Pilot Briefings: They should be taught from lesson one By Dan Mahoney, MCFI
CFIs who were trained in a strictly GA (general aviation) environment may not be aware that airline flight crews have been required to make briefings several times every flight. Pilot Briefing is a way that to reinforce procedures, minimize the impact of surprise should a malfunction occur.
International flight crews meet for briefing and planning before every departure. Usually this happens in a specifically designed and designated briefing area. The pilots may then brief the Flight Attendants before the crew proceeds to aircraft. For a domestic flight, the Captain would brief entire crew in the cabin before boarding and he will brief the First Officer before they settle in the cockpit for the first flight of the trip pairing. If an Air Marshall is on board, another briefing might take place with the Air Marshall.
Airline flight crews have required briefings for the departure procedure which may performed as early as the starting engine checklists. The crew will also perform a takeoff briefing, descent briefing which will include the IFR arrival and approach procedure and a separate Category II or II approach briefing if applicable.
Most of these briefings require a minimum amount of information, but the pilots have some latitude and should add anything special for that day, weather or special conditions. For example, if a low visibility takeoff is taking place and a takeoff alternate airport is required, it would be prudent to advise the pilot monitoring ( non-flying pilot) of the planned course of action by the pilot should an engine failure occur and flight to the alternate airport is required. If the takeoff is in good weather conditions, the takeoff briefing might only require a review of the first heading after takeoff, the first hard altitude you are cleared to and the first waypoint the flight is cleared to.
The concept of pilot briefings as a valuable tool can not be minimized. I find that my airline experience has had an enormous positive effect in my GA flight instruction, especially when I emphasize it to older pilots who have special challenges with memory and proficiency. When a pilot briefs him or herself and or the person in the right seat, they reinforce their long term procedural memory. Additionally, they are enlisting the talent of the person in the right person. This is all starting to sound like Crew Resource Managmenet.
Recency of experience is at the core of many discussions. For example, I believe that recency of experience is overlooked in the debate about the mandatory retirement age of 60 by airline pilots. CFIs often cringe at the thought of flying with a retired airline pilot because those guys think they are so good, yet they lack in so many ways. They don’t seem to remember cross wind taxi technique, they don’t know how to contact FSS for a weather briefing, and they don’t seem to show regard the traffic pattern in an uncontrolled airport. Perhaps, this is because airline pilots do not operate in these environments very often. Airline pilots who do a lot of GA flying on their days off, do not suffer from these problems.
Then there are airline pilots who have been retired for some and have not flown any aircraft type for a long time. Combine that with the fact that many airline pilots never engaged in GA flying during their careers, and you have a special treat for the CFI.
The real problem is that without the benefit of flying 85 hours a month or attending recurrent training on a regular basis, that airline pilot is just like everyone else. Perhaps that is why researchers who are studying the age 60 mandatory retirement issue, continue to survey pilots who are at or near age 60 instead of using pilots who are perhaps 69 or 70.
Pilots who are still with an airline have the benefit of being current. It is not surprising that research results so often declare that older pilots more than make up for their aging issues with their experience level.
I conducted some research on issues that relate to older pilots. I discovered some very interesting things. Surprisingly, I learned most pilots lacked recency and that age was not as big a factor. This goes hand in hand with the age 60 studies I have read.
There are many ways to achieve recency and to maintain it, but how to do it best in a GA environment? Not everyone becomes an airline pilot or gets the opportunity to train with Flight Safety every year, but those who have, miss it when they retire.
Practice makes perfect, but how do you keep at that peak level of performance ? There are many ways, but the one I put at the top of my list is PILOT BRIEFING.
Just like Tom Cruise did in TOP GUN, I have my pilots try talking to themselves or their right seaters as much as possible. If you take an example of pilot briefings done in the airline cockpits and apply it with some modifications to light aircraft, you have a very useful tool.
Encourage your student pilot or flight review applicant to talk to you in every phase of flight, just like you were asked to do when training for your CFI certificate. Put a special emphasis on the phase of flight you are in. For example, a takeoff briefing for a VFR pilot might go like this: I am going to use full power, the wind is from the right. If my engine fails prior to reaching 500 feet, I will fly straight ahead and try to land in a clear field or on a nearby road. If I am above 500 feet, I will make a turn into the wind and return to the airport. My first heading after takeoff is 350, and my target altitude is 3500 feet”.
The briefing can be shorter if you have just been given a clear for immediate takeoff by the tower or more complex if you are departing IFR in a twin engine King Air. Whatever works for your operation? The important thing is the opportunity for review. Even a takeoff from a grass field could benefit from a briefing. “I will hold the stick back until the nose wheel is off the grass, I will become airborne in ground effect, then I will climb at Vx until clearing the trees, and then I will climb at Vy until 1000 feet.” The pilot has just reviewed both short and soft field procedures. Just like a CFI applicant would do in training for the rating.
Another example of briefing might be on final approach. Consider a VFR final, even with no traffic other than myself, I would say to myself or co-pilot: “in the event of a go around, I will apply full power, adjust my pitch to a climb attitude, raise half of the flaps until I reach 500 feet”. If I were IFR in a King Air, I would say: “In the event of a missed approach, I will add go around power, raise my flaps to approach, retract my gear at a positive rate of climb. Fly straight ahead until 700 feet and then make a left turn to the VOR and hold, climbing to 2000 feet”. You get the idea.
Once the student or pilot gets into the habit of briefing, it becomes additive. I find myself briefing everything from cross wind taxi technique, to how the wind will affect my turn from base to final. The benefits of briefing are many fold. They enhance CRM technique in a two pilot environment, reinforce long term memory function, and provides the CFI some idea what the student is thinking about or not thinking about.
I have seen pilots who are retired more than a decade return to their pre-retirement level of proficiency in just a short time. In my own study, I re-introduced pilots to the benefits of flight simulation, altitude awareness procedures, runway incursion avoidance procedures, and many more procedures to counter the negative affects of the normal aging process. Procedural memory stays with us the longest, and when the going gets tough, it pays to know the procedure required to come out of the emergency in one piece.
Airline crews brief the departure procedure before starting the engines. They brief just prior to takeoff, at the start of the descent. Many of us brief even more. Call them comfort briefings if you like. It enhances CRM by keeping other crewmembers in your loop. It is a great tool and those of us actively teaching in the GA environment can enhance our product greatly. We can better prepare those students heading for a profession in flying, help those who have been absent from it for a while, and introduce some good stuff to those pilots who have never been in a professional cockpit.
Far and away, I find Briefings the best way to make pilots safer, both students and older pilots alike.
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