SOP's
SOP stand for Standard Operating Procedures, & it is the corner stone to every airline operation. The military, & some corporate flight departments follow SOP's too. Every once in awhile you hear of companies who got too complacent on keeping strong SOP's & they pay the price with an accident. I am a strong believer of SOP's. It ensures everyone is on the same page, but most important is if there is an emergency everyone will be able to work in a synchronize fashion to handle problems with confidence.
The problem occurs when a person becomes complacent, or take things for granted, or rely too much on computers & automation. I know at my company they teach us to fly without automation once in awhile so we dont become too complacent & rely too much on it. The computers are only as good as the pilot programming it. So that means if the pilot programs it to fly into a mountain, its going to do exactly that unless someone breaks the error chain of events and catches that mistake. For example, I know most airlines have a SOP that states you should'nt program the FSM computer box while taxing on the ground. It should be done at the gate so both pilots could be looking outside for collision avoidance. When you are relying on human interaction with machines, mistakes will eventually happen. If you look at NTSB Accident Reports, you almost always fine some deviations from SOP's. That's is why its so important to abide by SOP's to reduce errors. I do believe most airline operations are very professional & push strong SOP's.
The problem occurs when a person becomes complacent, or take things for granted, or rely too much on computers & automation. I know at my company they teach us to fly without automation once in awhile so we dont become too complacent & rely too much on it. The computers are only as good as the pilot programming it. So that means if the pilot programs it to fly into a mountain, its going to do exactly that unless someone breaks the error chain of events and catches that mistake. For example, I know most airlines have a SOP that states you should'nt program the FSM computer box while taxing on the ground. It should be done at the gate so both pilots could be looking outside for collision avoidance. When you are relying on human interaction with machines, mistakes will eventually happen. If you look at NTSB Accident Reports, you almost always fine some deviations from SOP's. That's is why its so important to abide by SOP's to reduce errors. I do believe most airline operations are very professional & push strong SOP's.
Btw your sites really broken using IE4
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Not quite sure I understood your question. What there a problem with a link?
Eric
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