Recently I've been involved in a study and reaction to an aircraft mishap.
There is the historical mood to "reinvent" some of the training and
regulations; as if that will prevent a recurrance. I hope we don't forget
about the aviators' personal responsibility.
In a classroom a few days ago, I had aviators who had just accomplished
about six months of flying and we were conducting a special refresher CRM
course. The audience consisted of 7 co-pilots, 1 navigator, 1 flight
engineer, and 3 loadmasters. As a spontaneous test, I drew on the board a
runway, and labeled the runway 5,400' long. I told them the pilot has just
announce he will land with a partial flap configuration. The operating
policy we have requires a runway of 6000' for a "legal" landing. The pilot
is having difficulty slowing the aircraft, and now you find yourself on a
very steep glidepath, and as the airplane crosses the runway threshold, the
airspeed is 26 knots above charted speed. What would you do?, I asked.
The class sat silent. I then pointed to a co-pilot and challenged him by
name to tell me what he would do as the co-pilot. He thought for a moment,
and then said "there's nothing you can do". I asked him to explain. "That
problem started farther out". I then said "I agree, the airplane should not
be at this condition, but it is, now is there nothing any crewmember can do?"
After a long, long pause, a loadmaster timidly asked, "is this when someone
should say 'go around'?"
I guess the mountain is larger than I thought. Is it time for a Stun Gun
in class?
Keep those ideas coming, gang.
And thanks again
Greg Deen
HTI,