It’s a funny old world …
Recently I was asked to run a detail lasting 4 hours in an Airbus simulator, for a film crew coming from Australia.
I was told by the training office that this was just operating the instructor panel on the simulator to help them get the information they needed regarding certain situations that would be explained in a television documentary to be aired on a Sunday evening weekly program.
Apparently the various people involved had visited Airbus, and were due to return to Australia for interviews with some of the major airlines operating Airbus aircraft.
I soon gathered that the likely scenario was to be the loss of instrumentation and automation as experienced by an A380 crew recently, and what might have been the case with the A330 lost over the Atlantic.
I was prepared to talk, and show information, demonstrating what happens in the case of failure and redundancy. Also, and most importantly, to illustrate how crews, during their training, study the various situations that could occur on a ‘bad day’ and the many ways to recover safely from these various scenarios.
The actors will be arriving at about 7 o’clock …
Oh Dear, not what I wanted to hear, because this was now to change everything.
Unbelievably, it took 4 hours to get through to what they really wanted. That was both to simulate lightning and a possible (not probable) experienced environment surrounding each of the cases.
In fact it could have been a great opportunity to produce a documentary illustrating technical failure, how manufacturers can and do improve design, and how all of those in aviation learn from experience.
How could it help having actors? It did not!
I am sure the resulting film will be another fear-gripping entertainment feature, with the accent on flashing lights, audible warnings and high drama, with actors who had no idea of what was going on. Just another misdirected program!
I am sorry to have been caught up in it.
Bob Derham
Bob is a 14,000 hour commercial pilot with experience of Charter, Schedule, Corporate and VIP operations. He has worked for several major carriers in the Middle East, United States, Africa and Europe. In addition, Bob is an instructor on Airbus aircraft plus instructs on Security, Dangerous goods and Crew Resource Management (CRM). Bob is a Member of a Flight Safety Committee. He is the sort of experienced pilot that private pilots just love to have alongside showing how it should be done! [Ed.]
Learning from Dogs 