Annual review, December 2008
Carey Edwards, Chairman
General
I am pleased to report that the HFG is in exceptionally good shape. There are approximately 80 active members involved in achieving the aims of the group and meeting the business plan objectives, through the various standing groups. The active groups are the HFG-Engineering under Andy Ebdon, the CRM SG under Nicole Svatek, the newly formed Cabin Crew SG under Sarah Skelton and the CRM Advisory Panel under Graham Cruse. I am still keen to create and develop a Dispatch/ Operations SG which will cover an important part of the safety process.
In addition to the work being done in the SGs, the HFG has held or contibuted to a couple of conferences such as the RAeS Training conference and the HFG-E conference, and also continues to maintain a healthy and prudent reserve of funds for underwriting and supporting future conferences.
Crew Resource Management Group (CRMSG)
The CRMSG met four times over the course of 2008. Attendance was at times lamentably patchy, an issue which was raised as an agenda item in order to clarify and reach some unanimity regarding the Group’s purpose, vision and mission. At that meeting, the members wholeheartedly endorsed the necessity of the CRMSG and our role in keeping a ‘watching brief’ over research, academic and operational CRM and HF. During the latter part of the year, new areas of interest arose which seemed to re-energise the membership to where we can now anticipate a rather healthier outlook for 2009.
CRMSG representation on RAeS Flight Crew Training Conference Panel
On behalf of the HFG, the CRMSG was participant in the organisation and chairmanship of the very successful RAeS Flight Crew Training Conference held at Hamilton Place in September 2008. This two-day conference was attended by over 200 people representing 18 countries. The conference is held on an annual basis and the CRMSG holds a permanent seat on the organising committee.
CRMSG collaboration with RSSB CRM conference
Earlier in the year, the CRMSG was approached by the Rail Safety Standards Board (RSSB) for assistance in helping them introduce CRM/launch a CRM profile to their constituents. It was decided that a one day conference, to include other professions who have successfully applied CRM concepts, would be the ideal vehicle. The conference will be held at the RAeS on 21st May 2009 and will feature speakers from various airlines, operations and maintenance, plus the NHS, the RNLI and selected academics. Prof. Jim Reason is the morning programme keynote speaker, with Dr. Steve Premore, Jetblue the afternoon programme keynote speaker.
HF Issues relating to VLJ and conference
Very Light Jets have appeared on the world marketplace with very few if any of the training or licensing constraints placed on other aircraft or operators. These affordable, high performance aircraft fly at commercial altitudes or above. The CRMSG is concerned about the safety issues regarding the introduction of these aircraft into the aviation environment and the absence of any specific training requirements, particularly CRM and HF. The RAeS has scheduled a conference to be held at Hamilton Place on 18th March 2009. The CRMSG is a member of the organising committee and when tasked with sourcing ‘HF VLJ experts’ to speak on the subject, discovered that there were none. To date, the CAA, EASA and the FAA do not have designated, named individuals responsible for VLJs and there is a paucity of research work for reference. The CRMSG considers this subject a matter of urgency and plans to make recommendations to the HFG in the coming months.
HF/CRM issues relating to current aviation merger/shrinkage environment
The CRMSG has expressed concern regarding the current state of merger and acquisition within the aviation community and the detrimental impact this has on CRM and HF practices. The shrinkage being experienced by the airlines invariably places huge stress on engineering, flight and cabin crews with regards to job security and on the training staff as resources are cut back to the minimum. History has taught us that in this environment, CRM is usually the first casualty. Anxieties and distractions are the breeding ground for error whilst over-extended individuals are more likely to take short cuts and be less vigilant. Expediency becomes the norm. Representation has been made to the CAA who has agreed to make mention of the CRM issues in the current climate in their RETRE newsletter. The CRMSG has succeeded in having the subject included in the Accountable Manager’s Meeting to be held in the New Year. The Group is in the process of drafting a letter to Flight International in the hope that Flight will be inspired to produce an article. A watching brief will be maintained between the CRMSG and the CCSG throughout the coming months.
Video shop
The CAA has agreed to house the Video Shop. The equipment to convert material onto DVD format has been purchased and is in situ. The ‘Guardian’ (Kevin Lawrence), is briefed and ready to start. However, following the retirement of Pete Griffith, the Video Shop lost a dedicated co-ordinator at the CAA which we are now in the process of finding. Skype and a small budget will be made available to Kevin who will field calls from the ‘shoppers’. Charlie Cantan is sourcing material and Rick Heybroek will manage the production of advertising flyers which will be distributed at all RAeS functions and conferences.
Helios ‘work-up’
The Helios accident report has been distributed to all CRMSG members, the brief has been explained and the deadline set for comments to be received by the next CRMSG meeting 26th March 2009, to report back to HFG 1st April 2009.
Human Factors Engineering (HFG-E)
Support for the group remains strong with attendance at the quarterly meetings always at least 12 and normally more. Most areas of the industry are represented well, although the HFG-E continues to seek to bolster experience from major design and manufacture areas. The core focus continues to be development of the 4 key areas of Strategy for Change; Data, Design, Intervention Strategies & Influence. Extensive data sources have now been analysed and a consistent picture of predominant causal factors for HF maintenance incidents has been established. This will be converted into a short summary report to be updated on a 6 monthly basis. In Design a comprehensive paper has been taken through a number of draft stages and is almost complete. There is much work to be done in this area, including identification and advocation of Best Practice. The HFG-E is considering using the RAeS Corporate Partner Scheme to move this forward. Intervention Strategies is all about providing information on approaches to HF problems that have proven successful. Given the considerable expertise in the Group, it has recently started to assemble a digest of successful interventions for given conditions. Ultimately the HFG-E needs to determine how best to make such advice available to all those who might need and benefit from it. Lastly, in Influence the SG continues to seek and exploit opportunities to put across the message. The HFG-E has developed a standardised presentation for use by any member of the HFG-E, which expands on the fundamental premise that HF in maintenance is more than just ‘ticking the box’. The HFG-E has an aspiration to stage a 2-day Conference in 2010, jointly sponsored by RAeS/ FAA/CAA/TC, but it is still at the early stages.
The HFG-E held another successful Mini-Conference in October at the excellent new Conference Facility at Cranfield. Some 120 attended and the theme was to focus on potential solutions that can make a difference to the way the risks of human error are reduced. With excellent speakers, including 2 from the US, feedback was very positive; the next mini-conference is being planned for October 2009. Overall it has been another full year for the HFG-E. There is plenty still to be done and pressures of primary employment means that progress is not always as quickly as the HFG-E would like. Nevertheless, satisfaction over the value of the contribution remains high and this continues to provide excellent motivation to participate.
Cabin Crew Group (CCSG)
The CCSG developed quickly and enthusiastically under Jane Neal-Smith, the first chairman, and has had several well attended meetings. This year Sarah Skelton took over as chairman and has managed the planning of their first conference to be held in January 2009. This will include a DVD that has been produced with the significant support of British Airways, which has been designed to help trainers of cabin crew develop their CRM observation, facilitation and evaluation skills. The Group consists of a wide range of experienced and motivated people and aims to be the focus for Cabin Crew CRM in the UK, which it is well on the way to achieving.
Crew Resource Management Advisory Panel (CRMAP)
The CRMAP continues to receive accolades and support from both the industry and the CAA, as well as other European national authorities as a result of the work it carries out in developing the legislation and implementation of CRM trainer accreditation. The CAA has used several Panel members to carry out CRMIE revalidations and Panel members are constantly being utilised for their advice on the intepretation of Standards Document 29 by airline trainers and management. Currently the Panel has embarked on a response to the EASA proposal for Part-FCL and will also being making comment on the proposal for Part-OPS in the early part of 2009.
Roger Green Medal
At long last and after much lobbying and negotiation the RAeS Council has approved a proposal to maintain the legacy awards much as they have been. The 2008 award was given to Paddy Carver for his pioneering work in ensuring CRM training was properly legislated in the UK, and for being a founder member and chaiman of both the HFG and CRM Advisory Panel. Because of the problems with the Society over the last 2 years the 2007 award was missed, but hopefully the proposed recipient will be nominated again for 2009 and accepted by the Medals and Awards committee.
Lessons from Accidents
One specific deliverable that the Group will be working on is the dissemination of lessons from accidents, and the first of these selected was the Helios 737 crash in Greece. Conclusions from all the SGs will be compiled and published shortly.
Committee
The main committee has now been reduced and streamlined to mainly act as a co-ordinating group and the provider of resoruces to the SGs. In this respect apart from financial support, the committee over-sees the website, the awards and liaison with the Society through the Specialist Groups Committee. I would like to give particular thanks to Rick Heybroek for carrying out an excellent treasurer’s role and for managing the website, as well as initiating the Rail/HFG conference. Also to the Deputy Chairman Barry Neal for keeping the group together, and organising the various meetings and associated docum-entation. This year the intention of the main committee was to join each of the SGs on a rotational basis and so far we have been hosted by the HFG-E at Farnborough, the CRM SG at Gatwick and the CRMAP at Hamilton Place.
Conferences
The HFG held a successful conference again, and next year there are 2 main conferences; the HF in Rail & Aviation on 21st May (HFG/RSSB), and the HF in Design for Systems Safety on 9th July.
Treasurer’s Report
Approaching the conclusion of 2008 we have a current balance of £7092.70 on account. We have not yet received recent conference revenue from HFG-E, nor has the cost of the annual working dinner at Citrus cleared so the year-end balance my be somewhat different. Major expenses during the year included the booking cost for the HFG/RSSB Rail and Aviation conference on 21st May 2009 (to be recovered from registration receipts), and replacement of the old HFG web server which finally died in August after 4½ years of reliable service. Most of the server transfer and upgrade costs were paid by the Crawley Mela Association with whom we share the system. Expected additional costs for software replacement did not materialize but the site is still being rebuilt, some files apparently being missing or damaged for several years. The CRM Working Group account at Barclay's Bank is being placed on a dual signature basis (it was not originally planned to hold significant financial reserves for any length of time). The Mandate Change form requires production of ID documents to the local branch for every proposed signatory. Hopefully this will be accomplished over the holidays.
New Chairman
It is my firm intention to step down as Chairman and I have asked Barry Neal to manage the process for finding a sucessor by the next AGM.
Carey Edwards
Chairman
10th January 2009