National Défense Defence nationale ISSUE 1, 2017 DOSSIER I shoot, therefore I am MAINTENANCE IN FOCUS Airmanship VIEWS ON FLIGHT SAFETY DFS Chief Warrant Officer Photo: MS Steeve Picard Steeve MS Photo: Maintenance in focus 18 I shoot, therefore I am 26 Sky Kings... 28 “If you can keep your head...” 31 Jack of All Trades 31 Pushing the Weather 34 Maintenance in focus 18 TABLE OF CONTENTS Issue 1, 2017 Regular Columns Views on Flight Safety 4 The Editor’s Corner 5 Good Show 6 For Professionalism 7 Check Six 15 Maintenance in Focus 18 On Track 22 Epilogue 38 The Back Page 39 Dossiers I shoot, therefore I am 26 Sky Kings: Why Some Pilots Are Bad Risk Managers 28 Lessons Learned “If you keep your head...” 31 Jack of All Trades 32 Lost in Translation 33 Pushing the Weather 34 Red Flags 36 Wobble Bubble 37 DIRECTORATE OF THE CANADIAN ARMED Send submissions to: To contact DFS personnel on FLIGHT SAFETY FORCES FLIGHT SAFETY an URGENT flight safety issue, MAGAZINE National Defence Headquarters please call an investigator who is Director of Flight Safety Directorate of Flight Safety available 24 hours a day at Colonel Steve Charpentier Flight Comment is produced up to four times Attn: Editor, Flight Comment (DFS 3-3) 1-888-927-6337 (WARN-DFS). a year by the Directorate of Flight Safety. 101 Colonel By Drive Editor The contents do not necessarily reflect Ottawa, ON, Canada, K1A 0K2 Visit the DFS web page at Major Peter Butzphal official policy and, unless otherwise stated, www.rcaf-arc.forces.gc.ca/en/flight-safety. 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ISSN 0015-3702 A-JS-000-006/JP-000 Views on Flight Safety by Chief Warrant Officer Ward Golden, Directorate of Flight Safety Photo: MCpl Amy Martin Chief Warrant Officer, Ottawa ack when I joined the Canadian Armed Later in my career as a Cpl working on the With my well-learned experiences now behind Forces in November 1981 my first CF188 Hornet acceptance crew, I was being me, my focus during the Directorate of Flight B experience as a qualified technician supervised yet again, this time by Master Safety Annual Roadshow visits has been on didn’t materialise until 1984. In those days, Corporals (MCpl). I remember working on a airmanship, pride of workmanship, pride in our trades’ training was quite extensive. It radio snag one day and the only supervisor oneself and of course, being proud of the took just a little over two years to transition that was available was a Sergeant (Sgt). institution that I signed up for 35 years ago. from the training system to the operational His experience was strictly CF104s and had Looking back on my career, I have seen many environment. I was posted to Cold Lake, nil experience on the Hornet; nevertheless changes in how technicians are trained and Alberta in 1983 and was quickly indoctrinated he enjoyed working on the floor with the what they need to go through in order to into the world of aircraft maintenance working junior technicians. It was only later in life that attain a Level A signing authority. The senior in the CF104 Starfighter and CF116 Freedom I realized that it was the mentoring aspect aircraft maintenance superintendent interview Fighter communication systems laboratory. that he thoroughly enjoyed. Sometime later, can be quite daunting, but the interview I was one of 5 privates in the shop in those my MCpl was posted out and was replaced process is invaluable as we need to ensure days and I worked directly for whatever by a MCpl from the Sea King (helicopter) that the technician understands the policies Corporal (Cpl) that I was assigned to that community. He first went off for fleet-specific and procedures. I do understand that being a week. I learned a lot about being a junior training and upon his return I was tasked with Level A technician can be quite stressful. technician while repairing UHF, VHF radios training him on the CF188. At first I was quite We are expecting a lot from you but remember: or emergency locator transmitters. The first hesitant, but he took me aside and gave me your forefathers in the aircraft maintenance thing I noticed was how a Cpl was always a pep talk. He confided in me that he was environment have already walked a mile in with us at every step of the repair and how still my boss, but while working on the air- your shoes. Today’s aircraft systems are more they ensured that the work we were doing craft, I was the one that was in charge of robust and are accompanied with a vast was to their standard. They were also present the maintenance activities. In 1999, I was maintenance program. Maintenance manuals to instill a sense of pride in our workmanship. promoted to Sgt and it was then that my have become in-depth and can be quite I never took offense to their oversight and it literal tool kit was replaced with the figu- onerous to comprehend. was then that I realized that we (Privates) rative tool kit of leadership. I was posted were the next generation of technicians in back to the laboratory environment, this In closing, I have the following words of advice: the air force. Later in that year, when the time as a senior supervisor. I made sure I one should never be ashamed or afraid to ask new bands of Privates (Pte) were entering would spend the better part of my day a fellow Level A technician for technical advice; into the laboratory, the senior Ptes (single outside of the office imparting what I had two sets of eyes are always better than one. chevron) were now responsible to teach and learned about airmanship to the next Airmanship for all of us is not necessarily mentor them. Once again, the Cpls were ever generation of technicians. taught during formal training but is learned present, making sure that the guidance we over years of working alongside senior were giving to the junior technicians was technicians. Keep your eyes open, learn from correct and meaningful. others and embrace the Technician’s Creed. 4 Flight Comment — Issue 1, 2017 Editor’sThe Corner ow many of you have or at one point, I was given the ‘continue’ call from tower with Routine in itself can be good thing – how else had that experienced supervisor that the expectation that the aircraft on the do we become proficient in our jobs over time? H you came to trust and follow? A person runway would taxi off in time for him to give There is a point however that much like that seemed to know the answer or have me clearance for the touch and go. Long story Superman’s kryptonite, it can work against advice to every question you had? The one short, given my continuous clearances to land you. Although my story didn’t amount to where the more you got to know and work thus far, my attention was then focussed solely much, we’ll see in this issue’s “Check Six” on perfecting my final turns and landings… article how routine can ‘cloud’ an experienced with them, the more you thought of them as and that is exactly what I did. member’s situational awareness. infallible. Unfortunately in this case, the consequence While taxing in after the flight, I got a call was fatal. Did something ever happen that made you from the ground controller to give tower a call think, even for a brief moment otherwise? In on the phone. Huh? That was odd. I would argue then that supervision doesn’t other words, did they surprise you with a necessarily have to come from the top down. decision or an act that seemed out of the On the phone, the tower controller informed Why not encourage our subordinates to keep ordinary? I have. But I must admit that I was me that I had landed on one occasion without an eye out on their supervisors and from a too embarrassed or in denial to do anything a clearance. In fact, the preceding aircraft was supervisory perspective, afford them that right about it. If this sounds familiar to you, it then still on the runway when my wheels touched without giving them grief for it. Time and begs the question: Who is supervising our down. Although the risk of collision at that again we’ve learned that even our brightest supervisors? moment was low (around 4000’ separation), and most experienced are prone to making this was obviously a clearance bust on my part. mistakes. Given that our jobs and the processes Thinking back to my days as a standards pilot, I He never cleared me to land. In a very lenient distinctly remember the day that I took a plane that come along with it are becoming more fashion, the controller left it at that, but and more complex, let us look out for each out on a solo proficiency flight where I beat up frankly, I was downright embarrassed. the traffic pattern, working on my take-offs other.