EMBRAER INSTRUCTOR NEWSLETTER
2018
CONTENTS
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3
EDITORIAL
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4
SUPPORTING THE BUSINESS
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6
2017 IN REVIEW
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8 STUDENT PLATEU
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10
STANDARDS
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12
PROFESIONALISM
E DI TOR I A L
The start of the year is a good time for planning and that is what this newsletter is all about. Just a few areas to highlight that are of key interest as we start a relatively busy training year. We will review 2017, Chart a way forward for 2018,review standards, professionalism and lastly student plateau. We hope you enjoy the newsletter and we welcome your feedback and suggestions. Feel free to reach and as always, I welcome your personal comments; I can be reached directly at; haig.anyonyi@kenya-airways.com
Haig Anyonyi CFI Embraer
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S U P P ORTI NG THE B USI NESS We continue to focus on profitable expansion of our network through a combination of direct access and alliances with other carriers. Sustainable improvement in yield will be pursued through a combination of a new revenue management system and better discipline. Management will also place emphasis on greater productivity, costs restraints and reduction in waste.
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KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS
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Reduce Unstable Reduce Safety related Improvement in OHI Approaches and incidents and Increase :Employee SatisfacMatch GO-AROUNDS Safety awareness tion The safety office has set out goals for 2018 and our focus will be in reducing the number of Unstable approaches in the fleet and additionally matching each unstable approach with a go-around. Let us drive initiatives like • Recognition of Unstable Approaches • Adherance to SOP’s. • Approach gates. • Stabilized Approach criteria. • Prompt Callouts. • Weather Situational Awareness. • Tailwaind awareness.
Aviation safety means the state of an aviation system or organization in which risks associated with aviation activities, related to, or in direct support of the operation of aircraft, are reduced and controlled to an acceptable level. We have had an increase of hard landings with a all time peak of 31 in the month of December. This can only be addressed through training. It has been quite costly and has a negative impact on passenger confort. There is a need to drive a reporting culture on our fleet and a sensitization to our pilots on “REPORTABLE OCCURENCES” as is found in the GOMA.
Employee satisfaction is the terminology used to describe whether employees are happy and contented and fulfilling their desires and needs at work and the role it plays in their life. As pilots, training is a big part of our life. Our stay at Kenya Airways is dependent of how well we train. As this team is responsible for that nig part, we have the duty to train and check well to our customers satisfaction. This means putting our best foot forward, maintaining the standard required. We will be engaging more with our teams and receving feedback from them on our performance.
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WHAT WE DID HOW WE DID 2017 IN REVIEW
A REVIEW OF OUR YEAR 2017 THAT WILL DICTATE OUR FOCUS IN 2018
I would first like to thank all of you who made 2017 a great success and for taking all out pilots through various training. I appreciate your decdication and commitment as we continue to make the E-Jet the best fleet in Kenya Airways. 2017 was a rewarding year as we passed quite a number of trainees through the ever growing queue. 2017 also was a very challenging year on the Embraer with regards to training. We have had quite a numnber of candidates that did not meet the grade during training. This can be attributed various aspects. i take responsibility and so should we all that we were not able to achieve 100% score with regards to trainee success in the various courses. As an overview, most failures in the fleet were attributed to • Manual Flying skill - Landings. • Basic Instrument procedures. • Lack of understanding of Aircraft systems and Procedures. • The “BIG PICTURE” during command upgrade. I urge us to reflect on the above and identify areas that we can improve in the teaching and learning processes. I also urge that we engage more on this subject as more heads are better than a few. We have varying experience in our team and we should use that to our advantage.
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G E N E R AL FD M R E V IE W
AN OVERALL DOWNWARD TREND IN OUR OVERALL PERFORMANCE
THE UNSTABLE APPROACHES ARE ALL RECORDED IN HKJK, HKMO & HTKJ For us to eliminate this trends, we need to be at the forefront in engagement with the pilots on the “why” so as to come up with solutions at the training level.
We have had an unfortunate landing with 24 knots tailwind at a CAT C airport. Let us continue to sensitize the team about reported wind in Africa region. “It is only advisory” and the crew should use the wind vector to monitor tailwind on APP & LDG. EMBRAER 7
STUDENT PLATEU WHEN THE STUDENT HITS A WALL
IN THE FLIGHT TRAINING ENVIRONMENT, LEARNING PLATEAUS CAN BE DUE TO VARIETY OF CAUSES SUCH AS CAPABILITY LIMITS, SKILL CONSOLIDATION, WANING INTEREST, OR INSTRUCTIONAL METHOD Your student has got off to a very good start and suddenly their progress doesnt make sense as more and more instructors start to have doubts. Their landings wer fine the last time you flew with them and now, the blog is alive with dounts in their abilities. You wonder “what went wrong”? Then comes the sinking realization that your student has chewed up all his hours doing the same thing over and over—without any noticeable improvement. Learning to fly jets isn’t a linear process, and nothing brings this home more dramatically than the plateau. After weeks of enjoyable advancement, students almost universally find that what progress they have made seems to evaporate. What used to come relatively easily has slipped back out of reach. A growing frustration starts to show, both for you and the student. A sympathetic flight instructor will be quick to assure you this isn’t the end of the world, nor does it mean you’re not meant to be an airline pilot. Does this sound familiar? That’s because virtually everybody ex-
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periences learning plateaus, anyone who is training for any type of activity that involves motor skills. Plateaus are a natural part of the learning process. Some circumstances that could lead to a plateau: • The student may have reached capability limits. • Same comments over and over without any improvement. • Rapidly approaching 180 hour mark increasing frustration. • Instructor comments of a negative nature. (A broken student) • Instructor variations in teaching a particular concept. We must be always aware and the student may need a more efficient method for increasing progress. Coping with a plateau begins with an understanding of how learning occurs, followed by recognizing and dealing with the symptoms of frustration experienced when skill development takes a vacation.vv Coping with a plateau begins with an understanding of how learning occurs, followed by recognizing and dealing with the symptoms of frustration experienced when skill development takes a vacation.
“…in learning motor skills, a leveling-off process, or a plateau, is normal, and can be expected after an initial period of rapid improvement. The instructor should prepare the student for this situation to avert discouragement. If the student is aware of this learning platform, frustration may be lessened.”
If and when you find your student stuck on a learning plateau with no improvement in sight, remember: This is normal, and it happens to almost everyone. Consider these strategies to get through the dry spell: Get them some time OFF. The brain can’t function properly on too little sleep and too much caffeine. They may simply be tired with back to back flying. They may need to stop flying for a few days and allow your mind to process what they have learned. Take a step back. You may be over-practicing that particular concept you are trying to reaffirm.. It is said that repeating any lesson more than three times could put you on the runway to a plateau. Break the monotony with you the instructor doing the leg, breaking the tension by talking about other things, send them out for a walkaround. Different Point of View Ask for help from other instructors. Admit that you have not been able to get through to the student and more assistance may be needed. Maybe you caould also learn something.
Student Chat Ask the student what they think. Sit down and talk to the student about why they think they are stuck. They may have no clue, or they may have some ideas. They may say, “I just don’t know. I’ve been studying all the time. I chair-fly constantly.” Their response to this chat might give you enough feedback to really hone in on the problem area. Training Gates We have not been keen on this in the year 2017. We should be aware of review gates that have been set out. For safety pilot release, 100 hours review or any other time in our judgement, we feel there needs to be a microscopic analysis of students non performance. Above all, remember that those who persevere do succeed. That is true for both the student and the instructor. Be proud of your students accomplishments, and don’t be hesitant to tell them. Assure them know that that the best is yet to come.
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STANDA R DS STANDARDS IS NOT AN OPTION
Professionalism requires combining a thorough education and training throughout a professional pilot’s entire career. In order to create a programme that maximises the pilot’s potential, it is important to acknowledge the difference between training ( developing response structures) and education ( developing airmanship ). Creating a professional pilot requires not only training competency in certain technical and nontechnical skills, but also an ongoing education to aid pilots to develop and maintain airmanship skills. This requires formal initial and recurrent education in airmanship skills as well as ongoing airline mentoring by well-qualified pilots. We play a key role in guiding a pilot toward the successful development of skills and competencies required to pursue the pilot profession. It is essential that an instructor is aware of his responsibility to facilitate the student’s development of the required skills and competencies to become an effective crewmember. We are well cognisant that we are the base entry fleet. For pilots starting their command journey and those starting their career. Based on feedback from other fleets. If we do not get it right, we affect the future of many pilots that pass through our hands. What does that mean for us in 2018? This will mean that we have to increase and maintain a very high standard. The focus for the year is • Reducing Unstable approaches OR matching Unstable approaches with Go arounds with a ratio of 1:1. • Ensuring that the students have a comprehensive and working knowledge of the Operations Manual Part A. • Ensure strict compliance with the SOPM. • Improve aircraft knowledge and its application.
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“STANDARDS� I would like us to review the ITSM. This document in very important in standardizing how we teach and grade. Kindly refresh and use it as a reference especailly for our examiners. As we interact with our students more an more this year, i would like us to focus on why our pilots are making decisions the way they are. Are they coming from a posiition of lacak of information, lack of training, lack of passion and drive to do the job properly. One area that is globally plagueing our pilots is manual flying. Whenever conducive, allow (under your supervision) the pilots to manually fly the aircraft to regain this waning skill. This will greatly improve our pilots proficiency. Let each flight that you do be a leaning experience to all.
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PROFESSIONALISM AVIATION TENETS
PROFESSIONAL IS NOT A LABEL YOU GIVE YOURSELF - IT’S A DESCRIPTION YOU HOPE OTHERS WILL APPLY TO YOU.
All instructors owe to their trainees the best possible instruction they can offer. Instructors should not fall into the trap of always assessing their trainees rather than simply correcting their errors and facilitating their learning process. Should an instructor be unable to give his best, then a break from instructing may be required. Though not all inclusive, the following list gives some major considerations and qualifications that are included in the definition of professionalism in an instructor: 12 EMBRAER
• Professionalism exists only when a service is performed for someone, or for the common good. • Professionalism is achieved only after extended training and preparation. • Professionals must be able to reason logically and accurately. • Professionalism requires the ability to make good judgmental decisions.
S MOOT H S E AS DO NOT M A K E S K I LLFUL SA I LOR S . AFRICAN PROVERB • Professionals cannot limit their actions and decisions to standard patterns and practices • Professionalism demands a code of ethics. Professionals must be true to themselves and to those they serve. Anything less than a sincere performance is quickly detected, and immediately destroys their effectiveness.
always be aware of that and do the right thing always.
SELF IMPROVEMENT Professional aviation instructors must never become complacent, or satisfied with their own qualifications and abilities. They should be constantly alert for ways to improve their qualifications, effectiveness, and the services they provide to trainees.As per the last instructors meeting, we need to strive to achieve a grade of Standard and above to retain a training position in Kenya Airways.
APPRAISALS This year wll be significant step in ensuring that we all maintain a standard. We will be embarking on Instructor appraisals. Basically performance appraisal is the process of assessing instructor performance by way of comparing present performance with already established standards which has been and will be communicated to you. You will have initiatives that may be assigned to you, feedback from our internal customers will also be used to judge our performance. One common KPI (key Performance Indicator) that we will all have will be “REDUCTION OF UNSTABLE APPROACHES AND SAFETY”. Let us start working on ideas on how we can achieve a better result this year. The details of this process will be communicated to you in due time once the framework is finalized.
INTEGRITY AND DISCIPLINE As part of our daily interaction with pilots, we require very high standards on their part. We require checklist dicipline, time discipline and even integrity to admit when a mistake has been done through ASR. We in turn, are held accountable to even a higher standard of discipline and integtrity. We must remember that we are under very close scrutiny by all. Let us
FEEDBACK Training feedback is a good way of judging how we are doing as a team. We inted to use more and more feedback this year to improve how we train. Most of the feedback from 2017 is positive and quite encouraging. There may be few areas that we may need to improve in our briefings and de-briefings. Let us always give our best.
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