Work Group Addresses Safety Issues of Single-Pilot Business Operations

Author: Robert A. Wright

Companies large and small have found business aircraft to be essential to their success. Increasingly, many of these operations include small companies with sophisticated piston and turbine-engine aircraft flown by non-professional owner-pilots in single-pilot operation.

In the US, the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) Safety Committee sponsors a Single-Pilot Work Group that tackles the safety and related operational issues associated with single-pilot operation of light business aircraft (LBA). The work group in turn sponsors the annual Single-Pilot Safety Stand Down that is conducted the day before the NBAA Business Aviation Convention and Exhibition (BACE).

The work group’s first priority is to reduce the rate of fatal LBA accidents through improvement of critical pilot skills. Single-pilot resource management (SRM) is among the skill sets that will be emphasized in the work group’s 2016 program. SRM skills include risk management, automation management, task and workload management, and maintaining situational awareness.

A powerful video titled “Alone in the Cockpit” was presented at the Single-Pilot Safety Stand Down held at the last BACE event in Las Vegas in November 2015. You may want to see this video as it highlights the importance of SRM skills.

The safety record of single-pilot LBA has traditional lagged behind that of turbine-engine corporate aircraft flown by two-pilot professional crews. However, a new generation of LBA includes technologies and equipment to rival those on much larger turbine aircraft. Accordingly, the business aviation community is looking to create strategies that will use this equipment to give single-pilot crews an opportunity to narrow that gap.

The safety issues addressed at the single-pilot work group highlight the need for both single-pilot and two-pilot crews to stay up-to-date with safety trends and crucial pilot skills such as SRM and Crew Resource Management (CRM). This can be accomplished more efficiently if pilots can obtain and access convenient training courses that can be completed no matter where the pilot is located.

TrainingPort.net, in cooperation with Crew Resource Management LLC, offers a complete online SRM course for business aviation (available for purchase through our storefront).

Robert A. Wright is the president of Wright Aviation Solutions, LLC. He is a member of the leadership team of Crew Resource Management, LLC, which has been providing comprehensive CRM training to corporate flight departments for over four years.