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OSTIV TSP - Startseite

STOP CHRASHING
Introducion
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4

STOP CHRASHING

Part 4

Leadership and Flying safety

In a club there are a number of officials who are responsible for all sorts of gliding practice.

Discuss:
-Who are the leaders of a club?

The proper answer should be:

-CFI, Instructors.

-Technicians

-Committee members

-Informal leaders, which means members who are not elected/appointed leaders, but  voluntarily playing a role as officials, like most experienced competitions pilots do in a club.

Remember, the chief of operations is directly responsible for all sorts of flying practice and the CFI is likely supposed to manage the quality of training.

How do we actually elect our leaders?

Glider pilots create generally a mixed category of individuals, sharing a fluid anticipation of soaring. They are guided by the ecstasy of powerless flight and the meteorological preconditions as well. The basic structure of their leisure activity deflects from  professional pilots and their occupational attitude to flying. When trying to sort out the variation another thing is also strikingly clear. Professionals have gone through a whole set of medical and psychological examinations to prove their ability to carry out specific tasks and to serve as pilots; there are no examinations for glider pilots corresponding to their tests, glider pilots are not selected in that way. The only thing of any resemblance is their own experience; after years in the club the newcomer is successively nestled to the collective; the social role and the identity more fixed. In many situations the social friction of the collective alters the student's mind and provides him with new meanings of being a glider pilot, but also the everyday perception of personal prestige and competence to fly are important. In the social melting-pot of the club, “being a glider pilot“ is tested over and over again through talks and stories, performance of narratives, rituals and the communication of the popular image — “Great Flying“.  

Show overhead 1,

and remind the audience of the social structure of the club which works like a random selection of citizens in a community or a borough. People are different. Let's try to list the members in a descending order from +,0 and - based on their capacity to take the role as leaders. These individuals togehter actually are the club; some of them act as ordinary members, they are the body of glider pilots in general, but some of them are also officials. An aggravating circumstance is that nobody made a real selection of leaders, based on their varying capacity to fulfil a leadership, measured along the scale, +,0 or -. The lack of generally accepted ideas of competence and leadership in combine, or the touch of responsibility in leadership that many people often overlook, or being present with an overview on different matters, or whatever a serious leadership must involve, is a problem.

A fighter pilot will serve among a specific set of weapons, his job is outlined in advance and he is fully aware of his position in the whole system. The basic idea of being a commercial pilot is to fly commercial aircrafts. Professionals are controlled through many tests to fit in their job. They usually fly only one type of an aircraft over longer periods. Compared with the last condition, gliding is a multi-task artistry. 

Professionals have access to all existing support, like weather briefings, flight controls and all sorts of navigating and technical aids. 

Each single flight is planned for carefully and approved by professional leaders.

Let's realize that, we are not able to transplant these ideas into gliding. We should, however,  keep them in mind at least for our own inspiration to improve flying safety. 

The personal quality of the members in a gliding club spans over a wide area: from the experienced who take care, to the real disastrous pilots. Many experienced pilots have a healthy good judgement, but even among those who we name as experienced we'll find characters creating potential risks, exposing themselves for accidents.

Pilots of the first category, the healthy experienced, represent those who fly without restrictions from the club, while the latter must be targets for limitations and of course, assistance. The worst pilots shouldn't  be allowed to fly at all.

Note, 

any leader of the club is holding a very important position! It is hardly possible to imagine the existence of bad leaders, but, there are all sorts of so called “officials“ involved. Instead, let's imagine another thing — the benefits of a qualifying training scheme for leaders, for giving the additional competence; the very nature of leadership says they must be retrained, continually.

Show overhead 2.

Is it possible for the leader to influence flying safety in the club?

The sheet is recommended to serve as an introduction to the following group session   

Group session

Time: 15 min

Selections of group members: The same as previous. Transparency and pen, only one colour per group.

Task:

List five different types of accidents or dangerous situations where a leader could have been involved.

Summing up:

Expand the discussions by joining the group. A comment should follow: There are evidently no accidents or situations knitted with considerable risks with a leader involved.

There might be some examples of “missing leadership“ accidents, at least by studying our examples:

Show overhead 3

In the following cases the individual behind the controls is authorized to act as pilot in command. Knowing the end, these flights should never have been approved, specially under the actual circumstances. The challenge was too big!

We must change our attitudes, we will look at this topic later, but for the moment we conclude in the following way:

Division of responsibilities in a gliding club.

A very basic requirement is that a leader is fully aware of his or her responsibility for the club and the operations. The leader is not the only one who has a central position, all the members are in fact sharing the idea of bringing responsibility to the club.

As a member of a club: Show overhead 4

-I am responsible for the club structure in general, but also its members, material supplies and commodities

-for the organisation

-for my own and for my relatives

As a teacher/instructor: Show overhead 5

-I am responsible for my students and their relatives

-and for the acceptance of the rules of the club/organisation

As an official/committee member: Show overhead 6

-I am responsible for the members

-for the operations in accordance with governing principles

-for the proper application of the rules

The meaning of responsibility could be understood by the instructor who is telling the student about the special level of competence required for a certain cross country flight.

or the instructor who will convince an individual pilot that he or she shall take some more time flying the old machines, before type conversion. 

or as a club member after observing a landing completely beyond rules and order, then reminding the other about the existence of principles.

or as a committee member prepared to arrange for a better aircraft park, or the corner for caravans and cars. 

or as the experienced pilot , (occasionally he or she is identical with an informal leader) recommending a beginner to inhibit the planning for a certain cross country plan.

If anybody should follow the “responsibility flight safety chain“, the numbers of accidents would be much lower. 

To expand on the theme, we may ask the question: Isn't it so that every pilot has the feeling that he has a specific responsibility, for himself and others? No, it isn't. The accidents bring evidence, a very large part are related directly to the human factor. 

In Sweden (your country) there are around 40 accidents (your figure) each year. There is a minor variation but still, with no efforts to reduce the total amount of accidents, we can expect these accidents will happen and make forecasts also for coming seasons.

There is also a mentality among glider pilots to reduce the problem through talking, rather than looking at the actual statistics. A correlation with the domestic statistics of launches over a year, 80 000 (your figure) make glider pilots beleive the accident rate is neither alarming nor disastrous.

Ask the question: There is no reason to keep going with our efforts to reduce the number of accidents?

Accidents are generally creating economic disadvantages and much suffering among many people, the pilot in the first hand of course, but also families , relatives and the club organization.

Looking at the fatal consequences a single accident may cause, it is obvious that we face severe issues, concerning the individual and the organisation of clubs, and the very idea of gliding. An accident is conflicting the beauty and freedom of our sport. There is no reason to cease our safety work and complete our efforts until the number of accidents is down to zero.

We should not be satisfied with the notion that “gliding is a safe sport“. The attitude among many glider pilots — “it is probably not dangerous to fly gliders“ or “the greatest risk is going by car to the club“ — are actually misleading. Instead, let's look at the  “responsibility flight safety chain“.

Why does this typical accident occur?

The conditions and the circumstances behind any accident are always very complex, but the final end is regularly created through a bad judgement: the pilot has done things in a wrong way and somewhere behind his control lies a false reality making. The typical accidents described here, represent also another factor. The instructor or the club in itself could have been the first producers of the risk-scenario, when demanding a far too complicated task carried out by the pilot.

Show overhead 7.

Note:

Here we are talking about all types of leaders, even the informal leaders. An example:

A pilot tend to make breaknecking cross country flights with many outlandings. Mostly, he is not able complete a task and the common opinion among his fellows is, that he is too hot-headed. An instructor´s conclusion might have been this: The pilot is demonstrating a serious lack of competence.

Why does he go on flying in that way?

One condition could have been that the informal leader, the “born pilot“ in his eyes, told him to “keep the stick down on the panel“ with no idea about his ability and competence to fulfil a cross country task.

Show overhead 2.7 and 2.7A Familiarisation flight on a new glider and “Maja“

Comments: You may recall the accidents which were related to a club on its way up, and a single example of a training related accident. The latter is better understood as a situation where a leader has given up his duties.

The Leader and the Pilot

Show overhead 8

People are different, so are pilots. We have different backgrounds predicting the way we perceive reality, situations, danger, and finally of course, our decisions.

It is necessary that the officials understand the compound world-views of the members;  the way they create inner models of gliding for themselves. As the very idea of gliding defects from individual to individual, we must concentrate our efforts to improve flying safety with these varying, deeply personal ideas in mind, because they have equal rights; no one is better than the other.

Depending on the fact that a gliding club attracts people from different social levels, transplanting economic and cultural backgrounds to the club site, their patterns of behaviour stretch over a wide range. The gliding people have also different attitudes towards gliding, also safety, risks or challenges. Some people are fair and healthy for the club while others act as macho pilots, some people are stuck into compensatory elements originating from their personal lives. If we try to attach class and social identities, the micro-universe of gliding comprises them all.  

The conclusion is that people are different, their attitudes and their judgements are not the same, but they still belong to the spiritual affinity of a gliding club.

We must cope with all these preconditions, attitudes towards gliding and deflecting patterns of behaviour, in a positive way.

Another thing is that some attitudes are not purely positive, some of them are in fact conflicting flying safety work. If we are the leaders, we have to detect and reveal the existence of bad attitudes, then trying change them so that they will fit in our safety concept.

When looking at those areas, we may conclude that the leaders must be experienced and functioning in a positive way. 

Learning by mistakes?

The final statement in an ordinary accident report use to be:

Write the following words on the black board

-The pilot was authorized to make the flight

-The pilot was not able to handle the actual situation

Usually the official investigation ends with such a conclusion, the report is added to previous matters and put into the archive. The strictly formalized reporting system is completed. Rather seldom anything more will happen.

Between members of the club, however, the inquiry climate persists: “What happened, really“? At this level the investigations are transplanted into an atmosphere of common sense, the conclusions are drawn rapidly.

For example, show overhead 9

The illustration shows some options of preventing accidents. Why were no efforts taken?

Is it a leader problem?   

Preventive measures are necessary - when the pilot finds himself losing control in a disastrous situation it is too late. In other words, any pilot must be the target for tips, advises and recommendations. There must be somebody who tells the pilot about the way his dangerous flying style is working.

This is what the leader must do?!

We could have put the question the following way: Why is it so painful to communicate with a pilot, discussing his flying and competence, to sharing good ideas?

Let's try to find the reason:

-It is a rather sensitive thing to correct individually linked behaviour

-Some pilots will always take positive advises for signs of hostility

Show overhead 10

Discuss:

-What is the proper way of giving lessons on topics which are almost impossible to practice during exercises? A typical lesson is decision making, to decide whether to cease a cross country task and make preparations for an out-landing, or taking the risk connected with exploring lift at a low altitude.

-What is the proper way to make people responsive for good advises?

-How could we tell a pilot about his lacking confidence/skill, or simply failing experience with regard to the task?

-What are the signs of a stressed pilot, ready for take-off, touching the limits of what is good for him?

-How can we provide fellow pilots with personal assistance in an atmosphere of being friends to avoid the prime response of defence, or “coping with others' business“.

Comments:

There is a moment of prestige embedded in all these matters. First we must learn to loose those prestigious tights many pilots have, for an open minded communication.  Forgetting the defence walls  of prestige surrounding our actions at the airfield or above, personal comments on a flying style is much more appreciable and useful. Listening and positive receipt of messages of intrinsic value, are the first step towards improvements of our flying style.

What happens after an accident?

When an accident occur, there is a certain schedule. Pilot and the others involved must be carefully noticed, to secure the standards of flying safety, and there should be a planning for the most effective way of bringing the message to club members.

Referring to an “assistance scheme“ might be a good introduction.

Show overhead 11

Following the "scheme" we may assume the pilot failed to gain control depending on a lacking skill. Occasionally it will lead to prohibition to fly, but as the scheme tells us, it is first when something very serious happens, we have to consider whether the pilot should be a member of the club or not.

Show overhead 11 A

The “scheme“ says that disciplinary steps sometimes must be taken to retain order. A leading position means, that you have to realize the effects of constrained efforts. A disturbing circumstance is that many pilots will always perceive a positive recommendation as a compelling tool of discipline and totalitarian order. These people simply forget the basic idea which is human, giving assistance to gain safety of operations.

A further issue are varying forms of personal flight restrictions. If you notice that the pilot hardly understands the problem, which may cause himself a risk, restrictions over a longer or shorter term will do.

The outfits of restrictions are designed in different ways. For example, continual dual flights, permission to fly only one type of a glider or flights only in the vicinity of the airfield (so that the flights are observed from ground). In sum, all kinds of restrictions represent a set of possibilities, each directing towards a specific goal, and they have nothing to do with the traditional meaning of “authorization“. Exchanging ideas with CFI and club instructors, the chief of operations must learn to know all the pilots in the club. Therefore, there must be a body of knowledge about each single pilot in the club. Precautionary, they must know his or her flying status and take the necessary steps through recommendations or restrictions.

Leaders and all the other-learn by accidents!

After an accident the leader becomes automatically involved. There are a certain routine activated, following the civil aviation legislation, and the leader's duty is to explain that the official investigation aims to improve flying safety among other pilots in the future.

It means that the official investigation, lead by civil aviation authorities, will never try to expose a “sinner“. The basic idea is only to improve flying safety.

Show overhead 12

Comments

Elaborate the notes on “If an accident occur“.

Inform about the central gliding organisation, and its safety work, officials at different levels, from top to the local clubs. (In Sweden national Chief of Training&Safety, Regional Safety Inspectors and club related CFI's and Chiefs of Operations)

Add a careful information on the administration of an accident report, from the first contact with the regional civil aviation flight control, alarming ambulance and police, to later answers to media and so on.

If only smaller accidents - report to the central gliding organisation.

An important thing to avoid false interpretations of “who is who“ in the context of an accident, the duties of a police investigation must be carefully explained. When there is a violation of law, the matter might end at the court house with an prosecution. Otherwise, the report will be added to the the body of acts in the archive.

Sometimes, the official investigation by the civil aviation authorities will produce new rules. 

Do we really need any new rules?

After a complete investigation report one may usually find that the pilot didn't act the way he should; he or she didn't follow the existing regulations and recommendation for gliding. This creates a situation of ambivalence. If we are supposed to be the leaders, how could we

make the pilots respect air regulations, sometimes we ask ourselves if rules are necessary at all.

Then we should remember that they are created through experiences from accidents. Each single regulation has something more to tell us; it is not only a law text, rather a pre-history of accidents and near-accidents, discussions and studies, and considerations stretching far beyond the selected words in the regulation. Regulations have been invented to protect pilots from risks, nothing else.     

But there must be a balance between heavy weight statements in law and our own recommendations. There might be a tendency of restricting gliding activity through new regulations too fast; Obviously there is critical balance between formal regulations on one hand and informal recommendations, training, courses and routines on the other. 

Show overhead 13

Following up accidents

After an accident we must draw some conclusions, learning by mistakes. Such an analysis of “what really happened“ is crucial to any club.

A model could be:

- The Chief of Operations calls all the officials, CFI, Instructors and any other person with a special mission for a club meeting

Incident reporting scheme

Another way of gaining flying safety are created through incident reports, comprising all kinds of smaller disturbances, near accidents or similar events. They are elementary pieces of a fruitful safety work and might be regarded as crucial steps towards a useful following up of operational standards. 

An incident reporting form is filled anonymously when desired. Working with such an  documentation makes it possible to take necessary steps in advance and perform a preventive set of recommendations.

Ask: What about the members in the club, do they know where they will find these papers and forms, and are they acquainted with them?

Above all, do the leaders know?

The Leader - an important person in our activity 

Now we can conclude, that a leader plays an important role on the club scene, the comprehensive position in safety work is important, regardless of the subjective capacity to fulfil the role and create a functioning leadership.  

Let's introduce the term style (with no aspiration to combine gliding with corporate head hunting) to expand the theme; the subjective capacity among leaders to lead. Different leaders design their own style of governing, sometimes they are not fully aware about the members' tendency to be swayed by them, simply by their presence. Sometimes they are really working on the design of a specific captaincy; some are supposed to be hard and other weak, noisy or silent, but they are all distributing concepts of gliding and club life more or less seriously. They are communicating ideas.

How they actually succeed in governing the club has a lot to do with a conducting style. Try to imagine that these problems depends a lot on a club structure, not solely on their persons, the style is defined at different levels in the micro-universe of a club, by the receipt and translation of ideas into practical flying. Nobody may claim leadership based on a doubtful acceptance from the members' side. 

Overhead 14-16, hide the text.

Overhead 14

Is it so?

Overhead   15

Or so?

Overhead   16 

What are we really looking for? The ultimate grand leadership?

Overhead   17

May be like this...

For discussion:

What kind of leadership does your club actually represent? Styles? Club structures?

The result of discussing these ideas is that leadership must be comprehended very seriously. Conducting pilots must be a target for serious considerations, or alterations, to improve flying safety.

Most important is to be conscious about the great role a leader has to play to keep flying safety at a high and healthy level throughout the club organisation.