Autumn 2016 | Edition 2
Area 100 KSA Synthetic Vision Systems Performance Based Navigation Partner Information Industry Update
Introduction This is the second of our flight training magazines. We felt it would be a helpful way to keep individuals in the flight training industry updated about the latest developments and the feedback we received following the issue of our first newsletter reinforced this. Ongoing feedback on the content of this magazine is very important to us, please email Gill, the Bristol Groundschool Business Development and Marketing Manager gill@bristol.gs with your feedback and any contributions.
Contents Industry Update 3 Industry News 5 On The Horizon - SVS
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Performance Based Navigation 13 Partner Information 15 Training Material Update
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Wings Alliance 17 1
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Industry update
update
INDUSTRY
by Alex Whittingham
The EASA ATPL Exams New questions EASA are adding large numbers of new questions to their central question bank (ECQB). In some subjects they are having little effect on the results as the new questions are well written and within the syllabus. In other subjects, notably Operational Procedures and Performance, in the months when questions were introduced the numbers of candidates passing dropped dramatically. Explanations for this vary, but we suspect it is because, in these subjects, many of the questions are arguably outside the syllabus and/or of poor quality. There are rumours of entire classes of students being withdrawn from the exams by some of the integrated schools as a precaution. Luckily, because we are an examination centre, Bristol Groundschool can capture feedback from students directly after they take their exams. As a result, we have been able to move comparatively quickly and add the new questions into BGS Online. This has had the effect of rapidly recovering the pass rates, usually within two to three weeks. I imagine AviationExam.com are doing something similar, if you use them, as are other database providers. If your ground school does not regularly use a reputable online question bank resource we would encourage you to do that over the next few months, or your students may miss out. We are advised unofficially that the next wave of changes (in the UK at least) can be anticipated in the remaining 030 subjects. 3
The impact of Brexit Bristol Groundschool captures student feedback directly after their exams to keep their exam question bank BGSonline up-to-date.
Following the UK referendum on EU membership we do not anticipate any immediate changes either to civil aviation regulation in the UK or to the UK CAA’s role in the EU and in relation to the EASA framework. EASA membership does not depend on EU membership (for instance Switzerland, Norway and Iceland are non-EU EASA members) and we think it overwhelmingly likely that the UK will continue in the long term as an EASA member. It would not make sense to do anything else; it is becoming clear that there are now only two de-facto global licensing standards, either EASA or the FAA. 4
Industry news Non-Technical Skills and Pilot Competencies
Area
100KSA
– by Rod Wren
During the last few decades there has been a major change in the way airline pilots are trained and assessed. Whereas in the past training focussed on technical skills and abilities, the emphasis has shifted markedly towards the non-technical. Various bodies have sought to define the skills, knowledge and behaviours required to function effectively as a pilot in a multi-crew role. ICAO/IATA/ IFALPA, Airbus and various airlines have published their lists of “competencies” variously termed “core competencies”, “pilot competencies”, or “notech competencies”. The Competencies are usually supplemented by expanded descriptions and “behavioural indicators” or “behavioural markers”. The idea is that if a pilot exhibits the behavioural markers, that is an indication that she or he possesses the associated competence. The detail of the lists differs, but all these authorities are aiming to identify
the desirable characteristics in a pilot and then apply these to assessment for employment, training and then assessment of pilots in employment. Great importance is placed on this. Pilots are routinely assessed against these criteria, and early airline training will include models and strategies to help a pilot achieve competency. For example, decision making is a competency that appears on most, if not all, lists. Associated behavioural markers may include something like “Employs effective problem-solving strategies”. Training might be to introduce a decision making model such as DODAR1 or GRADE2.
unaware of, this major shift in emphasis. It is not that pilots may not be taught, in an informal way, how to manage workload, communicate, diagnose and make decisions, rather than the same emphasis and formalisation of training and assessment has not been applied to basic flight training as it is within the airline industry. This is a significant anomaly. The reason these changes have come about in airline training and operations is that they lead to safer, more effective pilots. It is therefore illogical that these concepts are not introduced right at the beginning of a pilot’s training and reinforced throughout.
While this quiet revolution has gone on in the airline world, particularly in Western countries, the flight training industry has been largely unaffected by, even
What’s in a name? Nothing to do with a mysterious airbase in the Nevada Desert, this slightly peculiar name is the working title for a new EASA pilot theoretical knowledge subject. The number 100 is merely the subject number; back in the mists of JAA time, each theoretical knowledge subject was given a subject number: thus Air Law is 010 Air Law, Meteorology is 050 Meteorology and so on. EASA NPA 2016-03 described proposed changes to the theoretical knowledge learning objectives for CPL, MPL and ATPL training for pilots and introduced the new subject ‘Knowledge, Skills and Attitudes’. Most people agree that to enable someone to perform a task well, they must ideally possess all the necessary knowledge, skills, values, attitudes, behaviour and world views to perform that task. The degree of competence they demonstrate when performing the
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However, to an observer it may be difficult to identify values, attitudes and world views. So while educational theorists used to shorten this list to ‘knowledge, skills and attitudes’, more commonly people these days talk about ‘knowledge, skills and behaviours’, as these are externally observable, whereas values, attitudes and world views are internal. Indeed, it is theorised that behaviours are the external result of internal values, attitudes and world views. It is therefore slightly curious that EASA have adopted the title ‘Knowledge, Skills and Attitudes’ rather than ‘Knowledge, Skills and Behaviours’ for this new subject.
Decision making is a competency that appears on most, if not all, lists.
DODAR is British Airways’ decision making model: Diagnose, Options, Decide, Assign, Review 2
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task, especially if it is complex and their performance is over a sustained period, will be dependent on the degree to which they have learned the knowledge, skills, values, attitudes, behaviour and world views required.
GRADE is another decision making model: Gather, Review, Analyse, Decide, Review
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Industry news Evidence-Based Training The idea of basing professional best practice on evidence rather than custom and practice is not new: in the medical profession, a major change in direction a few decades ago lead to dramatic improvement in professionalism. Rather than best practice being based on handed down custom and practice, however logical it seemed and however it might be supported by professional experience and empirical evidence, the theory was that each practice must be challenged and tested scientifically. The result was that many practices were found to be less than ideal and were replaced by improved best practice based on scientific evidence. In 2007 IATA launched an initiative to adopt a similar
approach to airline pilot training and facilitated an international working group to conduct a strategic review of airline pilot training. As a result, in 2013 ICAO, IATA and the IFALPA published a new methodology for the development and conduct of a recurrent training and assessment programme, titled Evidence-Based Training (EBT)3 . This included core competencies and behavioural markers for airline pilots. The approach taken by the working group was to include technical and non-technical competencies. The ‘evidence’ the recurrent training is based on is training needs identified by analysing a vast pool of data, captured by monitoring thousands of commercial flights.
The approach taken by the working group was to include technical and non-technical competencies.
New syllabus
EASA NPA 2016-03
EASA have now adopted NPA 2014-29 which introduces for the first time a detailed syllabus into an AMC of Part-FCL. The NPA 2014-29 syllabus is virtually identical to the old 2009 JAA syllabus. NPA 2014-29 was introduced without taking account of industry comments using the Comment and Response tool, EASA say the comments submitted have been passed on to the working group producing the next syllabus change which is notified in NPA 2016-03. We have reviewed the NPA 2016-03 LOs and commented on the changes, we found them generally to be a significant step forward – see below.
The Notice of Proposed Amendment to the theoretical knowledge learning objectives for CPL, MPL and ATPL was released for comment in mid-2016. Publication of the Executive Director Decision, containing the final AMC and GM will follow and then there will be a 4-year implementation period4. It is EASA’s proposal to introduce training in Knowledge, Skills and Attitudes into flight training. Rather strangely, as drafted in the NPA, the requirement is to train and assess pilots in the defined KSAs before the completion of the Theoretical Knowledge examinations. This introduces some major challenges: • The pilots will be asked to perform some advanced practical exercises in complex simulators before many will have had their first flying lesson; • Specialist theoretical knowledge providers will in general not possess the equipment or expertise to teach the skills. It also misses a major trick. This is not an academic subject, to be studied and examined before flight training and then forgotten as, perhaps, some of the drier topics in Air Law are. Rather this is bread and butter to a modern airline pilot. The concepts and practices form part of everyday life and, therefore, should be introduced and assimilated into all aspects of flight training, be it initial theory training, single pilot flight training or multi-crew training. If EASA listens to the NPA comments, it may well be that there is a subtle change and the requirement to train and test will be given a time limit of licence issue rather than completion of TK examinations. Whether this change is made or not, the flight training industry faces both a challenge and opportunity; the challenge of making itself ready for this change, and the opportunity to adopt best practice as has been developed in the airline industry and so better prepare pilots for their careers.
Bristol Groundschool’s plans 3
ICAO Manual of Evidence Based Training, First Edition, 2013
Bristol Groundschool is very well positioned to prepare for this change. Through its close association with the Wings Alliance, Bristol Groundschool has access to expertise within the Wings Alliance’s Airline Training Team, who designed and deliver the Airline Pilot Certificate course, and AirlinePrep who helped design and deliver the selection process. Bristol Groundschool and the Wings Alliance intend to jointly develop course materials and training to be
able to offer a ‘train the trainers’ course to customers’ instructional staff. In addition, Bristol Groundschool are developing a theoretical knowledge course for delivery to their students, and those of their customers, which will meet the requirements of the LOs when finally published. This course is planned for release in 2017 well ahead of the EASA deadline. 4
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EASA NPA 2016-03, 9th June 2016 6
On the horizon Many of us will already be familiar with a digitised ‘view’ from the cockpit or flight deck from flight simulators. Even desktop computer based flight sims have long been capable of generating a pixel perfect computer generated view of the world outside your windows. Now, in a classic case of life imitating art, the digital world view has entered the cockpit. NASA and USAF have been playing around with synthetic vision systems (SVS) as far back as the 1970s, initially for remotely piloted vehicles, but with the stated aim of improving pilot situational awareness in all aircraft. In essence, the SVS blends database sources including terrain, obstacle, hydrological, navigational and geopolitical, and then generates a view of what the pilot should be seeing outside the window. The world terrain database, already familiar to many of us through the EGPWS/ TAWS, maps the whole world from space using spot heights. The concept uses theoretical ‘posts’ as if a surveyor had knocked a post into the ground and surveyed the height. Level 0 digital terrain elevation data (DTED) has an average post spacing of 900 metres, Level 1 spaced at approximately 90 metres, and Level 2 has the posts at 30 metres. There are plans for even more accurate levels of survey, but they have yet to be standardised. As can be seen in the illustration, the effect of Level 0, on the left, produces a pixelated blur. But there is still no doubt where the top of the mountain is. Level 1 produces a ‘low-res’ image, while Level 2 is much clearer. The terrain database file resides in the aircraft, and is not subject to a validity date. Mathematically, it is a fairly simple job for computer processors to translate the plan view above intro a 3-D view. Further data comes from two important, date specific databases. The obstacle files are maintained by the national aviation authorities, plotting the centre point of vertical structures above a certain height. The FAA digital obstruction file, for example, is valid for 56 days, with a daily update available online if required. Other authorities vary with regard to the validity.
Some manufacturers differentiate between solid obstructions and ‘towered’, such as tall TV and radio masts. The difference is that a towered obstruction may well have supporting wires or stays that substantially increase the footprint of the structure. For low flying aircraft the difference is quite important. The other database needed is the familiar navigation (Jeppesen) data, listing all of the navigation facilities, airfields, waypoints, SIDs/STARs and a lot more besides.
This is the second in a series of articles by Chris Keane, DCTKI, looking at developments in aviation that may already be familiar to some, but which will be of interest to many.
Synthetic vision systems by Honeywell
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The SVS blends database sources including terrain, obstacle, hydrological, navigational and geopolitical, and then generates a view
The SVS blends all of that information, so that when the SVS view is selected by the pilot the familiar ‘blue sky/brown earth’ view of the world is replaced with something that approximates what should be visible outside the window. The major advantage is that the SVS will display what you may not otherwise be
able to see, because of weather factors or light levels. SVS will also populate the view with various icons for airspace, airfields and heliports, as we shall see. The illustration (left) shows a version of SVS is by Honeywell, as shown on Wikipedia. You can clearly see the use of texture, shading and colour to depict the terrain. Some systems also use coloured bands of shading for terrain elevation like those already in use with EGPWS/TAWS as a visual cue to the pilot of terrain that the aircraft might not outperform. Remember, this is the view inside the cockpit, by day, by night, and in poor visibility – a major advance in situational awareness.
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On the horizon Because it is all just ones and zeroes, the computer is happy to handle and display plenty more information as well. From the Jeppesen database airports are depicted, with a dome of airspace over them alerting you to controlled airspace. The dome becomes more transparent as you get closer, until the runways themselves are depicted, complete with their markings from the Jeppesen database.
SVS does not give you a licence to go looking for trouble in bad weather.
They are not quite lifelike yet, as they do not show surface and slope with any degree of accuracy. However, if they are runways in the current flight plan they will also be colour coded to show departure, alternate and destination. If terrain would obscure part of the runway from view, then that is also depicted.
SVS is operating right now in commercial airliners and helicopters globally. But because it is all database derived even light aircraft and helicopters that are equipped with glass cockpits such as the Garmin G1000 can be configured to display an SVS view, with a clear flight safety gain. Be warned though, that SVS does not give you a licence to go looking for trouble in bad weather. One of the major drawbacks is that, just like EGPWS/ TAWS it relies upon positional accuracy and confidence. If the FMS or navigation systems do not know where the aircraft is, then the SVS cannot give a reliable depiction of what should be visible through the window. Suddenly RNP/ANP (required/ actual navigation performance) take on a whole new significance.
Heliports and helipads are alerted by a golf flag from afar, and then resolve into the individual landing pads as the range reduces. If the landing point is an elevated platform, such as an oil and gas platform offshore, then that too can be shown.
But given the option of flying with SVS or without it? A no-brainer. A breakdown of a typical SVS view is shown above, with all of the elements mentioned brought together in one display underlaying the PFD data. 11
Watch out for ‘On the Horizon 3 – Enhanced Vision Systems. 12
Performance Based Navigation
Performance Based Navigation (PBN) by Laurie Keane
Performance Based Navigation (PBN) has been quietly gaining importance over the last 20 years, and EASA is about to add it to the pilot training syllabus as a result of NPA 2016-3. Pilot awareness of the developments has been functional – RNP/ANP (Boeing) or RNP/EPU (Airbus), and RNAV approaches being the only things many consciously considered. However, we have all been benefiting through more direct routings, reduced flight times and fewer slot delays. PBN takes advantage of improvements in aircraft navigation accuracy and reliability. It frees airspace planners from dependence on ground-based navaids, and reduces spacing between airways, massively increasing capacity. It may have gone unnoticed in the flight deck, but Required Navigation Performance (RNP) values have been reducing in recent years. Where you would have seen RNP5 you will increasingly now see RNP2 or 1 – if you notice it at all, because the enabler for these changes is that aircraft capability has become so good that we almost never see navigation downgrade warnings on modern aircraft.
PBN takes advantage of improvements in aircraft navigation accuracy and reliability.
Less inconspicuous are the benefits to small aircraft of space-based augmentation systems for GPS signals, which for very small equipment cost can provide something very close to CAT1 ILS performance without the need for an ILS ground installation. The biggest benefit is to Helicopter Emergency Medical Services (HEMS), where operational robustness is enhanced enormously thanks to Point in Spaces (PinS) approaches. Small airfields can benefit in a similar way – private pilots are able to fly to tiny GA airfields and shoot approaches to 210ft Decision Altitudes, with arrival and departure routings that are based on terrain and airspace constraints rather than where aids are placed on the ground.
Airspace planners can place air traffic routes in formerly unusable places and spaces. 13
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Training material update
Bristol Groundschool
Partner Information Bristol Groundschool International Ltd
We have recently separated our trade and retail business. Trade sales are now through our new company, Bristol Groundschool International Ltd. We are currently issuing new trading agreements reflecting our name change to our training partners; there will no other impact on you.
Bristol Groundschool Training material update Responding to new questions Obviously the addition of new questions into BGS Online referred to earlier is only the start of the process for us. Beyond that we are amending our course material to address any gaps identified by the new questions, even if they are outside the syllabus. The process is that the ATPdigital software is amended first, and this automatically updates, and then the manuals are reprinted. This means that, as the changes come in, ATPdigital users may find their software has new information whereas the print manuals do not. Please treat ATPdigital as the master.
Maths and Physics Did you know that you can give your students access to a free maths and physics course? There has always been a requirement for heads of training to check that candidates for an approved course have a ‘sufficient level of knowledge of maths and physics to cope with the demands of the course’. This requirement has largely been ignored, but some authorities have started asking schools how they comply. Therefore, we have developed a maths and physics course which aims to check understanding, provide refresher training if there is insufficient knowledge and to provide schools with an audit trail. This is how it works. The ten maths and physics lessons and two progress tests are in a separate module which proceeds the ATPL or CPL modules. We can set things up so students may not get access to the ATPL or CPL course materials until they have completed and passed the maths and physics module or, alternatively, just encourage them to do it first. If the students feel able to do the tests, bypassing the lessons, they may do so. If they pass first time, then the lessons are marked as complete and they may 15
move onto the main course. If, however, they fail, they will be required to study the associated lesson and pass all the lesson quizzes before being able to attempt the progress test again. Of course, less confident students may do the lessons before the tests. If you would like to review this course, please email support@bristol.gs and we’ll add it to you staff account for review.
We offer more than ATPL
Pilot Career Exhibition events
We currently produce ATPL(A), ATPL(H)/IR, and CPL(H) courses. We can also supply you with course training material for: • IR(A) and IR(H) • ATPL(H) (non-IR) • EIR-CBIR If you are interested in any of these, or have any other requirements, please email info@bristol.gs for more information.
The next event Bristol Groundschool will be exhibiting at will be Heathrow, London on Saturday 22nd April 2017.If you are also attending or visiting this show do please come and say hello.
Placing a training partner order Just a reminder when you are placing your order for Bristol Groundschool material please complete the online order form on the BGS website. If you require a member login or you have forgotten your login details, please email gill@bristol.gs
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Wings Alliance
Wings Alliance
Actively placing pilots ‌
The Wings Alliance provides a high quality and cost effective alternative to studying with a large integrated school for aspiring pilots. 100% of students who have successfully completed the Wings Alliance Airline Pilot Certificate (APC) course have been referred to an airline for selection. 100% of those who have completed the airline selection have been offered a job on the flight deck. Students can choose which member school they use for different parts of their training, depending on their circumstances. They will be offered support and guidance by the Wings Alliance throughout their training and will have one continuous professional Wings Alliance training record. Successful graduates of the Wings Alliance programme will be recommended to partner airlines for employment opportunities, giving them a direct route to employment.
www.wingsalliance.eu Tel: + 44 (0)1275 345 914
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The selection course is conducted by a team of current airline trainers and specialist selection staff. It determines an individual’s performance against criteria employers are looking for and it consists of a group exercise, individual interview and a planning exercise. Everyone attending the selection course will be given individual feedback on how they performed throughout the day and where applicable areas they need to focus on for improvement. If you are interested in becoming a Wings Alliance member or finding out more, please complete the enquiry form: http://www.wingsalliance.eu/flight-schools/become-a-member/
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Contact us Your primary point of contact for all queries other than technical support issues is Business Development and Marketing Manager Gill Fowkes. For any topics or articles you would like to submit for future magazines the point of contact is also Gill. Email: gill@bristol.gs Tel: +44(0) 1275 345 915
Support with software installation or courseware issues For support with ATPdigital or BGS Online contact one of the support team, who will be able to help you. Email: support@bristol.gs Tel: + 44 (0)1275 340 444 It is always useful to find out the computer’s hardware and the operating system that is being used before you contact us.
+44(0)1275 340444 www.bristol.gs