What does safety sound like? That’s the first question in the first edition of the Flight Test Safety Fact in the New Year, so Happy New Year and welcome back. You also get another reminder about the looming deadlines for
I don’t know how much I can say about this given the title, but I will say two things. First, communication is one of the basics, and let’s admit it—we aren’t brilliant. Second, publishing a document in this way is
Can you remember back to your early childhood? You didn’t know enough to warn your dad about the car in his blind spot when he started to drift into the other lane. When you learned to drive, though, you gained
The Society of Experimental Test Pilot’s (SETP) 2019 Symposium included a presentation based on a paper by SETP’s Roger Hehr. It highlights two very relevant topics. First, it discusses unmanned flight test, which is becoming increasingly more important almost daily.
It’s been over a month since SETP’s Annual Symposium, so I’ve had time to dig through the program, papers, and slides. Unfortunately, the news cycle doesn’t stop, so I’ve split my time between corresponding with those who presented at or
In Flight Test Safety Fact, 19-10, Flight Test Safety Committee Chairman Tom Huff addressed the need for a common taxonomy for risk. I mention this, because I came across an article by Vahana Aero addressing the risks of autonomy in
In 1999, Greg Lewis presented a paper to the Flight Test Society of Australia, “Flight Test Safety in Civil Certification,” in which he describes unique risks and incidents that occurred during civil certification flight test with government test pilots. One
It has been almost two months since the Flight Test Safety Workshop, and you can now find video presentations from the workshop posted on the website. As you may recall, the Workshop provided our community with a chance to discuss
In a research study to examine cockpit communication, psychologists found this surprising result: “No differences were found between the severity of the errors made by effective and ineffective crews, rather, it was the ability of the effective crews to communicate
Words should be scalpels not spears. I want us–the people in this community, the readers of these articles and newsletters–to disagree. In fact, this is one of my core values, one of the things I want to spread. Conflict can