EASA Pilot Training Conference – Cologne – 24 November 2009
CE Conference Summary
The Agenda
Key Note Address – Patrick Goudou – EASA Exec Director
- The Buffalo accident may well have highlighted an important pilot trg problem
- Pilot performance is a key factor in accidents and incidents and indicates that continuous improvement in pilot training is required.
- Increasing concerns with pilot performance resulted in EASA calling this conference
- Better training in basic flying skills will need to be addressed.
Key Note Address – John Allen – FAA Director Flight Standards
- It is imperative that pilot performance is improved
- Pilot experience, time and hours do not indicate better judgement
- Buffalo/Colgan and the Pinnacle accidents indicate a problem with pilot professional capabilities
- Overfly of destination by a crew earlier this year is another serious indicator
- Prescriptive trg does not work – performance trg is required. Pilot ‘Thinkers’ are required, not ‘Robots’.
- We need to focus on judgement which requires appropriate attitude and airmanship development
- Trg has not caught up with the current situation in industry –and we need to train based on today’s risks and priorities
- Continuous mentoring by the Captain must be a given – on every trip
- Professionalism must be promoted – it cannot be regulated.
Safety in Aviation – John Vincent – EASA
- Aviation in Europe is relatively safe –- but it needs to continue to improve
- In the last 3 years, 3 major European accidents have occurred – 2 x MD 80s and Air France
- Stats and graphs from the EASA Safety Review show minimal improvement
- Abnormal runway contact – ARC – is a significant input to accidents
- LOC is the most significant – but training to counter it is a major factor
- The UK CAA High Severity Occurrences Graph shows a worrying rise – is this also applicable across Europe?
- Fatalities are another indicator – these appear to be climbing but are still below the average for the past 10 years
- Colgan and Buffalo accidents offer a useful contrast in terms of outcome
- Many safety recommendations received by EASA appear to identify trg shortfalls – which could be used to improve pilot trg.
- These recs need to be addressed – but care is needed to ensure these are not addressed piecemeal
- Difficult to measure what degree trg plays as a factor in accidents
- Future risks and areas of change need to be measured for trg changes
- Ways of improving safety include use of technology, raising standards, introduction of safety management systems and organisational changes to support safety promotion, assurance and risk management
- Next steps – to combine reactive outcomes, data history analysis, current operational data and future risks to produce a comprehensive picture
Full Presentation
FAA Action Plan for Safety – John Duncan FAA
- FAA has initiated a ‘Call to Action’ on safety and trg
- Current challenges
- Increasing need for more pilots
- Numbers of mil pilots and experienced civil pilots is decreasing
- Aim of action is to gather a consolidated approach from all parties
- Initiatives underway include:
- Fatigue regulations to change – after no changes for over 40 years
- A joint committee from the Regulator and Industry have been addressing the problem
- Focused inspections on regional operators by the FAA
- Promote professional standards and seek more pilot screening for background and experience
- Numbers of flying hours do not demo the pilot skills needed – leadership and qualities are also very important
- Total re-think on upgrade training is ongoing – re-current trg should start right from the beginning of every career pilot
- Perception that regional operators do not operate to the same standards- hence focussed inspection
- A survey has shown that 90% of carriers had SOPs for their operations, that 60% managed low-time pilots and 75% tracked poor individual pilot performance!
- FAA guidance has been issued on what pilot background and trg knowledge should be established during the hiring process
- FAA is seeking ASAP and FOQA data information from carriers
- Discipline within the pilot cadre needs to be addressed
- Mentoring is seen as a key missing link in the industry
- No-one is quite sure what mentoring looks like at this stage
- Upset trg changes have been identified – approach to stall and push stick trg changes in the pipeline
- Additional pilot trg and qualifications will be required to before pilots join airlines
- The application of the Advanced Qualifications Prog (AQP) based on evidence from occurrences within carriers is growing.
- Trg needs to retain flexibility, be tailored – some cultural resistance
- Congress Bill on pilot trg hours minimums coming in – 1500 hours?
- The MPL will not be implemented but remains on the table at the FAA
- Sim Trg- limitations still exist with today’s sims and CBTs
Full Presentation
Oversight For Quality In Trg – Ole Lynngaard, Danish CAA
- Who is auditing who? ICAO, EASA, NAA. Requirements set by EASA in the FCL and EASA STD – part 66.
- ISO Audits – Internal audits are also underway in the industry
- Effective Industry oversight requires a competent NAA
- What is effective Oversight? Is it simply questioning each companies’ a system of risk management OR is it actual Oversight!!
- Inspection – have we got a definition?
- In Scandinavia – the move now is towards reviewing whether Quality/SMS checking should be the only indicator of competency in the industry.
- There is an increasingly popular view that says we need to go deeper!!
- Major challenge today in Danish NAA
- Financial resources
- Lack of tools
- Authoritative inspection staff
- Staff trg
Full Presentation
Competence – Performance – Airmanship – Fransisco Hoyas – ECA
- How to get these skills and then keep them?
- Pilot trg flying requirements are down by 500%, not inc sims!
- In 1979 – 19 flts and 76 hours needed for DC9 trg – in 2009 pilots only need 20 sims!
- Pilot trg is now ‘one size fits all’
- We need to change pilot trg to be competency-based
- Competence = knowledge, skill and ability and attitude
- Knowledge means practical application of knowledge and the experience to deliver it
- Flying is not like learning to ride a bike, it also requires recurrency practice
- Piloting skills mean unconscious execution of trained skills
- Special attention is required to LOC/recoveries
- Pilot trg requires high standards, effective selection, best possible trg devices and structured trg
- How do we measure Competency Abilities?
- Attitude assessment needed at the pre-selection point, not later
- Airmanship covers all aspects of flying
- Good judgement
- Art of flying and navigation
- How to get Airmanship
- On the Job Trg
- Experience
- Mentoring
- Lessons learnt
- Aims of recurrent trg
- Ac handling
- Practice essential procedures
- Use of emergency procedures and equipment
- Improvement is required in data and information sharing
Full Presentation
Ab Initio Trg- For The Future – Dirk Kroger, Lufthansa
- Basic requirements are:
- Technical competence
- Procedural understanding
- Crew/human interpersonal
- Selection is not regulated
- Until recently, pilot training has relied on the following sequence: -CPL/IR/MCC/Bridge course(Non-reg)/type rating/OJT
- New Lufthansa approach
- “2 step selection process based on basic quals and company requirements. This reduces the applications to 7-10% successful
- In subsequent trg, 95% are successful getting to the front line
- Evolution from ATPL to MPL
- ATPL 176 hours flying trg – MPL 70 hours (basic MPL is 40)
- MPL Core flying can be reduced since little is gained after 46 hours on basic ac
- However, a jet orientation course has been added to increase the learning curve and therefore the value
- Conclusions to improve pilot trg the following is needed:
- Stringent selection
- Personality check
- Aptitudes check
- Well-balanced trg in all competency areas
Full Presentation
Beyond Flight Simulation – Steve Sheterline, BA
- Simply ticking the regulatory boxes for pilot trg does not ensure competency
- Trg should be based on evidence based and risk assessed outcomes
- An example of this approach using root cause analysis on Overruns
- Of 554 accidents, 154 (28%) have been overruns in which 480 killed. The major causal factors are:
- De-stabilised approach
- Deep landing are done for other reasons – rw perspective
- Wx, including runways surface with insufficient knowledge/info being made available
- Mishandling of retard devices
- Specific incident used as an example: a near overrun incident at Milan.
- The internal inquiry revealed that:
- The crew mindset – committed to land too early
- No regular trg or practice of go-round practice
- Work Overload- no capacity for sound decision-making
- Insufficient Confidence
- Training mitigations resulting
- Raise crew awareness – mindset, threat, identification, error management
- Integrate human factors into mindset, decision making, capacity
- Expectation change to routinely prepare for a go round from the runway
- Sim trg – overrun pre-conditions, low go-around, baulked landing practice
- ATQP offers this opportunity without additional training time – replaces LPC in the cycle
- Op and technical trg
- Leadership and management
- Situation awareness
- Teamworking
- Decision making
- Summary
- Trg decisions should be risk based and data driven
- Root cause analysis of accidents and incidents needs to undertaken
- Flexibility needed from the regulators to encourage ATQP
- More trg does not mean better trg
- Avoid impossible trg!
- Why is ATQP not in the EASA requirement?
Full Presentation
Basic Flying and the Modern Pilot – Tanja Harter, IFALPA
- All ac have wings and operate to the same basic aerodynamic rules
- Flying involves highly dynamic and complex scenarios. Factors include:
- Handling errors
- Tech failures
- Wx
- Limits of automation
- All of the above
- We can’t train for everything!
- How do we manage the problems? We must aviate, navigate, communicate
- Select the correct parameters for safe flying
- Be capable of manually flying the aircraft
- Always be prepared to step in and take over from the automatics
- Basic flying skills
- Selection
- Training – needs time and consolidation
- Basic stick and rudder trg
- TO, landing, approaches
- Basic co-ord
- Basic Knowledge
- Aerodynamic principles
- Ac systems basics
- Wx
- Basic Back Up
- Other automation modes
- Pitch and power values
- Fallback options – hi-lo key, raw data
- Conclusions
- Thorough coverage of basic flying skills in initial trg is still essential
- Recurrency basic flying skill trg is essential
- Sufficient flying in real ac is vital
- Good simulators
- Proper trg and selected personnel
- We fly real ac not sims
Full Presentation
Are Sims The Answer – Werner Maas, Lufthansa
- Pilot Selection is vital!
- MPL is important new tool
- LOC is the key danger – trg is required to address this
- Sims cannot do upset recovery sufficiently accurate enough in motion terns
- Incapable of providing the psychological effects – stress, fear perception and confidence
- Incapable of replicating the environment- realistic ATC, climate, cabin and pax responsibilities
- Lufthansa is now undertaking Joint Sim trg – 5 sims interconnected with ATC controllers to better simulate the complexity of the real world
Full Presentation
Upset Prevention Trg– Jaques Drappier, Airbus
- Recent accidents resulting in lots of LOC talk around the Safety and Ops Depts in the industry
- Are these accidents due to LOC or loss of situational awareness?
- Airbus is proud of the LOC prevention it has achieved
- Analysis of the root cause of aircraft upset demonstrates that:
- Recognition and prevention are the key stoppers of LOC and these must break down before an upset can occur
- Pilot knowledge skills and attitude are needed to prevent upset
- It is much better to avoid or recover early from upsets
- It is vital that negative trg is avoided – which was a key finding from the American Airlines Airbus accident off New York – breaking tail off!
- Airbus does not support the use of full flight sim for upset trg
- Outside established envelope negative trg occurs
- Loss of situational awareness will not be corrected by LOC recovery trg
- Wake encounter is not LOC – so Airbus policy is to leave the ac to sort itself out
- Airbus policy on LOC is as follows:
- Train up a clear understanding of the principles of ac upset and how to avoid these situations
- URTrg is to be encouraged in the context of pre-upset awareness trg but not in the context of post upset
- Academic trg must be provided on basic flying techniques
- Airbus has now introduced jet entry level trg for use with ab initio and turboprop cross over pilots
- Airbus recommends the FAA Upset trg video (available through the UKFSC website)
- Recurrent trg – pilots have forgotten the basic power and pitch trg since the advent of autopilot
- In any upset situation, do not overeat and act smoothly on the controls
- Do not disengage the automatics unless you know it is a system problem
- Create an upset pre-cursor identification and avoidance culture, rather than recovery attitude
Full Presentation
Pilot Trg, Departing from the Script– Chuck Hogeman, ALPA
- In Human Factors trg terms, we have seen 5 variations of CRM since the 1980s with Threat and Error Management being the latest
- CRM now includes flight attendants, engineers and dispatchers
- Need to agree terminology for CRM training and HF and to define SOPs and specific skills
- Competency based trg should include the Application to TEM/CRM
- ATQP and AQP offers the opportunity since they take a detailed analysis and performance based approach
- There is value in exploiting Instructional systems design and involving experts in the development of trg
- Useful to establish a gold standard for technical performance
- Calibrated standard for instructors – who are able to judge pilot performance
- Sensitive grading scale is needed for evaluators to apply which can identify the low performing pilot
- Through data and information collection from de-identified LOSA/ASAP/FOQA, we can learn the lessons from others
- Training Low Experience Pilots – how?
- Those pilots who are learning in 2 or more of the following environments simultaneously – ac type/ new airline/ new captain – are classified as low experience
- We need to be able to ‘train to develop experience’
- We need to understand the trg learning curve and cover safety concerns in simulators before consolidating it in line trg
- We can train motor skills, technical aircraft systems and CRM
- We cannot train personal responsibility, professionalism and a sense of self improvement
- These qualities need to be selected by those wishing to enter pilot training.
- Current trg methods need to improve and not be invented anew.
- Changes to regulations and standards need to use scientific approach
Full Presentation
Training for Competence – Dieter Harms, ITQI IATA
Full Presentation to follow
Training and Automation Dependency – David McCorquodale , CAA
Full Presentation
Rich Jones
Chief Exec
UK Flight Safety Committee
11 December 2009