The basics of SMS
[credit: Flight Safety Australia, Nov 19, 2024] Safety isn’t something that just happens – it’s something we do. When we look before crossing the road or complete a pre-take-off checklist, we are doing safety. A safety management system (SMS) is a way to make sure we do safety well. The simple definition of SMS is an organised approach to managing safety. ‘Organised common sense’ is an often-quoted informal definition. This is good news if you operate in aviation and have some common sense; you’re probably enacting several of the components of an SMS without knowing it. SMS has been traditionally associated with the big end of town, the ‘heavy metal’ of air transport, but aspects of SMS can be even more effective in smaller organisations. Smaller organisations can move quickly. A policy change that might take an international carrier with thousands of employees several months to implement can be done by…
Seven deadly shortcuts: cognitive biases and aviation
[credit: Flight Safety Australia, written by By Robert Wilson – Jan 30, 2024] The habits and tricks your brain uses to get you through everyday life become a problem when they run riot in the cockpit. We do no end of feeling and we mistake it for thinking. Mark Twain The Nobel Memorial Prize for economics had an unusual winner in 2002. Daniel Kahneman became the first psychologist to win the world-renowned award, with a version of an idea he had first developed 30 years earlier with Amos Tversky – cognitive bias. If his life’s work can be summed up in a proverb, it would be that we are not as smart as we like to think we are. As well as changing economic thought, Kahneman and Tversky’s insights have unsettling ramifications for aviation safety. In 2 minds A widely quoted but unsourced statistic says the average person makes 35,000 decisions a day.…
Regulations: help or hinderance?
CASA has just published a new regulation. Collective shudders, groans and complaints go up around the aviation community. I’m immediately reminded of NPRM 1001: Notice of Proposed Rule Making (NPRM) 1001.1A No pilot, or pilots, or person or persons acting on the direction or suggestion or supervision of the pilot or pilots may try, or attempt to try or make or make attempt to try to comprehend or understand any or all, in whole or in part of the herein mentioned Civil Aviation Safety Regulations, except as authorised by the Regulator or agent appointed by, or inspected by the Regulator. 1001.1B If the pilot, or groups associated with pilots becomes aware of, or realises, or detects, or discovers or finds that he, she or they, are or have been beginning to understand the Civil Aviation Safety Regulations, they must immediately, within three (3) days notify, in writing, the Regulator. 1001.1C…
‘Drone’ – remove it from your lexicon
I really dislike the term ‘drone’. Its use is synonymous with any unmanned aircraft or aerospace system (UAS). Regardless of size or whether the application is military, industry, hobby or other, we tend to dub any and all pilotless systems as a drone. In the last five years, the taxonomy of drones has become overwhelming, yet the volume has not bred a new, more appropriate collective name for these vehicles. The etymology of the term ‘drone’, which is now widely used by the public, was coined in the 1920s in reference to the early remotely-flown target aircraft used for practice firing of a battleship’s guns. The etymology of the term ‘drone’, which is now widely used by the public, was coined in the 1920s in reference to the early remotely-flown target aircraft used for practice firing of a battleship’s guns. It wasn’t until the mid-2000s when the alternate term UAS was partially adopted by…