Airmanship

2005-04-25T14:56:00.000-07:00

2005-04-25T14:55:00.000-07:00

Airmanship

2005-03-14T22:05:00.000-08:00

Welcome:

My name is Ron Daniels. I'm a pilot and educator and committed to your success in aviation. This forum permits me to share some of my thoughts and ideas with you on the important topics and themes discussed here. The forum also provides you with the opportunity to share your thoughts and ideas which you are welcome to post. What you have to say is of value. It may even help someone else be successful. It's what this forum is all about. Take a little time to examine the topics on the left. And feel free post your thoughts and ideas.

Our primary theme is Airmanship. So let's begin with a question. What exactly is Airmanship? What do you think Airmanship is? It's one of the first questions I ask as a CRM facilitator. Often the answers are wide ranging and generalized because "airmanship" actually describes a number of attributes in a professional pilot. Let's examine further some of those attributes and I'll share with you my thoughts and ideas on each topic. You can start by selecting one of the topics on the left.

At this point, we're going to keep things short and simple. The content posted on each topic is intentionally brief. Each topic represents a starting point in our discussion of airmanship.

I sincerely hope this concise discussion will benefit you personally and as a professional aviator. Please feel free to provide feedback. If anything discussed here was of importance to you, you certainly have something important to say. Your comments are welcome. You'll see more content on this and other topics so check back. Know someone who might benefit from this discussion? Tell them. Simply click on the email icon below.

To your continued success.....Ron Daniels

(Note: Ron Daniels provides company specific Initial, Recurrent, and Advanced CRM Workshops for corporate and airline crews in Europe and the U.S. For further information post a comment with your email address.)

1-Airman Skill - Attitude

2005-03-13T13:09:00.000-08:00

An airmanship attitude begins with the attitude we have toward ourselves. It starts with a healthy sense of self esteem. Self esteem is your personal assessment of you and the value you place on yourself as a person, privately and publicly. As professional pilots, our objective is to keep our sense of self esteem balanced and healthy. It means a view that is not overestimated or underestimated. A balanced sense of self esteem is a view that incorporates a healthy sense of fairness, dignity and respect toward ourselves. It includes a desire to be healthy physically, emotionally and in our relationships with others.If our attitude toward ourselves is healthy and balanced, we are then in the best possible position to extend dignity and respect toward others. Dignity and respect are the most fundamental ingredients we seek in our personal and public lives. If you have a sense of dignity, respect and fairness toward yourself, you can extend it to others. If you don't (and the number of people who don't would surprise you), it's difficult, if not impossible, to extend it to someone else. The foundation of an airmanship attitude is a desire to be healthy in the fullest possible sense. Physically, emotionally, and in our relationships with others.An airmanship attitude includes a desire to be and excel as a professional airman. A professional airman is someone who understands that being an airman is more than having a certificate or commanding a flight crew. A professional airman is someone who realizes that airmanship requires attitude and piloting skills, technical skills, and social skills. A professional airman is someone who possesses an "Airmanship Attitude" and understands that as airmen, we have a moral and ethical responsibility to our selves, and each other.

2-Airman Skill - Technical Skills

2005-03-12T12:51:00.000-08:00

Another airman skill is your technical understanding of the machine you drive around in the sky. Know your airplane. Know it well. Inside and out and make sure you can communicate your technical understanding effectively with your crew members, maintenance and others. Sound technical understanding of your aircraft is an airmanship skill.

3-Airman Skill - Piloting Skills

2005-03-10T12:45:00.000-08:00

Your pilot skills begin with your physical ability to manage an aircraft and includes the idea of Situational Awareness and Phase of Flight Control of Exposure. It includes your procedural skills, and tactical decision making skills. Other skills that make up your piloting skills are: Aircraft handling, Spatial orientation, in three dimensions. Your sense of timing as you manage time and fuel. Your understanding of weather and the use of weather radar. Your understanding of aircraft performance under varying conditions. Your skills in the use of flight deck automation. Obviously, if an airman has piloting skills but lacks the right kind of attitude, that airman could never be used as an example of "Airmanship".

4-Airman Skill - Social Skills

2005-03-09T12:55:00.000-08:00

An airman can't fly in today's world without social skills. A highly skilled airman has highly refined social skills. Social skills begin with attitude. A sense of responsibility to self and others. It includes our social skill level under normal and abnormal operational conditions. We are well aware that our social skills are tested as individuals as we interact with others when stress begins to build during a duty day. There are numerous sources of stress and we often need to rely on our social and problem solving skills in managing stressful events. As professional airmen we need to be proactive in maintaining and enhancing or social skills, in other words, our people skills. We can clearly see that the concept of airmanship includes multiple skills. Attitude, technical skills and social skills. There is another skill which helps us tie these three skills areas together. Your Crew resource Management skills.

5-Airman Skill - CRM Skills

2005-03-08T12:57:00.000-08:00

CRM skills are airman skills. They are critical to your success. CRM skills are not theoretical skills. Nobody has a theoretical accident, or gets theoretically killed. If you are a passenger, you don't want a captain who is a theoretical leader and communicator. You want a captain who is a professional leader and communicator. If you're a captain, you don't want to sit next to a first officer who has poor CRM skills. 80% of all accidents are human factor related and can be traced directly to the behavior of the crew and their lack of CRM Skills. What this means is that someone else doesn't have an accident, SOMEONE has an accident and that someone usually lacks CRM skills.

Which skill is most important?

2005-03-08T08:17:00.000-08:00

After reviewing hundreds of accidents I have concluded that no one skill on it's own will prevent an accident. In fact, the accident files are filled with examples where lack of skills in any one area directly contributed to the accident.

Conclusion-What is Airmanship?

2005-03-07T13:33:00.000-08:00

Well, it's the sum of your attitude and airman skills. It begins with the attitude you have toward yourself and others, and includes your sense of moral and ethical responsibility to both. As an airman, your attitude is integrated with your airman skills, which are, your piloting skills, your technical expertise and understanding of the aircraft you fly, your social skills and your CRM skills. Your attitude and airman skills determine your level of airmanship and ultimately, your rank among other aviators. If your objective is airmanship then remember: Attitude + Airman Skills = Airmanship. Ultimately if our objective is professional airmanship, our objective becomes one of learning, maintaining, and enhancing our airman skills. It means we have a strategy to succeed and be examples of "Airmanship". If that is truly our objective, we will no longer think of our piloting skills as "airman" skills. We will see them as "Airmanship" skills.