Professional Education

The National Transportation Safety Board and FAA have identified a number of fatal accidents caused by maintenance-related problems that should have been caught during preflight. Therefore, the two agencies urge pilots to conduct a more thorough preflight inspection of aircraft that have just been returned to service, particularly after unscheduled maintenance or inspections. This advanced preflight goes beyond the normal preflight checklist to include a review of the ship’s maintenance history and an additional items checklist. Attendees will also review the elements of a standard preflight and will receive a sample advanced preflight checklist.

For a skill that is so pivotal to one’s survival, it is ironic that we often leave the development of aeronautical decision making (ADM) to chance. “As you gain more experience you will make better decisions”—clearly, this is an outdated axiom. What are you doing to change this? This course will review the tenets of ADM and then explore how it is evolving. In-depth case studies of accidents will help participants understand how decision-making occurs in dynamic situations. Participants will also develop the building blocks for threat-and-error management (TEM) skills.

Learning Objectives: By the conclusion of the course, participants will learn:

• How to better understand the human decision-making process
•  How to distinguish between analytical and naturalistic decision-making
• About the benefits of TEM and how to start a process for implementing it
• How the systems work together to support successful outcomes

A great deal of misunderstanding surrounds the various physiological responses to stressors. How does the body react to extreme fatigue? How do energy drinks affect response times in an emergency? How do we make decisions under stress? What is spatial disorientation? This course will look at each of these from an operational perspective.

Learning Objectives: By the conclusion of the course, participants will learn:

• About fatigue and its effects on human performance
• The three aspects of crew rest
• How to compare the effects of sports drinks versus energy drinks
• About stress and its effects on how we process information
• The four ways we make decisions
• About spatial disorientation, and how to compare the visual, vestibular, and proprioceptive systems

This session presents best practices for on-scene helicopter accident investigations with the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB). It is based on the experiences of helicopter accident party members, drawing from their work with regulators and industry experts during major helicopter accident investigations. Created with input from NTSB and FAA investigators, this session bridges the gap between investigation methodology and real-world application of those skills. Attendees will learn practical techniques for use in accident investigations as well as in pre-accident preparation.

You may never need this information on what to do in an in-flight emergency, but preparing NOW for that moment will boost your chances of living to fly another day. We will discuss some physics, some personal experiences, some techniques for survival, and even offer some advice for preventing emergencies from happening in the first place. Attendees will be better prepared to act appropriately in the event of an in-flight emergency.

This presentation provides practical insights into fatigue, a condition that has made the NTSB Most Wanted list several years running as a contributing or causal factor in transportation accidents. Attendees will learn ways to mitigate the risk of fatigue-related performance degradation.

This course is designed for aviation professionals who want to better understand and ultimately implement safety programs within a flight department. Concepts covered include emergency preparedness, emergency equipment, safety programs, best practices, and risk management.

Learning Objectives: By the conclusion of the course, participants will learn:

• The standard techniques and key areas of safety audits
• How to establish a safety program and safety committee
• The key points of developing an accident/incident tracking system
• How to develop plans for disaster recovery and emergency preparedness
• Common maintenance control procedures for inspections, repairs, and prevention measures, including computerized options, and flight department regulatory requirements

This certification course provides pilots, aircrew, and passengers with basic preflight, in-flight, and post-aircraft-ditching knowledge and survival skills, including use of emergency breathing devices (EBDs). This course begins at the Anaheim Convention Center with a classroom session on aircraft ditching, followed by a five-minute walk to the Hilton Anaheim indoor pool to practice your new survival skills. Your course confirmation will list any supplies or materials you need to bring to class.

Learning Objectives: By the conclusion of the course, participants will learn:

• How to prioritize tasks prior to ditching
• To identify and perform critical steps for the use of underwater egress and EBDs
• To identify water survival skills