What is crew resource management? A combination of communication, teamwork and situational awareness for optimum safety.

Crew Resource Management utilizes the skills of communication, teamwork and situational awareness. The combination of these items improve safety, increases accuracy and professionalism and makes for a more effective crew. It is a comprehensive system of applying human factors concepts to improve crew performance. CRM requires the active participation of all crew members. It provides an opportunity for individuals to examine their own behavior and to make decisions on how to improve teamwork and crew safety performance.

What is "assertiveness"? Assertiveness means standing up for what you think is right. You don"t have to be right, but you believe your right. In the interest of safety it is sometimes necessary to be assertive when you believe you have recognized a potential problem or safety hazard

What do you do if an assertive statement doesn't work? Shock the crew into realizing a mistake or poor judgement. Sometimes it is necessary to shock someone into realizing poor judgement or lack of situational awareness. This may be necessary if an assertive statement doesn’t get a the desired response.

How do you know if someone is listening to you?  If the person to whom you are speaking can summarize what you said when you check for understanding you can tell if they were listening to you. If they cannot summarize your comments, they may not have listened or they may not have understood.

Who is responsible for miscommunications, the sender or the receiver? Both are responsible, but the sender has the primary responsibility because the sender is the one trying to get the message across.

What is Situational Awareness? Situational Awareness is knowing what happened in the past, what is happening now and how it is going to affect your future. When you keep yourself totally aware of your surroundings, you are better prepared for the unexpected emergencies.

When is Situational Awareness most critical? During take-off, landing, or low level operations into LZ's.

Who is responsible for situational awareness in flight? All crew members are responsible for situational awareness.

The sterile cockpit procedures must include announcing the start and the end of the critical phase. This allows the crew to be aware and to communicate only in the interest of safety during this time.

Whenever there are conflicting interpretations of fact, external sources should be used to resolve the conflict. Whenever there is conflicting information from two sources, cross checking from an independent source is necessary.

Does stress affect your fitness to fly? Everyone suffers from some form of stress. Excessive pressure from stress can have a negative affect on your ability to fly. This stress can come from large things such as problems with finances, family, moving or illness. Stress can also come from fatigue, taking medication and not eating properly. Negative stress can cause a lack of situational awareness and/or miscommunication.

What can affect your attitude? There are many things that affect your attitude. Some of which include: fatigue, hunger, illness, stress, unresolved discrepancies or misunderstandings.

In two-pilot IFR operations, communicating with crew about aircraft checks will increase situational awareness.
Communicating with the crew about aircraft checks will increase everyone’s situational awareness. Calls should be used to indicate critical phases of flight. Calls should include: Ready for takeoff check is complete. Ready for Lift off ? (crew should respond "ready") Cruise check complete. Before landing check is complete. These calls insure sterile cockpit procedures are in place.

Checklists are used to define or specify: What tasks need to be done, who should do them, in what order, and when they should be done. Checklists and written procedures are used to define or specify what tasks need to be done, who should do them, what order they should be done in, and when they should be done. When checklists and procedures are performed, pilots also become aware of various aspects of aircraft systems, participating in tasks and monitoring crew members’ performance.

Pilots will use the provided FAA Approved checklist for their pre-flight, starting, taxiing, pre-take-off, climb out, cruise, descent, prelanding, landing, shutdown, and post flight activities. The checklist will be physically referred to for each of these activities without relying on memory using the "Do Verify" method.

Crew briefings are a necessary part of the safety communication process. Briefings should be held at shift change, pre-flight and post-flight.

Who should be included in the briefing? All team members including pilot, mechanic, medical crew and communications specialist.

All personnel involved in the program should be included as often as possible in briefings. In addition to the crew members, the following others should be included: technicians, communication & dispatch, security, ground unit personnel, etc. Crew pre-flight briefing should include: Destination, description of the patient / passenger. Full passenger briefing. Breakfast, lunch or dinner.  Weather status, destination, estimated time and any pertinent safety factors. Crew members do not require a full passenger briefing. It is necessary to include current and forecast weather, location of destination, estimated time and other pertinent safety factors critical to the flight. Insure that all crew members are comfortable with the mission before proceeding.

Who can make the decision not to accept a flight? Any crew member can make a No-Go decision. The PIC is the only person that can make a GO decision, however any crew member can decide not to go if they are uncomfortable with any aspect of the flight. All crew members MUST be totally comfortable with all conditions including : weather, maintenance, personnel health, etc.

The further you are into a flight the more difficult it is to make a decision to abort the mission. This is due to emotional pressure and the need to complete the task

What is the most conservative response rule? The most conservative person on the crew can request that a mission be cancelled. All crew members must be comfortable before a mission should proceed.

How do Standard Operating Procedures assist the crew? Coordination of tasks among flight crew members is facilitated by the fact that pilots share the same knowledge and skills. Standard Operating Procedures extend the shared knowledge base by setting expectations about who is doing what and when. Using SOPs free busy crew members from having to spend valuable time searching for and validating routine information. Simultaneous or sequential coordination of tasks is made easier.

Second-guessing other crew members is not an efficient way of gaining information, especially in high-workload, critical phases of flight or during emergency situations. Effective crew performance in complex task environments requires crew members to integrate their activities in an ordered, timely fashion and to make their actions and intentions known to others.

Knowing your team members means understanding their strengths and limitations. These include cultural influences, language barriers, and experience levels. This can be vital to the safety of the mission. Each team member should know what is expected of them and be able to recognize when a team member needs assistance.

When there is a disagreement in flight, frank, tactful statements of opinion are normally sufficient to rectify the problem. Nagging and mumbling have little effect except to cause dissension. If the disagreement still exists after the flight, take the opportunity to hone those skills of stating opinions and working out differences.

How does crew decision making differ from individual decision making? Crew decision making is managed decision making. The PIC has the responsibility for making decisions but is supported by input from the crew, ATC, dispatch and maintenance. Crews may do better than individuals. Multiple eyes, ears, hands, and minds increase available cognitive capacity, increasing the potential for better decisions.

What ingredients contribute to effective crew decision making? Situational awareness: Crews are alert to developing situations, sensitive to cues, and aware of their implications. Planfulness: Crews work out plans and strategies for reaching their goals, prepare for contingencies, figure out what information they need and evaluate their progress. Resource management: Resources used efficiently and explicitly. Crews set priorities, schedule tasks and allocate responsibilities. These do not in themselves constitute decision making but create a context within which effective decisions can be made.

The person in authority who makes the final decision Is responsible for it. Give your input to the appropriate authority. That person may or may not agree with you. Remember that person makes the final decision and is responsible for it.

What are some examples of Cockpit management? Appropriate delegation of tasks and assignments of responsibilities. Establishment of a logical order of priorities.  Continuous monitoring and cross checking of instruments and systems. Assessment of problems and avoidance of preoccupation with minor ones.
Utilization of all available data to conduct an operation. Clear communication among crew members regarding all plans & intentions.

Which of the following show good cockpit organization.  The cockpit should be arranged prior to flight so that all the information the pilot may need is easily within reach from the normal pilot position. Publications and checklists should be open to the appropriate page and ready for use. Paper for copying information and all printed material for the flight should be accessible with minimum movement from the pilot to reduce the possibility of vertigo. Frequencies should be pre-set, long range navigation systems should be programmed and all navigational aids should be tuned and set for navigation in flight.

A new subparagraph entitled Crew Monitoring and Cross-Checking, emphasizes the critical role of the pilot-not-flying (PNF) as a monitor. Monitoring is always essential, and particularly so during approach and landing when controlled flight into terrain (CFIT) accidents are most common. Accordingly, previous references to PNF have been changed to pilot monitoring (PM), in accordance with government and industry preference.

The positive delegation of flying and monitoring responsibilities must be a priority. The positive delegation of monitoring responsibilities is just as important as the positive delegation of flying responsibilities.

The transfer of controls will take place upon visual verification and both pilots stating, "You have the controls...I have the controls".

What is the Stabilized Approach Concept? Maintaining a stable speed, descent rate, vertical flight path and configuration.

What call outs should the PNF make on a precision IFR approach? Missed approach if required. Glide slope is alive, Glide slope captured. Course is Alive, Cross check , no flags, Course captured.

Approach calls during a non-precision instrument approach should include: Course is alive, Cross check, no flags, Course captured.

Prior to the FAF the Before landing Check must be completed. Then the following call outs are required: Marker or FAF, checks complete, time started, and 500" 200" 100" above DH/MDA, and DH/MDA.
 

What are some of the visual cues which should be announced by the PNF while on approach?

Airport, Runway, VASI in sight.

While on final approach the PNF will announce any of the following visual cues:  Airport or field - in sight  Approach lights - in sight  Threshold - in sight  Runway - in sight  VASI - in sight  Touchdown zone - in sight

In dual pilot operations which method of checklist use is necessary? The challenge and response method is used by all dual pilot operations. The PNF will challenge the PF with all check list items. The PF will respond to each accordingly. The PNF will review all departure, arrival and ATC instructions with the PF. The PF will challenge and the PNF will respond accordingly.

In dual pilot operations, during an emergency, the PF will initiate all immediate action procedures and maintain aircraft control. Coordination between the PF and PNF for checklist and follow-on procedures to complete the emergency steps is essential. After the memory items are completed, the PF will call for the checklist and the PNF will verify that all steps in the checklist are completed.

If any crew member has a doubt about a clearance, procedure or situation, he or she should make that doubt known to other crew members.

Maximum pilot workload capacity can be degraded by any number or combination of factors. Such factors include: fatigue, job related stress, family problems, illness, lack of training, lack of proficiency and any other factor which takes the edge off one"s piloting skills or causes a lack of situational awareness.

Each pilot has a maximum workload capacity. This capacity is a function of many factors, including experience, proficiency level, specific training, motivation, emotional health, and inherent skill.

From a communication perspective, conventionalized patterns of information exchange create expectations about how and when important information is made available. When information is made available in a predictable way, more efficient understanding and utilization of that information is accomplished. It makes accurate information transfer easier even in a noisy cockpit.

The division of labor is useful and effective because it prevents the "flying" pilot from becoming overloaded with tasks.

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