Articles for tag 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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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
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Mar
22
2021
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Posted by Admin
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USHST: Helicopter industry headed for highest fatal accidents in more than a decade was the headline of a press release posted in July 2019 that read: The U.S. helicopter industry said it was experiencing a year of tragic accidents with too many lives being lost. To stem the surge of fatal accidents, the U.S. Helicopter Safety Team called on helicopter operators, pilots, instructors and mechanics to rely on safety basics and place a priority on them. The safety organization called for pilots, instructors and others with a stake in helicopter safety to focus on SEVEN key actions that will save lives based on past accident reports. Here are the seven key actions:
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Tags:
My Two Cents Worth
Randy Mains
Categories:
My Two Cents Worth
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Feb
22
2021
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Posted by Admin
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I’ve observed, from 9 years speaking at Helisuccess in Las Vegas, Nevada, that most if not all attendees have had that special someone at their side acting as their ‘wingman’. In the context here, wingman is the person who knows your back story, knows the struggles you’ve made, someone who not only believes in you, but actively cheers you on in private and in public; a close confidant, someone who lends a sympathetic ear and encouragement during times of your self-doubt. A wingman may help you study your emergency checklist and will very often make numerous personal sacrifices in doing so, be it financially or gladly give you their personal time so that your career may progress. A wingman unselfishly does this as a way to boost you up so that you may someday accomplish your dream, whatever your dream may be.
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Tags:
Cherish your Wingman
My Two Cents Worth
Randy Mains
Categories:
My Two Cents Worth
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Jan
22
2021
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Posted by Admin
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Erik Sabiston, founder of ICARUS Devices reached out to me on Linkedin to let me know of a product he’s promoting, a vision-limiting device for IMC training which seems to me to be very unique. I am a flight simulator instructor and examiner and know the value of a flight simulator to access a pilot’s reaction to IMC events. Erik’s product seems to be very useful in the actual aircraft that can be used on a student with a safety pilot of course. The clear plastic mounted on either a baseball cap or a helmet flips down over the face of the pilot flying. Then, controlled by an app by the instructor, they can reduce the visibility slowly to simulate going into an IIMC event slowly or suddenly.
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Tags:
M2C
My Two Cents Worth
Randy Mains
Categories:
My Two Cents Worth
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Dec
28
2020
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Posted by Admin
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What can the helicopter world learn from NASA’s mistakes? I’m specifically talking about the Challenger disaster and the cancer of “normalization of deviance” that was the root cause of that tragedy.
On November 3, 2014, NASA Chief of Safety and Mission Assurance Terry Wilcutt and Deputy Chief of Safety and Mission Assurance Hal Bell, put together a presentation entitled “The Cost of Silence: Normalization of Deviance and Groupthink.
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Tags:
My Two Cents Worth
Randy Mains
Categories:
My Two Cents Worth
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Nov
17
2020
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Posted by Admin
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With the advent of the Corona-19 virus pandemic, the workforce world-wide has had to adapt to an alternate way to approach their job. I am no different as I teach and facilitate a 5-day CRM Instructor course. Training to be an effective CRM instructor relies on learning how to become an effective facilitator, a skill I teach in my Instructor classes. To be a successful facilitator, facilitation techniques must be practiced on others to achieve the desired result of changing adult behavior. With the raging pandemic curtailing in-person interactions, learning to be a facilitator in aviation in a virtual setting is something the aviation industry has had to adapt to.
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Tags:
My Two Cents Worth
Randy Mains
Categories:
My Two Cents Worth
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Oct
19
2020
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Posted by Admin
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When I was chief pilot at San Diego Life Flight air medical program, on my time off, I enrolled in a seven-month EMT class. There have been several incidents since taking that class where I’ve had to use those skills to lend assistance to people in need. That is one reason I think everyone should take, at very minimum, a first-aid course. You never know when you may be in a position to be of medical assistance or to even save a life.
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Tags:
M2C
My Two Cents Worth
Randy Mains
Categories:
My Two Cents Worth
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Sep
18
2020
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Posted by Admin
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I recently received an email from a CFII by the name of Matthew Goodrich who felt compelled to write after reading my article, Knowing it’s time to hang up the Headset that appeared in the July/Aug 2020 issue of Rotorcraft Pro Magazine. Matthew wrote to say: “Great article Randy. You mention basic criteria for passing/failing a pilot in a checkride. Do you think instructors should evaluate the same basic criteria (judgment) when endorsing someone for checkride? Or do you think instructors should focus on clear standards and leave judgment of the bigger picture to examiners? It's likely not as black and white as I'm asking.
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Tags:
My Two Cents Worth
Randy Mains
Categories:
My Two Cents Worth