Life Lessons From Cockpit

All of us are leaders to some extend and in our own way. We could be a leader at our workplace, a leader at home, a leader in our own neighbourhood or our community. So what is a leader, what are the qualities of a leader, and what do leaders do? How do we see ourselves as a leader?

Perhaps we can learn something from the cockpit discipline at how the commander of the flight, who is the captain, conducts himself during flight, as the team leader in charge of a multi million dollar asset that includes the lives of a few hundred people. The following are some of his roles and responsibilities that I have learned during my years as a captain:

• During flight, the captain is the designated leader. This role is bestowed upon him not only by the company, but also by the regulatory body. He therefore has wide ranging powers.
• He sets the tone for the flight. His crew members will react to his moods and idiosyncrasies. It is therefore important for him to be in a state that fosters teamwork and encourages the crew to be motivated to perform at their best.
• Workload management. Although all his team members have their own roles and responsibilities, the captain will distribute the workload accordingly especially during non-normal situations. He should be able to detect whenever any of his team members is overloaded with tasks.
• Leadership style. A captain will be scheduled to fly with crew members of various experience levels, ranging from a few months experience to a few years. He should therefore be able to use the most suitable leadership style depending on the experience level of his team members. The worst case would be to delegate tasks to an inexperienced crew member or to direct a very experienced crew member.
• Crew members briefing. If his mental state and behaviour sets the tone for the flight, briefing will ensure that all team members are “on the same page.” To work well as a team, it is important for the captain to conduct a briefing. This will address and resolve any differences in expectation amongst crew members. It will also allow crew members to clarify any issues or misunderstandings.
• Debriefing. In the aviation industry, experience is an invaluable asset. It is the captain’s responsibility to ensure that the inexperienced crew members learn something from the flight. Being the most experienced, he could guide them to discover lessons learned from the flight.

Written by Azharuddin Osman

Tags: briefing, Captain, debriefing, flight crew, leader, leadership, lessons from cockpit, non-normal

Flying is an exciting profession. Apart from the opportunity to see the world and staying in top rated hotels one could meet interesting personalities on board the aircraft and oftentimes experience challenging encounters that could test one’s patience and problem solving skills. On the positive side, such experiences could be used as lessons learned. I would therefore like to relate such an encounter that I had many years ago while I was flying the Fokker 27.

It was the start of a routine flight departing in the afternoon and scheduled to end in the evening just after sunset and I was the Captain of the flight. The flight schedule involved four transit stops before arriving at the destination.

As the aircraft was taxing for the take off position, one of the flight steward came on the cockpit-cabin interphone and reported that one of the passengers, a lady refused to fasten her seat belt and asked me what he should do as the said passenger just refused to listen to him. It is a requirement for the cabin crew to ensure that all passengers are strapped before take-off, therefore such behaviour could be an issue. I told the flight steward to order the passenger to buckle up and that if she refuses, to tell her that the Captain will turn the aircraft around, summon the security personnel and that she will be taken off the flight. The flight steward did as he was told and a few seconds later, he came over the flight intercom to report that the passenger still refused to fasten her seat belt.

I was in a dilemma. If I were to turn back, the flight would be delayed and I would have to skip some of the airfields as those airfields could only be operated during the day as they were not equipped for night operations. This would have inconvenienced quite a lot of the passengers who were bound for those affected airports. On the other hand I could not condone such behaviour on the flight as it is detrimental to flight safety. I had to think fast on my next move as there were other aircrafts waiting in line to depart.

The cabin crews are taught how to handle difficult situations in the cabin and to seek opinion and assistance from the pilots only if they are unable to resolve the issue. In this instance they obviously needed some help. So I told my copilot to go to the cabin and to deal directly with the passenger. The copilot did as he was told and came out from his seat to go to the cabin. As soon as the lady passenger saw the copilot walking towards her, she quickly buckled her seat belt and we departed without further incident.

The problem would seem trivial to some, however in any situation and experience, we could always learn something from them. The following are the lessons learned from my above experience that I use in my crew resource management (CRM) training for pilots:

• One should not compromise on safety. I have learned that in aviation, safety should take precedence over schedule. This principle should also be applicable in our daily life.
• In life, problems can happen unexpectedly and one should always be prepared for them.
• Have a few alternative solutions to problems that we encounter. In this way if one solution does not work we can always fall back on other alternatives without wasting precious time.
• As a leader, do not be quick to handle the situation yourself. First delegate it to the other team members. If all else fails only then should the leader intervene.
• Practice to think and solve problems on your feet. It is difficult at first, however if you have a template and practice it often, it becomes natural after a while.

Written by Azharuddin Osman

Tags: aircraft, crew resource management, flight safety, leader, Life Lessons from Cockpit, Problem Solving, safety