Life Lessons From Cockpit

The recent incident involving a Qantas B747 aircraft that experienced a loss of cabin pressure whilst flying from Hongkong to Melbourne has stirred a lot of interests and debates amongst aviation enthusiasts and flight crews alike. Common after every incident or accident, where comments and speculations are aplenty and some people are even quick in apportioning blame.

What I would like to do is to comment on the incident and lessons learned from it. These comments are purely my own expressed views based on my experience as a pilot, as a flight instructor and from the information obtained from the internet and newspapers.

Modern airplane rarely encounters malfunctions with the aircraft systems that could cause major problems let alone such structural damage. This is attributed to the advanced technology that could detect potential problems with the aircraft systems, improved systems reliability, systems redundancy, plus the stringent regulatory requirements for aircraft maintenance. Despite the above, malfunctions and incidents still continue to happen.

As the last line of defense, this is where the skills and the training of pilots are called upon to solve those problems. In fact the reason why pilots have to attend training classes, simulator training and undergo periodic checks and tests is to prepare themselves for such eventualities.

Yes flying is becoming safer and safer despite the occasional incident and accident. There are more fatalities on the road than in the air. Because of this, we tend to take safety for granted. Whilst sitting down comfortably in the cabin we place our trust in the hands of the pilots flying the airplane assuming that they are well trained and able to handle any problems during the flight.

Looking at the picture of the QANTAS aircraft one could not help but wonder what had happened and was it a miracle that the aircraft landed safely? Well to allay any fear, aircrafts structures are durable and airplanes are known to be able to sustain flights even after experiencing such structural damage. Two classic incidents involving a Boeing 737 and another, a Boeing 747 will attest to this. The B737 had part of the upper fuselage torn off, whilst the B747 had its forward cargo door blown off in mid air. In both cases, both aircrafts landed safely.

After the above incident both the aircraft manufacturer and the regulator’s safety board will disseminate information to all concerned operators on the outcome of the investigation, lessons learned and any other recommendations such as modifications to the aircraft systems or structure that would further enhance safety.

Therefore if you still have any fear of flying, don’t worry anymore. Be rest assured that flying has become one of the safest means of transportation. Both aircraft manufacturers and airlines have put in a lot of efforts and energy to make flying more comfortable and safer. The regulators too have played a pivotal role in enforcing safety oversight and requiring operators to invest in safety management systems and mandating crew resource management (CRM) training for pilots.

Written by Azharuddin Osman

Tags: airplane, incident, Lessons learned from cockpit, Training

One of the many things that we could learn from the strict pilots training and discipline which is taught during the pilots’ crew resource management (CRM) training program is the subject called situational awareness. Apart from applying the lessons learned here in our daily life, we can also use the situational awareness concept in management training, as well as safety training. In this post I will relate it to something that we do everyday in our life, which is driving our car.

How many of us are aware of our surrounding such as the condition of the roads, the driving style of other drivers, while driving? Even the prevailing weather such as the presence of strong winds and rain could have an influence on our driving. And how many more are aware of the state of our vehicles before we set off on our journey?

Well to be able to apply this concept to help make driving safer, let me explain what situational awareness is.

Situational awareness is about knowing our position with regards to the environment, that is to say our orientation with the surrounding and how the state of our surrounding could affect what we are doing. In aviation we call this spatial orientation.

Pilots do this all the time, before and during the flight. As part of pre-flight preparation, they study the weather maps looking for weather activities enroute and the forecast weather at destination as they could and would affect the flight. When they arrive at the aircraft, they will do a general walk around the aircraft and go through the log books to determine unserviceable items. During flight they would keep on monitoring the weather patterns on route as well as the weather trend at destination.

Apart from being aware of the weather trend, pilots stay alert and take cognizance of other aircrafts in the vicinity, how far the other aircrafts are and how high they are from them. Pilots will also review the enroute charts and take note of the height of the terrain that the aircraft is flying over. A high level of situational awareness is important for a safer flight operation.

The above concept could be used before we set of on our journey and to make driving safer as follows:

Before the journey:

• Check the conditions of the vehicle such as the tires, radiator, brake and transmission fluid and any unserviceable items.

• Check the forecast weather and take note of weather phenomena such as thunderstorms, rain and strong winds.
• Find out as much information as possible on the conditions of the roads.

While driving:

• Be aware of the conditions of the road especially the road surface as this could affect braking action.

• Be aware of the presence of other vehicles, in particular the drivers’ driving styles.
• Look out for signs of strong cross winds, and lastly,
• Be aware of our physical and physiological state.

Written by Azharuddin Osman

Tags: driving, Lessons learned from cockpit, situational awareness

Have you ever wondered how the aviation industry leverage on technological advancement especially with computerization to help with navigation and assist pilots to operate the aircraft more efficiently?

Cockpit of Fokker 50

Well let us step back a few years early when the commercial flight first started. Back then most of the planes were manned by a 5 crew complement consisting of 2 pilots, a flight engineer, a navigator and a radio operator. With technological advancement the aircraft manufacturers managed to get rid of the radio operator, then the navigator and finally the flight engineer. Almost all of the modern aircrafts are now operated by 2 pilots in the cockpit. Since I am currently flying the B747-400, let me use this aircraft type to explain and illustrate my point and how we can use this lessons from cockpit in our daily life.

Glass cockpit of B747-400

The B747 was the first wide-body commercial airliner that first flew commercially in 1970. The first generation of the B747, the B747-100/200/300 was designed based on a 3 crew concept, the 2 pilots and a flight engineer. In 1989, Boeing came out with the B747-400, an improved version of the B747-300, with longer range, improved engines and with electronic instrument display (glass cockpit) to replace the conventional dials and meters of the older planes. With the improvement and advance technology, the new design dispense with the need of the flight engineer. The B747-400 now only has the two pilots in the cockpit to man the flight. It also changed the aviation scenario, from medium haul flight that averages 8 hours, to the long haul point-to-point flight of around 14 hours.

The Airbus Industrie too capitalised on this technological advancement in computers and electronics to design their new generation of aircrafts. It pioneered the use of digital fly-by-wire flight control systems in a commercial aircraft with the introduction of the A320 in 1988.

How is this possible? In the case of the B747, how can the same plane with the same complex systems be manned by two people instead of three? Well, it is all about leveraging on the advanced technology, computers, and automation that has taken over the function of the flight engineer. The computers and automation has also changed the roles and responsibilities of the two pilots. With this new generation of airplanes, the pilots do not fly the aircraft. This is left to the computers and automation whilst the pilots manage them.

Whenever there is any system malfunction the onboard computers will alert the pilots of this malfunction, and depending on the severity of the malfunction, the automation takes over and provides an alternative source to contain the problem.

This same concept could also be applied in life as well when we leverage on automation to reduce our workload and increase our efficiency. We use automation to simply our work and let them do the work for us. Our role is just to manage them. However we must always remember who the master is and who the slave is. Too much dependence on them could result in us becoming too complacent and we become a slave to them. When that happens, instead of helping us, they become a burden to us. Instead of making our life easier, they increase our workload. Therefore, we must always be the master and not the slave to the computers and automation. Use them to our advantage as to how and when we want to use them.

Written by Azharuddin Osman

Tags: Automation, Cockpit, Computers, Life Lessons from Cockpit, Pilots, Technology