FlightCom Magazine 6Absolutely vital skills, no doubt, and they need to be of a consistently
high standard throughout a pilot’s career. Straightforward to assess
and relatively simple to teach.
However, without the last five, we are going to continue to crash
serviceable aircraft – never mind one that has issues.
Sitting in the clever seat in the simulator, one can very simply and
objectively identify deviations from Standard Operating Procedures
(SOPs), when considering the first competency, Application of
Procedures. It doesn’t help to take the Stalingrad approach and fail a
crew for an out-of-sequence or omitted procedure, as there may well
be one, or more, of the ‘soft’ competencies involved.
Something as simple as raising the gear after takeoff can be
complicated by a non-normal event (engine failure, for example), and
the soft competency of Communication becomes the culprit, while
the gear remains down as the aircraft staggers into the air.
So, is it poor procedures or bad communication? Hold on,
what caused the lack of communication? Could it be a reduction in
Situational Awareness as a result of stress, and both crew members
are at fault as the Pilot Monitoring (PM) didn’t call “Positive Climb!”,
and the Pilot Flying (PF) was too busy manually controlling the
flight path to call “Gear Up!”....?
As I mentioned, the behavioural researchers consider this
concept of evidence based training (EBT) to be a lot more complex
than the current framework allows. The problem being, I’m simple in
terms of psychology and if I’m to effectively apply these tools it has
to be easily understandable.
In this regard, IATA wrote a weighty tome, entitled
‘Implementation of EBT’, supported by an even weightier one, ‘Data
Report for EBT’. The latter was a collection of highly analysed
events than can be fed into initial type rating training and recurrent
assessments. For example, it identifies 272 trainable events for the
Airbus A330 alone, all from actual occurrences on the line.
Still, there needs to be absolute clarity in terms of application
of the core competencies for this system to be fair, consistent and
to provide as high as possible inter-rater reliability. The latter refers
to all instructors singing from the same hymn sheet, in terms of
application and standards.
Let’s take a look at some of the detail: Firstly, what is a ‘core
competency’?
Core competencies: A group of related behaviours, based on
job requirements, which describe how to effectively perform a job.
They describe what proficient performance looks like. They include
the name of the competency, a description, and a list of behavioural
indicators.
So how do we benchmark adequate versus inadequate
communication, for example? Firstly, the description of this
competency is: Demonstrates effective oral, non-verbal and written
communications, in normal and non-normal situations.
The behavioural indicators that guide the instructor in this
regard are:- Ensures the recipient is ready and able to receive the
information - Selects appropriately what, when, how and with whom to
communicate - Conveys messages clearly, accurately and concisely
- Confirms that the recipient correctly understands important
information - Listens actively and demonstrates understanding when
receiving information - Asks relevant and effective questions
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