2006 03 crm

VINTAGE INSTRUCTOR

THE

BY DOUG STEWART

CRM CRM. In the airlines it stands for crew resource management. In the airplanes you and I fly it stands for cockpit resource management. And unfortunately for me, it so often seems to stand for can’t remember much. (Bear with me a moment and I’ll remember why I started to write this article . . .)

Oh . . . right . . . I remember now. CRM. It’s an initialism that many of us have heard, but it’s possible that you really don’t understand how a term that’s used by the airlines could be applied to the cockpits of our personal airplanes. If we consider that it refers to using all available tools, it could make a bit more sense.

Let’s take a look at those tools and how we can use them, especially when the yogurt starts to creep up above the eyeballs. My list is not prioritized; because of my “can’t remember much,” they’re listed as I think of them.

Let’s see now . . . checklists . . . they’re a good tool (especially for my personal CRM). I have a checklist in my airplane for every phase of the flight, from preflight through post-flight. It is one that has been in a slow evolution from the earliest days of my flying, and it includes all the things I have forgotten at one time or another. For example, my cruise checklist includes, after setting the power, checking that the flaps and landing gear are cleaned up. (I know I’m not the only one who has forgotten to do that.)

Cowl flaps closed, transponder on altitude (so that controllers don’t ask me to recycle the XPDR, their nice way of saying you forgot to turn it on, dummy), and heading indicator checked with the compass are all included in my checklist, as they are all things I have forgotten at one time or another as a result

of distractions from passengers, air traffic control (ATC), or aircraft anomalies.

Suppose you select gear down as you enter the downwind leg of the traffic pattern, and you don’t see “three in the green.” Is this an emergency situation? Do you need to have the manual gear extension procedure memorized? The answer to both questions is no. What should you do? The answer is simple…leave the traffic pattern, climb to a safe altitude, and get out the checklist.

This is not a procedure that you have to have memorized. It is not an emergency situation…yet. Using the checklist will ensure that you don’t miss anything. Checklists are one of the best tools in our CRM flight bag.

Passengers . . . they sometimes can be one heck of a distraction, especially if they have not been briefed on the sterile cockpit concept, which is no talking about anything (the wife and kids, the ball game, the great joke they just heard, etc.) except flight-related issues anywhere in the airport environment. That includes from on the ground while taxiing until 5 to 10 miles away from the airport on departure, or the reverse, if arriving.

Passengers can indeed be major distractions, but they can also be fantastic aids as well, again, if they are properly briefed. They can look up information from a variety of resources while you fly the airplane.

They can help program the GPS (if they know how), and they can dial in radio frequencies. Most importantly, your passengers can serve as an extra set of eyes in scanning for traffic. Do ensure that they have been briefed to call traffic in “clock” direction and altitude relative to you.

If your sectional is

back in the luggage

compartment, it isn’t

going to do you much good when the

batteries in your

handheld GPS die.

32 MARCH 2006

What about all the possible resources for information that you, or your passengers, might be referencing? I certainly hope you have brought along all the current and proper charts that you might need, but I have noticed that many pilots forget to bring along a current Airport/Facility Directory (AFD) or other suitable reference for airport, NAVAID, and other related information. Many pilots are now tending to rely solely on their GPS for this information (as well as the daily lunch special at the airport restaurant) but forget that if the database in the GPS is not current, then the information might very well not be reliable, and if the batteries die, that information will become unavailable.

Having current charts and publications is a big part of CRM, but another important part that is sometimes forgotten is proper cockpit organization. If your sectional is back in the luggage compartment, it isn’t going to do you much good when the batteries in your handheld GPS die. So be sure the charts are not only in the airplane, but also accessible in an organized manner. For those of you pilots flying instrument flight rules (IFR), this is even more important.

For the IFR pilot, ATC is an essential part of good CRM. ATC can be a great source of weather information, and weather avoidance vectors. Just be sure you confirm with controllers whether or not they are painting the weather. Just because the last controller to hand you off was painting the weather does not necessarily mean the current controller is, even when they are sitting side by side in the same radar room. So please be sure to confirm that the new controller is in sync with what you need.

For the visual flight rules (VFR) pilot, ATC can also be a wonderful CRM tool. How often have I heard on the frequency, “. . . uh, approach . . . uh . . . any chance of vectors for the Boondock airport?”

A tactful way of saying, “Help . . . I’m lost.” Even if you are superb at pilotage and dead reckoning, and don’t ever get lost, ATC can still be a great resource.

If you use ATC to provide flight following, controllers can (on an available basis) call out traffic for you and sometimes help to steer you clear of potential airspace violations. Remember, though, that the responsibility for remaining clear of restricted airspace is totally yours, the pilot in command, if you are flying VFR. So is staying clear of other airplanes. The radar coverage and communication from ATC is a handy reference, but it doesn’t serve as a replacement for your eyeballs. Regardless, whether IFR or VFR, ATC is another one of the good CRM tools for all of us to use.

While discussing CRM tools relative to the radio, certainly other pilots on the frequency can be good resources. As an example, on a recent flight to the West Coast, I had departed Johnson County Executive Airport (KOJC, near Kansas City) into a 100-foot

ceiling. About 10 miles before reaching Emporia, Kansas (KEMP), the fog ended. At this time there was a pilot on the frequency with Kansas City Center who was inbound to OJC from the east. It was obvious the fog would not be lifting for a while, preventing the approach, but the pilot was unable to pick up the weather at EMP. He was thus unsure of where he should divert. A quick call from me to Kansas City Center confirmed that the fog ended a little bit east of EMP and that he could easily divert there.

Remember that what goes around, comes around!

I’m sure there have been times that you wished there were a pilot report (PIREP) to confirm weather conditions somewhere along your route of flight, but none existed. If we all spent a little more time giving PIREPs, it would definitely aid in everyone’s CRM. These are but a few of the tools that we can use in effective cockpit resource management. Next month I would like to discuss some more of them.

Hopefully my CRM (can’t remember much) won’t take effect until I complete the article. In the meantime may you be blessed with blue skies and tail winds.

Doug Stewart is the 2004 National CFI of the Year, a NAFI Master Instructor and a DPE. He operates DSFI Inc. (www.dsflight.com) based at the Columbia County Airport (1B1).

VINTAGE AIRPLANE 33