As a contrast, how do we avoid a situation where you are on approach into an airport, even with weather which is reported good, and unforecast fog comes in from a nearby lake or ocean, i.e. Kalispell, MT, by some large mountains? You don't have enough to climb back over to another airport. A foreign pilot's knowledge of MET forecasting might help you in this case? Maybe, but I doubt it.
Maybe we should first call our Dispatcher and tell him to give us fuel for an alternate, because the destination is remote? Many highly-experienced (each with 20 years+, flying transport category and or tactical planes) crews are reluctant to do this when the latest observation forecast looks good. Some of these airports leave on your own-the control tower is closed, with no current braking action reports (in this case, mostly in winter, definitely have reasonable fuel for a suitable alternate with an operating tower and an ILS approach for the forecast winds. Want to gamble on a VOR or NDB approach to save you?).
The other day at a major airport in the New York "area", just east of a long line of weather, a jet's crew had declared an emergency due to their fuel quantity. We were parked on the ramp and watched the rescue vehicles go by.
I would guarantee that neither one of the pilots had less than about five or six years working for the company, and the Captain probably three or four times that many years there, if not many more. And many airports are in the area. Think about it-near New York City. Very congested airspace too, especially with weather.
As a contrast, how do we avoid a situation where you are on approach into an airport, even with weather which is reported good, and unforecast fog comes in from a nearby lake or ocean, i.e. Kalispell, MT, by some large mountains? You don't have enough to climb back over to another airport. A foreign pilot's knowledge of MET forecasting might help you in this case? Maybe, but I doubt it.
Maybe we should first call our Dispatcher and tell him to give us fuel for an alternate, because the destination is remote? Many highly-experienced (each with 20 years+, flying transport category and or tactical planes) crews are reluctant to do this when the latest observation forecast looks good. Some of these airports leave on your own-the control tower is closed, with no current braking action reports (in this case, mostly in winter, definitely have reasonable fuel for a suitable alternate with an operating tower and an ILS approach for the forecast winds. Want to gamble on a VOR or NDB approach to save you?).
