SM4 Safety Articles & Resources
How Many Hours Are You Really Working?
While commercial airlines continue to struggle amid a dearth of passenger volume, many business aviation and charter air operators have experienced a strong recovery since the initial COVID-19 slowdown this past spring—and indeed, some are busier than ever.
Your Pandemic Operating Plan: Process vs. People
By now, most organizations seem to be well on their way to developing their pandemic operating plan, how they will continue to do business in a pandemic environment. In business aviation, the plan must detail how you will move people from location to location, stay compliant, and meet your responsibility and defensibility goals.
The Bedrock of Aviation—Standard Operating Procedures… Consider the Variables!
Aviation is all about standard operating procedures and their more-beloved acronym “SOP.” With the current COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on staffing levels, operators have had to make some hard decisions, whose impact may not be readily apparent. This article illuminates the risk in assuming SOPs are, in fact, standards.
Unmanned Aircraft Systems and Optimizing Operational Capabilities During the Pandemic
I think it’s safe to say that we are all waiting for the day when we can put COVID‐19 behind us and “get back to normal.” However, the reality is that this pandemic will continue to affect how we live our lives and conduct business for years to come.
Aviation Needs More Poets Right Now
Most of us began as dreamers and poets, all wanting to “slip the surly bonds of earth… dance the skies on laughter silvered wings… and reach out to touch the face of God.” Most know these words came from John Gillespie Magee Jr., who was a World War II Royal Canadian Air Force fighter pilot and poet. Most don’t know that he was killed in a mid-air collision over England in 1941.
Making your Risk Assessment Tool a STAR
Mention the acronym GUMPS to just about any fixed wing pilot and watch their eyes move upward and to the right. Their neurolinguistics are probably showing you they are visually remembering: gas, undercarriage, mixture, props and safety. It is a tried-and-true mental checklist and litany that has served, and saved, many a pilot
Empirical Safety Data Finally Emerges Regarding Masks and Face Coverings. It May Not Be What You Expected.
More than six months have now passed since the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) became an international household word. Paradoxically, only until recently has any demonstrable evidence surfaced to evaluate the recommendations coming from the health community.
Reinvention Throughout the Pandemic
Opportunity. It is a concept that helps us cope with the constant change and the flexibility required to endure the pandemic. The aviation industry has been hit hard, and everyone associated with it is having to reinvent themselves in one way or another.
The “New Normal” in Aviation Safety
Much is being written these days about the shifting of “normalcy,”’ given the global COVID-19 pandemic. What we have come to understand as “normal” in business aviation today has changed dramatically in just a few short months.
