Keeping Up To Speed

Professional development is a lifelong commitment to learning and improvement. It is most often underpinned by a natural curiosity that drives the professional pilot to seek a better understanding of what they do and how they can do it better.

One of the best models for thinking about your aviation career is provided by Tony Kern who has written a number of books including the landmark ‘Redefining Airmanship’. Kern’s bedrock principles of skill, proficiency and discipline are built with knowledge about yourself, your mission, your aircraft and other key pillars. Only then can a pilot achieve sound situational awareness and consistently hit the target we all aspire to – good and safe decisions.

Kern’s model adapts well to identifying areas for professional development through self-analysis – an honest appraisal of your own likes and dislikes, strengths and weaknesses will soon point to a way forward for additional learning.

The importance of ongoing learning to airmanship should be self-evident to every pilot aspiring to the term ‘professional’, but some seem to view ongoing learning as an imposition rather than an opportunity. It is a very personal choice and one that only the individual can make – the decision regarding a commitment to professional development cannot be made for you.

In the aerial application sector, pilots are being encouraged to take up the professional development challenge and continually improve their skills and knowledge. In addition to providing the Spraysafe manuals and exams and the Aerial Application Pilots Manual, AAAA has been running a very successful Professional Pilots Program since 2002, with pilots’ Spraysafe accreditation being renewed if they have secured 15 education credits over the three year validity.

To make the path easier, AAAA has developed a range of training courses it offers regularly, ranging from wire risk management through to drift management and spray nozzle selection.

AAAA has just launched the latest of these courses, focussing on the causes of the three most common accidents in aerial application – turns, take-offs and wires.

The newest course also features a discussion on the importance of using different methods of thinking to improve safety – including the ‘standard’ Swiss Cheese model, risk management, TEM and CRM – but also introducing sports psychology principles for improving concentration and situational awareness, especially in managing wires.

Learning opportunities are not limited to aerial application specific training and pilots need to be alert to the chance to pick up information from outside aviation and apply it, where appropriate, to their particular situation.

Many experienced pilots describe the Ag II rating as a ‘licence to learn’, but in a hostile environment such as low level aviation, where not identifying a wire, a wind monitoring mast or another hard-to-see hazard may be catastrophic, ongoing learning takes on a whole new urgency and importance.

There is so much to learn and so many different ways to undertake that learning – from talking to industry ‘elders’, to reading chemical or nozzle performance data, to discussing company expectations and assumed standards about hazards, spray buffers or aircraft set-up.

Pilots who are serious about their professionalism are constantly exposing themselves to new and varied experiences. The pilot who undertakes aerobatic training to better understand stalls, or who enthusiastically looks for new courses, or who takes something positive out of check rides, or who finds and reads the type certificate data sheet for their aircraft, or attends a conference – they all demonstrate a commitment to continuous improvement and professionalism.

The pilot who chooses to live under a rock and is happy there is not a professional. The world – and aviation, chemicals, regulations and business – keeps changing and we need to keep adapting by learning.

Tony Kern identified ‘Three Dragons’ that have to be slain – ignorance, apathy and isolation – the ‘don’t know, don’t care, just leave me alone’ conundrum.

With the availability of the internet, a wide range of training courses, and excellent books by practical authors like Tony Kern, there is less excuse than ever to think our learning ended when we were issued our last licence, rating or endorsement.

Reminder

Convention 2011 – 13-16 June – Adelaide – details on the website – www.aerialag.com.au
Col Pay Scholarship – Applications on the AAAA website and close 30 April.