Articles for tag My Two Cents Worth
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Mar
28
2022
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Posted by Admin
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As an EASA (European Aviation Safety Agency) certified CRM instructor, I am required to attend an 8-hour class every three years to learn what is new or changed in the thinking of crew resource management. During my last recertification that I attended at Global Air Training in Cheshire, England with 12 other CRM instructors who were similarly recertifying we were told the ‘hot topic’ in the industry was something called Surprise, Startle Effect and Resilience. This topic was brought to our attention because there have been a series of accidents where this phenomenon was determined to be a major factor in the fatal crashes and something we should cover in any future CRM classes we were facilitating.
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Tags:
My Two Cents Worth
Randy Mains
Categories:
My Two Cents Worth
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Feb
21
2022
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Posted by Admin
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All parents reach a point where they eventually have to trust they have done all they can in teaching their kids right and wrong and what’s safe and unsafe. In the 10-plus years I have been writing this column for Rotorcraft Pro magazine, I have felt like a parent offering advice, guidance, and tools I gained from over a half-century of aviation experience to help my readers bring themselves and their passengers home safely at the end of each flight.
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Tags:
My Two Cents Worth
Randy Mains
Categories:
My Two Cents Worth
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Jan
24
2022
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Posted by Admin
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I often wish a bell would ring when an accident or incident is prevented when crew resource management, CRM, is practiced. On occasion, however, a bell does ring for me when people send me a personal CRM story or recall an incident they heard about. They usually let me know via email or Linkedin or in this recent case my friend, Joe Mattern, sent me a direct message on Facebook informing me of an event where CRM most likely saved the lives of all on board their air medical helicopter that night.
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Tags:
My Two Cents Worth
Randy Mains
Categories:
My Two Cents Worth
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Dec
27
2021
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Posted by Admin
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Have you ever been so tired flying at night or early morning that, thinking back on it, you could not remember the takeoff? As an air medical pilot in the early days in Houston and San Diego, I can raise my hand and say, “I have.” And why was that? The answer: Fatigue.
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Tags:
My Two Cents Worth
Randy Mains
Categories:
My Two Cents Worth
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Nov
29
2021
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Posted by Admin
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File this month’s blog as ‘nice to know’ information but not necessarily critical to flight safety. I think I’m correct in assuming that most of us in aviation have heard of Professor James Reason’s Swiss Cheese model of accident causation sometimes called the "cumulative act effect.” But have you ever heard of the SHELL model developed much earlier? I hadn’t heard of the SHELL model until I attended a 5-day CRM Instructor’s training course at Global Air Training in Cheshire, England. Global Air Training is an institution that has been training airline flight, cabin and all manner of aviation personnel for over 25 years to become certified CRM Instructors.
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Tags:
My Two Cents Worth
Randy Mains
Categories:
My Two Cents Worth
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Oct
25
2021
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Posted by Admin
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As a CRM facilitator it’s rewarding when I receive CRM success stories from folks who have a good story to tell. I have two stories to share in this issue, the first from flight paramedic, Rhett Draehn, who is the program safety manager at Careflight in Dallas and took my CRM instructor’s course several years ago. He wrote:
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Tags:
My Two Cents Worth
Randy Mains
Categories:
My Two Cents Worth
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Aug
30
2021
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Posted by Admin
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Byron Edgington, a self-professed ‘Sky Writer’ author and a commercial and military helicopter pilot for 50 years, told me his vision for his latest published book, Postflight: An Old Pilot’s Logbook, was simple: “Educate wannabe and upcoming aviators by offering lessons shared by those with experience in the business.”
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Tags:
My Two Cents Worth
Randy Mains
Categories:
My Two Cents Worth
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Jul
26
2021
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Posted by Admin
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“Is having a medical crew member in the co-pilot seat a positive or negative safety issue?’ That’s a question a flight nurse put to the helicopter air medical community a while back. How would you answer that question?
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Tags:
My Two Cents Worth
Randy Mains
Categories:
My Two Cents Worth
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Jun
27
2021
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Posted by Admin
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As professional pilots, we naturally want to please our passengers, get them to their destination on time, give them a memorable flight, and of course we want to do it safely. But if we are not careful, an overwhelming urge to please our passengers can overpower our good judgment, creating a mental blind spot to a link or links in an error chain forming, which can lead us into a deadly trap. That is what happened to Ara Zobayan, the pilot tasked to fly Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gianna, and six others to his Mamba Sports Academy near Thousand Oaks, California, where Bryant was scheduled to coach a game. Sadly, and to the shock of the sports world, none of them made it to their destination.
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Tags:
My Two Cents Worth
Randy Mains
Categories:
My Two Cents Worth
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Apr
26
2021
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Posted by Admin
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Have you heard the term “evidence based training” (EBT)? It’s sometimes referred to as “competency based training.” EBT is a relatively new approach to flight training developed in 2013 on behalf of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) that was led by a group of airline industry experts to increase the effectiveness of pilot training to meet the challenges of airline operations in the 21st century. If the past is any indication of the future, I think we will hear more about EBT in our industry.
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Tags:
My Two Cents Worth
Randy Mains
Categories:
My Two Cents Worth