A Big Project

Recently I've been thinking a lot about doing something more than just being a line pilot. There is more out there than just flying a plane from point A to point B. I have always had a particular interest in aviation safety. I'm an avid reader of NTSB reports and as morbid as it seems, I enjoy reading about accidents and incidents. There can be a lot to learn from other people's mistakes. The industry seems to be learning quite a lot from past experiences and the safety record over the last decade or so has shown just that. There have been fewer major airline crashes in this decade than ever before. The worst loss of life accident since 2001 was the Comair crash in Lexington in 2006. This can be directly related to the industry learning from past mistakes. There is a saying in aviation that the Reg's (FAR's) are written in someone else's blood. For the most part that's true. Aviation has typically been reactive rather than proactive when it comes to implementing safety procedures. For example, FAR 121.438 (2) (b) No person may conduct operations under this part unless, for that type airplane, either the pilot in command or the second in command has at least 75 hours of line operating flight time, either as pilot in command or second in command. This Reg is a direct result of a Continental DC-9 crash in DEN in which a very inexperienced FO was paired with a very inexperienced CA. This Reg was a reaction to the crash.

In order to help continue the upward trend in safety, I've decided to get involved with my company's safety committee. I recently flew a trip with the chairman and happened to strike up a conversation about my wanting to volunteer. Little did I know that I'd get put to work right away. During our flight we talked about some of the things that are safety related that could use improvement at the company. I brought up the fact that the companies recent change from Jepp charts to Lido's has caused a lot of stress in the cockpit. Our training for the new charts was less than stellar therefore is causing some minor difficulties in the cockpit during the transition. Standardization has taken a bruising because these charts are radically different than the Jepps we all know and love. Our approach briefings have gone from a streamlined recital of information to a random babble of information bits. I proposed the committee come up with some sort of company standard briefing. This way we can all get on the same page, so to speak. The chairman thought it was a great idea and said "Alright, your our man. Get to work on it and let me know what you come up with". Great. I'm not even on the committee 30 seconds and I have a huge undertaking to accomplish. I'm not complaining, but it's a bit of a daunting task. I need to come up with something the entire pilot group will use. I need to find a way to standardize 1300 pilots. This oughtta be interesting.