Flight Ops Q/A
 

Have become involved with Quality Assurance in Flight Operations, however, am discovering there is not a lot published about Q/A within a Flt Ops environment.

I've identified a few training courses, but would prefer to get some insight from those of you who might already be working with Flt Ops Q/A.

Any info is welcome; pm's, emails, etc.

Thanks in advance. :ok:

JW, is your company ISO 9000 series certified? If so, there's quite a bit out there. Any organisation that could provide you with an ISO 9000 auditor's course would be able to point you in the right direction.

Unfortunately, no, we are not ISO 9000 certified and I daresay that would be a rather large step for us. Although, having said that, moving towards ISO 9000 within Flight Ops would be a start.

I've taken the step of obtaining the relevant ISO Standard material and am working in that general direction, however, even the ISO material is somewhat generic in nature.

As you're probably well aware, Q/A has existed in the engineering world for quite some time, with a fair amount of information available as to what might/should be included in an effective engineering Q/A system. What I'm after, ideally, is any guidance on what makes an effective flight operations quality system. I should say that I am familiar with JAR-OPS and the quality system information available there.

Thanks again.

JW,
The obvious thing would of course be to first find out what the organisation and the Ops manger expects from you and how this function is described in the OM. As it seems there has not been much help to find there, you may be in the lucky? position that you could develop your own system!

My view is that the lack of clarity and comprehension some people experience when Quality is brought up, is caused mostly by confusion with respect to the proper terminology. And many people’s previous experience with “Quality”, may have been with something rather big and woolly. The buzz words are sometimes used by those who may at best only know approximately what the words mean. And to be honest, there is really no universal standard or even understanding of this terminology, although most of the processes they intend to describe, in my experience are found almost everywhere.

With respect to terminology, some FW operators, and even Flight Safety Foundation, seem to have adapted the term Flight Operational Quality Assurance (FOQA) for what others, including ICAO, would call Flight Data Analysis (FDA), and some even HOMP.

Although there may not be an intention in your company to implement a full ISO 9000-2000 Quality Management System, I agree that ISO is very useful as a basis, as the standard contains clear definitions of its terms and the relationship between the them.

ISO 9000-2000 defines Quality Assurance as: “part of quality management focused on providing confidence that quality requirements will be fulfilled”

Briefly, my view is that Quality Assurance involves applying Deming’s continuous improvement loop “Plan – Do – Check – Act” to Flight Operations. Quality Asurance thus simply means that you ensure that operations are performed by well trained crews (Do), according to adequate procedures (Plan), and that operations are monitored for deviations and potential hazards (Check). The results from monitoring are analysed to detect areas in need of improvement (still Checking) and necessary improvements are developed and implemented (Act). Some would call this an Accident Prevention and/or Flight Safety Programme; others might use the term Safety Management System.

Some authorities have developed practical guidelines for Accident Prevention and Flight Safety Programmes or Safety Management Systems. I know of publications from CASA, TC, UK CAA. Some of these are especially suited to smaller operators.

For a start, have a look on the web-sites of those authorities, and you should find some useful information.

Can't really add much to what GHB said but, if there are written procedures (as there should be, of course), the QA auditor's standard comment is... "show me". That is... show me how this particular procedure works, or show me how the person who performs this procedure is qualified/accountable/trained.

You're looking to see that there are procedures for every aspect of Flight Ops. I've found that it often pays dividends to check from people and tasks to procedures. In this way, you find out if any procedures have been omitted from the OM, or are not being followed.

Your action in those cases is, of course, to act to ensure that any omitted procedure is included in the OM. Or, if a procedure is not being followed, you need to work out whether or not the actual procedure in use is better or worse than the written procedure.

Can't tell if you're with a large operator, medium size or small because, from everything I've seen and heard, it seems to be incredibly difficult for a Flight Ops Dept to gain ISO900-2000 accreditation, let alone maintain it. However, I've found that the "show me" approach works well across all Flt Ops Depts and, indeed, many other aviation-related activities as well.

I think you'll find the CASA site to have some excellent information tho. To save you looking it up, it's CASA. Hope this helps.