Here in Australia, the three major airlines (now reduced to two after the
1993 merger of Qantas and Australian Airlines) and some of the regionals
have had a variety of experiences with the kind of integrated training you
speak of. I worked at Australian and then Qantas on integrated crew
versions of CRM. With both these programs we worked on the principle of
integrating CRM training with Emergency Procedures training - using the
existing annual EP training as a vehicle for the introduction of CRM
principles, and extending the training time from one day to two. Each EP
exercise was built around the concept of teaching certain CRM principles via
practical exercises (raft drill, evacuations, etc.) while still satisfying
the legal requirement for annual revalidation of EP skills. Each exercise
was debriefed from the EP point of view, as well as looking at CRM
principles of leadership, decision making, etc. Role plays were utilised
within some exercises. This approach worked very well at Australian, but
appears to have run into some problems at Qantas - mainly related to
resources and that old chestnut of real management support.
More recently I have been doing some work with Ansett Australia on
integration of CRM training. Ansett have been conducting integrated EP
training for some years, and this does cover some fundamental CRM
principles. However, an excellent recent advance has been the development
and introduction of a one day Captain-Purser (CAPS) CRM training course.
This has been introduced to further enhance communication and understanding
between cockpit and cabin. While the ideal would have been to include all
crew members, at this stage that is not viable logistically, and remains on
the drawing board.
Nonetheless, the CAPS course has been received very enthusiastically by
crews, and an interesting effect is the level of motivation shown during the
training, together with the bridge building you would anticipate. Maybe it
has something to do with the attendees' perception of some recognition of
their status as aircraft and cabin "managers" and the responsibilities that
go with that. Some sort of shared understanding/empathy of the burdens they
have in common? It has also done a lot for addressing ambiguities regarding
things like the sterile cockpit, actions during emergencies, managing
difficult passengers, etc...
These courses are co-facilitated by a team of one pilot and one cabin crew
member - the symbolism is not lost on most attendees.
Hope this is of some help.
Brent Hayward
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Brent Hayward ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Aviation Psychologist
e-mail: brent_at_melbpc.org.au Tel: +61 3 9690 4258; Fax: +61 3 9690 7070;
AAvPA www: http://www.nasma.com/aavpa
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