Business Aviation Flight Departments are
required to undergo a wide variety of audits.
These can include IS-BAO or IS-BAH audits,
internal audits performed by the compliance
monitoring department, or audits conducted by
prospective customers (such as an organization
seeking to charter an aircraft or place a jet with a
management company).
Each audit has a specific scope and can
provide its own contribution to the Flight
Department’s intelligence, based on that scope.
But what are some pointers for getting the most
out of them?Maximizing Your Feedback
Additional intelligence can be derived from the
fact that each individual auditor has his/her
specific sensitivity when conducting an audit.
Though several attempts have been made to
‘calibrate’ auditors, it is nearly inevitable that
there will remain a degree of inference among
individual auditors.
This is particularly true in aviation as everyone
who deals with standards and regulations knows
that there is almost always the need to interpret
these.
While subjective perspectives can prove
problematic when a finding reveals a non-
compliance issue, being exposed to multiple
perspectives can offer some food for thought for
Flight Departments who are genuinely seeking
continuous improvement.
A good practice is to try to have the Flight
Department set up reviewed (i.e. audited) by as
many different agencies as possible over time
and collecting a wealth of feedback.Prioritizing the Feedback
While the feedback coming from audits can be of
great value for a Flight Department to understand
its pitfalls and required areas of intervention, not all
feedback needs to be treated equally.
Inevitably some will be of more value than others
and therefore prioritization is needed when acting
on the feedback received to implement the
continuous improvement.
Some feedback will concern actual ‘findings’ (i.e.
Flight Department practices which are not in line
with the set standards), and these will need
rectification within a given timeframe.
Other feedback will concern areas of possible
improvement which do not need to be immediately
implemented, but should nevertheless be pursued
by proactive Flight Departments. These are the
‘nice-to-have’ items which, when implemented,
demonstrate the Flight Department is invested in
continuous improvement and goes the extra mile to
achieve it.
Feedback on the ‘nice to have’ category should
not necessarily lead the Flight Department to
simply implement everything they are
recommended. Analysis should be given before
resources are made available to implement
changes. The analysis should prioritize the practices
which more tightly meet a Flight Department’s
specific safety objectives.In Summary
Ultimately, audits are very powerful tools to seek
continuous improvement within Business Aviation
Flight Departments, and the feedback should be
fully understood and weighed carefully to establish
compliance when findings are raised. Mario Pierobon is a safety
management consultant and
content producer. He currently is
working on a research project
investigating aircraft ground
handling safety. Contact him via
[email protected]100 AVBUYERMAGAZINE– July 2018 http://www.AVBUYER.com Aircraft Index see Page 129OPERATING SAFETY
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