ACSF Forum Highlights Good Work Culture

As aviation reporting programs continue to expand as a key means to elevate safety, so too has the need for positive cultures to ensure the success of such programs, according to speakers at the recent 14^th annual Air Charter Safety Foundation Safety Symposium.

Workplace culture was among several safety themes highlighted during the two-day symposium that ran April 5-6 in Daytona Beach, Florida, with further topics surrounding health and wellbeing, among others.

Kimberly Perkins, a Gulfstream G650 captain and industry researcher, highlighted her findings from surveys that underscored the importance of culture in the flight deck and the larger organization. Surveys found when there is a positive synergy in the flight deck, pilots feel more valued and willing to ask for help or share mistakes, Perkins said. Conversely, they found pilots are about 50 percent less likely to share information when they do not get along.

Notably, 93 percent of first officers surveyed said they sometimes or always feel compelled to adapt to the style established by the captain. Further, 75 percent said they have been hesitant in speaking up to share safety concerns because of the culture in the flight deck and 57 percent felt silenced after bringing up such a concern. “We know captains or PICs play a very large role in establishing a microculture in the flight deck,” Perkins said.

The FAA has adopted and updated crew research management training (CRM) guidelines over the past 18 years, but 51 percent of survey respondents said their CRM training did not incorporate recommendations for sensitivity towards others or adapting leadership styles to others’ needs. Respondents, however, overwhelmingly agreed on a need to focus on culture, Perkins said.

She further pointed out that safety management systems (SMS)—which are an upcoming requirement for Part 135 operators—call for the promotion, monitoring, and adjustment of a safety culture. “We need psychological safety for this,” Perkins said. “If people don’t feel like they’re a valued team member, if they don't feel comfortable speaking up…they're not going be able to ask for help. They're not going to be able to admit their mistakes. They're not going to be as likely to share safety concerns.”

Perkins questioned whether organizations offer training not only to reduce human error but also to increase a positive safety culture. “I think we have a gap here.”

Student Trauma

Meanwhile, Robert Joyce, director of aviation safety for Safety Symposium host Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, stressed the importance of having a positive safety culture to maintain an operation that has 1,200 to 1,500 flying students and a flight department that amasses upwards of 100,000 hours a year.

ERAU has achieved IS-BAO Stage 3 recognition—in fact, it was coming up on a renewal audit right after the symposium—and Joyce said SMS is an essential piece that involves everyone. While he notes discussing the components of SMS with students who are “still trying to figure out how to do laundry” can be challenging. “It’s just lost on them,” he said, but university instructors do take time to show the students how they contribute and are engaged with the university’s SMS.

Noting the multitude of safety reports his department sorts through every year, he said, “I'm very fortunate to be a safety director here at Embry-Riddle because, right from the president to the newest student, everybody buys into our safety culture.”

One of the goals of the university is to produce safety professionals so that when graduates begin their careers, “they know what an ASAP program is and they know what non-punitive reporting is. It's just a way of life for us. This is how we operate.”

He expressed the view that the university’s mission is to “make dreams come true.” Most flight students coming in have long dreamed of becoming a pilot. However, “when they have a pilot deviation or they roll into the grass or cross the hold short line and they file the report, they are completely traumatized by the situation. It's not because someone almost landed on top of them. They see that dream slipping away.”

Even in an accident situation, the student’s first questions are: “'Will I get hired by an airline. What do I say in the interview?’ They see their career going down the drain.” He said this underscores the need for positive communication. “I spend a lot of my day being a counselor,” he said. “And I let them talk.”

Joyce first works through those questions and builds an open line of communication before getting into the details of what happened or why it happened. “But we don't start the investigation that way because they are completely traumatized. So that’s how the passion for aviation shapes how we approach communication. That’s how you get to successful communication.”

He pointed to the so-called “Platinum Rule” and said, “I am going to treat them the way they need to be treated at the moment. And then we’ll get their trust and get to the rest of that at that point.”

Stresses Everywhere

Aviation stalwart and founding partner and CEO of Convergent Performance Tony Kern praised the safety record of Embry-Riddle and credited the culture it has built in facilitating that. “I think it would be wonderful if we could spread [this culture] to the rest of the industry.”

Also presenting to attendees at the Safety Symposium, Kern highlighted the importance of psychological wellness as aviation navigates through the pandemic and workers deal with an increased level of stress.

He noted everyone is operating in “uncharted waters” due to Covid and other factors. “Aviation is used to change but this is big-time change,” Kern remarked. “There are all these things going on with society and mental health is a big, big deal. Aviation is not immune.”

People can resist calls to get better when they are not optimal, often feeling that they aren't good enough, Kern noted. These professionals may meet the regulations or have substantial experience, but he remarked, “Does the regulator know how good you need to be? Experience is only a good thing if you are doing what’s right…Even professionals who make all the right decisions can be overwhelmed by events.”

He pointed to a need for gathering the appropriate feedback to better evaluate whether professionals are at their best selves. “Under the stresses we are under, it is very difficult to get out of our own heads.”

Kern noted that stresses now come at people from many directions beyond the traditional places and that people should be aware that they cannot fly at the same level of performance in times of high stress.

Citing social media as an example, he advised, “Right now, don’t induce stress in your life you don’t need. Reduce stress where you can—track it, assess it, but don’t ignore it.”

However, Kern also provided some encouragement: “With the challenges we face as aviators, we are uniquely qualified to handle stress. We are trained to learn from experience. We are trained to use CRM. We are trained for mutual support.”

Aviation can be part of the solution, he concluded.

Wellbeing Checklists

Dr. Quay Snyder, president and CEO of Aviation Medicine Advisory Service, further homed in on wellbeing during the Safety Symposium. Snyder reminded of the responsibilities for remaining fit for duty and pointed out that this has been on the National Transportation Safety Board’s Most Wanted List since 2015. “Fitness for duty is one of the fundamentals of safety,” he stressed.

The difficulty is, unlike meeting other federal aviation regulations, fitness for duty is a “soft threshold…we’re always somewhere on the spectrum” and believe that it is safe to operate, he said.

Exacerbating this situation is the fact that FAA Part 67 regulations only list certain disqualifying medical conditions, he further noted. “There's not a lot of references for pilots to go on. So, we're relying on our personal assessment to determine whether we are fit to fly,” he said.

He recommended the use of fitness “checklists,” noting aviators are well-attuned to using them for aircraft and so too should be for their wellbeing. “It’s part of our standardized culture…You need a personal objective and reflective preflight too.”

People need to ensure they follow that checklist, Snyder maintained. If pilots find they are in a marginal category of three or so items, then perhaps they should not fly. But realistically, “How many people really do that?”

He also warned of the effects of medications on cognitive abilities, noting antihistamines were the number one drug found in an NTSB safety study surrounding the toxicology of pilots killed in aircraft crashes. For about 16 hours, just one 25-mg dose can affect cognitive ability similar to a blood alcohol level of 0.05, he noted.

He also pointed to the growing acceptance of the use of marijuana and its legalization in various states. But for pilots, he said it is always illegal because federally it is still a Class 1 drug. In addition, he warned that there aren’t controls over what is in locally-sold marijuana, so people using it may not be aware of what they are inhaling or ingesting.

Alcoholism remains an issue, and many with substance-abuse problems can function in today’s society without notice. Those with such problems should be made aware of programs that can help them through their issues, he said, stressing the importance of peer support.

Snyder also stressed the need for proper hydration, rest, and physical and mental exercises, as well as limits on caffeine and unnecessary medication. He further encouraged attendees to reach out to others for help on any issue, whether it be substance abuse or physical or mental health, and build a support network.

The GII Shuttle Trainer

Former NASA chief astronaut and current chairman of the Citation Jet Pilots Association Charlie Precourt provided an overview of lessons business aviation could learn from the Space Shuttle in areas such as preparedness and flight data monitoring.

He described the Space Shuttle as a “massive amount of energy,” weighing about 4.5 million pounds at liftoff. “You have got to have it right when you are lined up,” he said, with “deep, deep planning” for that moment.

On the other end, at reentry, he asked: “What do you use for a stabilized approach. This vehicle is at 17,5000 miles per hour…You have to be prepared for this. There’s no second chance for any of this.”

While he describes the reentry as a “light show, and a visual coming across the U.S.,” Precourt said the “meat of the action” is when the vehicle is down to Mach 5 and slows from there on approach to Kennedy Space Center. “You’d swear looking out of the front of the vehicle that the trajectory has you going into the Bahamas.”

NASA modified a Gulfstream II to mirror the flight deck of the Space Shuttle. “The Gulfstream cockpit allows us to do what we call airborne simulation,” he said. The pilots use the Gulfstream to train from the last 35,000 feet to touchdown with a T-38 chase aircraft accompaniment. This is done with average descent rates of 12,000 feet per minute in about the time it takes a business jet from gear down to touchdown, he said. The aircraft would do a simulated touch and head back up for another simulation. The commander and safety pilot would do 10 of these per mission.

While the front of the GII may look like the Space Shuttle, the rear is full of computers that produce data for these approaches. “We were using flight data monitoring for a form of flight operations quality assurance for every single one of these approaches.” The pilots would receive immediate feedback, making every flight a training flight to achieve an accurate landing. With the data, the pilot could see results and make corrections on the next approach.

He stressed the amount of practice that goes into these missions. After the missions, a team of engineers from the mission control center would gather the data and pilots would delve into the “nitty-gritty” details. “This was critical to making sure that we didn't run an orbiter off the runway or damage on landing,” he said.

Precourt added that with that data, “Commanders, before they apply their first landing in the Space Shuttle, would’ve done a thousand approaches of this simulation. And you swear when you grab the orbiter’s controls for the first time, you are back in the GII simulation.”

Expect the Unexpected

The 2022 ACSF Safety Symposium marked its first time held in a new venue, the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University campus in Daytona Beach. Its previous home had been the NTSB’s training center in Ashburn, Virginia. But while it moved out of the center, this year’s event still had an NTSB presence, with Board member Michael Graham discussing decision making, a key factor in managing risk. “We're all aware that unexpected events happen every day in everything we do,” he said. “You're driving a car, flying an airplane, whatever it is, and the decisions you make do impact your margin safety…It’s not just enough to train for the unexpected, you must expect the unexpected.”

He added that the NTSB database is full of accidents involving decisions that were made that reduced the margin of safety and increased the likelihood of accidents. He provided accident case studies as did Peter Basile, the senior air safety investigator at Textron Aviation. He highlighted the 2019 Dale Earnhardt Jr. accident as an example of how unstable approaches lead to runway excursions. Attendees also learned of Embry-Riddle successes using virtual reality and plans for energy management education.

The symposium follows the cancellation of the 2021 event because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Opening the 14th ACSF Safety Symposium was ACSF chairman Robert Rufli, who is v-p of flight operations and director of operations for Pentastar Aviation. He noted the shift in venue aligns with the organization’s strategic goals for better outreach. According to Rufli, ACSF is working towards deepening its ties with academia as it accumulates key safety data to address issues.