SCA CRM podcast

Patrick Wayne Hejlesen
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Learn more about human factors in aviation

Episodes

  1. 10/07/2025

    Surprise, Startle, and Flight Deck Cognition

    The source, an excerpt from CAP 737 Chapter 7 - Surprise and Startle, discusses the difference between the startle reflex and the fight or flight response, particularly in the context of pilot performance and aviation safety. The startle reflex is presented as a momentary disruption with little lasting impact on cognition, while the fight or flight response, triggered by a perception of serious threat, results in a sustained, highly-focused, and potentially detrimental narrowing of cognitive function. The text explores how the fight or flight state can create a vicious circle for pilots when dealing with ambiguous or complex problems on modern flight decks, favoring simple, well-learned tasks over complex assessment. Finally, the chapter suggests training resolutions and countermeasures, such as using simple, rule-based tasks (like checklists) to interrupt the negative cycle and build pilot confidence against unexpected events.

    33 min

  2. 08/07/2025

    Decision Making: Analytical, Quicker, and Intuitive Approaches

    This focuses on decision-making processes, particularly within the context of aviation. It categorizes decisions along a continuum, ranging from effortful analytical decisions to quick, intuitive ones and those using unconscious shortcuts. The document elaborates on the characteristics, applications, and challenges of analytical decision-making, including the use and limitations of decision aids and the importance of reviewing decisions. It then explores quicker decision mechanisms like biases and heuristics, acknowledging their efficiency but also their potential for error, before discussing very fast, recognition-primed intuitive decisions and their basis in expertise. Throughout, the text emphasizes the practical application of these theories for training and assessment, encouraging a nuanced understanding of real-world decision-making beyond idealized models.

    1h 2m

  3. 08/07/2025

    Vigilance and Monitoring in Aviation Operations*NEW

    The text discusses vigilance and monitoring in aviation, particularly in relation to pilots and automated systems. It defines vigilance as sustained attention to detect irregularities and explains the concept of vigilance decrement, where performance declines over time due to cognitive load—not boredom or fatigue alone. Monitoring is described as the practical act of gathering information to maintain situational awareness. Although the terms are often used interchangeably, they are recognized as distinct. The text highlights how even experienced pilots experience a decline in monitoring, especially when autopilot is engaged. It emphasizes that training cannot eliminate this natural phenomenon but can help pilots understand and mitigate its effects, including the importance of task-sharing to maintain attention.

    36 min

  4. 05/19/2025

    Pilot Cognition: Processing, Perception, and Attention

    This document describes information processing in the brain, from sensation and perception to conscious and unconscious processing, reaction, and feedback. It also discusses perception in more detail, including how we perceive the world and the potential illusions that may arise, especially in relation to flying. Finally, the text addresses attention and its limitations, as well as how attention, perception, and information processing relate to pilot competencies and flight safety, including situation awareness, decision-making, and workload management. The text provides a theoretical basis for more applied chapters.

    8 min

  5. 05/19/2025

    Aeronautical Team Decision-Making: FOR-DEC and Beyond

    The text examines the importance of structured decision-making processes in aviation, with a particular focus on the FOR-DEC model, which was developed by Lufthansa and the German Aerospace Center. The article highlights how inconsistent decision-making has been a contributing factor in aviation accidents, and how models like FOR-DEC help crews make better choices in complex situations where no predetermined procedures exist. Through a small survey among pilots and a workshop with experts, the authors discuss the advantages and disadvantages of FOR-DEC, including the need to integrate experience and to more clearly define when the tool is most effective. New versions of the model, PRO FOR!DEC and FOReDEC, are proposed to address these criticisms and to enhance team involvement and consideration before and during the decision-making process.

    8 min

  6. 04/02/2025

    Effective Flight Deck Communication

    CAP 737 Chapter 16 focuses on the critical role of effective communication in flight deck operations, highlighting its link to workload distribution and error reduction. The chapter emphasizes that quality and timing surpass the quantity of communication, detailing how messages can fail at various stages. It explores the challenges posed by language differences and stresses the importance of clear, standardized phraseology. Furthermore, the text examines the significance of sharing information and mental models within the crew and with ATC, alongside the necessity of assertiveness and verbal intervention when safety is at stake, even addressing potential social dynamics. The chapter concludes by suggesting methods for improving communication skills through training and aligning these skills with relevant pilot competencies.

    29 min

  7. 04/02/2025

    CRM and TEM in Flight Crew Operations

    This document introduces Crew Resource Management (CRM) and Threat and Error Management (TEM) in aviation, tracing the evolution of CRM from early, sometimes poorly received psychological or management-focused training to a broader scope incorporating concepts like situation awareness. The introduction of TEM in the 1990s provided a framework for proactively identifying and mitigating threats and managing errors, drawing on accident theory. It emphasizes that threats and errors are inevitable but must be effectively handled to prevent undesired aircraft states. The relationship between CRM and TEM is explored, highlighting how CRM behaviors act as countermeasures to errors at various levels, from avoidance to mitigation.

    10 min

  8. 04/02/2025

    Understanding and Managing Flight Deck Workload

    CAP 737 Chapter 6 focuses on workload in aviation, defining it as the mental effort required to process information and highlighting its complexity and links to other cognitive functions. The chapter explores factors that directly influence workload, such as task difficulty, multitasking, serial tasks, and time constraints, as well as indirect factors like fatigue. It examines the effects of high workload, including attentional narrowing, task shedding, reduced situation awareness, and increased error potential. The text provides practical advice for managing workload, emphasizing time management, crew resource management, and awareness of workload drivers. Finally, the chapter discusses the application of workload knowledge in training, both in the classroom and simulator, and its integral relationship with other aviation competencies.

    25 min

  9. 03/05/2025

    Systems Thinking: Aviation Accidents, Complexity, and Cause

    This paper distinguishes between two approaches to systems thinking in accident investigations: Systems Thinking 1.0 and Systems Thinking 2.0. The first approach, 1.0, focuses on identifying broken components, even those distantly related to the event, while the second, 2.0, considers the emergent properties and complex relationships within a system. Using the Alaska Airlines Flight 261 crash as a case study, the paper contrasts these perspectives. It argues that Systems Thinking 2.0, informed by complexity science, provides a more comprehensive understanding of accidents by acknowledging path-dependence, open systems, and the potential for small changes to have large effects. Ultimately, the piece advocates for a shift towards Systems Thinking 2.0 to improve aviation safety by addressing the normal social processes that can contribute to disaster.

    22 min

  10. 01/23/2025

    Is closed loop COM good?

    This July 1995 issue of Flight Safety Digest from the Flight Safety Foundation focuses on pilot-air traffic control (ATC) communication errors, analyzing various linguistic and non-linguistic factors contributing to miscommunication. The article examines specific incidents highlighting ambiguity, homophony, and code-switching, proposing solutions like improved training and technological interfaces to enhance clarity. Accompanying statistical data from Boeing shows flight crew error as a major cause of accidents, particularly during landing, despite overall accident rates decreasing. Finally, the publication includes summaries of recent aviation safety reports and publications, covering topics like weather service modernization and helicopter safety.

    21 min

  11. 01/08/2025

    The changing nature of risk

    Problem solving and decision making

    14 min
  12. Crews as Groups: Their Formation and their Leadership

    01/07/2025

    Crews as Groups: Their Formation and their Leadership

    Ginnet 2010

    20 min
  • 12 Episodes

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Learn more about human factors in aviation

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  • Creator
    Patrick Wayne Hejlesen
  • Years Active
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  • Episodes
    12
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    © 2025 SCA CRM podcast
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