Caribex Media and General Aviation News |
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AVIATION PERSONNEL
Professional
Pilots, Flight Attendants & Maintenance Personnel
Caribex Inc. has been providing professional
aviation personnel for 25 years. We have resumes
from current and qualified pilots on almost every
type of aircraft from the B-747-400's, A-320's to
turbo props and smaller jets. When we receive a
requirement for flight crew, we thoroughly vet each
potential candidate and schedule personal
evaluations and simulator checks.
We run detailed background investigations and
determine, on a one to one basis, each candidate to
ensure his suitability and experience for the
particular client. Whenever possible we try to
locate crew members who have compatible language
capabilities and experience in the local and
regional area. In general, the crews we supply are
senior personnel with not less than 10,000 hours TT
and rated and current in the desired equipment.
Professional Maintenance staff:
We also supply specialized
maintenance professionals. We are able to send FAA
or EASA qualified and licensed personnel with
extensive backgrounds in MX planning, inspections,
manual modification ( tech writing) and every area
of maintenance.
Contract Personnel: The personnel we provide
are available via a contract between the end-user
and Caribex Inc. The personnel we supply can be
replaced at any time. Typically contracts are set
for a period of time between 6 and 12 months. Please
contact us for additional information specifying the
number of personnel required and specific aircraft
TRAINING
Caribex Inc. has been providing ground school,
simulator and flight training for 25 years. We have
available instructors for every type of commercial
and private aircraft. We contract with existing
training facilities for classrooms and training
devices as needed. We can also provide current and
qualified personnel for temp or long term flight or
ground assignments.
We have transported complete ground schools to
distant locations and provided full 120 hour
commercial aircraft programs. We can provide this
training in a variety of languages. we have taught
aircraft schools in Spanish , French and Russian.
Caribex Instructors are all highly experienced with
years of commercial flying experience.
We are current on all the latest training techniques
and can provide a professional curriculum tailored
to the express needs of each individual client.
We have, in digital format, a complete set of US 121
and 135 airline manuals and can tailor these to the
needs of any client.
AUTOMATED SYSTEMS FAILURES
TRAINING
When The Big Blue Screens Go Dark
Caribex
Air has developed a detailed remedial pilot
training curriculum that needs be introduced and
included in every air carriers training program
ASAP-like now, before another disaster occurs! We
ask that you read the following and, if you agree,
contact the carriers and private companies you
insure and ask that they considerer retaining our
services. We will meet with their training cadre and
help them build our basic flying skills program into
their TRAINING curriculum.
As
the owner and chief instructor of Caribex, you
should know that I have flown 27,000 hrs and spent
years as an air carrier flight, simulator and ground
instructor. That background gives me the knowledge
and authority to make the following observations and
offer a reasonable solution.
The rationale: The automated systems installed in
modern aircraft are highly reliable but the crew's
reliance on these systems is demonstrably far too
high. In July 2013, the pilots of an Asiana Boeing
777 did not recognize their airspeed was far too
slow when hand flying the aircraft into SFO. That
crew was not competent to fly a visual approach
without the autopilot, auto-throtles /FADEC and an
electronic glide path. They could not hand-fly the
aircraft solely by reference to basic seat of the
pants visual references and the ship's "steam
gauges" (airspeed, altitude, rate of climb, etc.)
which all private pilots can and do in their Cessna
172's on every landing a million times a year across
the world.
We
know today that there are more of automation
dependant pilots flying than should be. There have
been at least five preventable accidents since 2009
where the major factor was the failure of the crew
to properly monitor airspeed and attitude. The Koran
Air 747 loss of attitude awareness and resultant
loss of control resulting in dive almost into the
sea tearing the gear doors off is an example.
There is a lot of double talk in NTSB reports on
automation, but the degrading of of basic flying
skills of overly automated systems dependent
pilots is beginning to make an impression on the
FAA, NTSB, insurance companies and other civil
aviation authorities.
The AF flight 447 that crashed in the south Atlantic
is another case in point. The pitot static system
become impacted with unusual high altitude icing
causing a loss of raw data into the ADC's resulting
in a series of cockpit alarms and the failure of the
AP. The crew failed to recognize and respond to the
situation
inadvertently causing the aircraft to enter a stall.
For some reason the crew kept applying back pressure
increasing the loss of airspeed and altitude
resulting in a fatal crash into the sea. Had they
used the stand- by instruments and been trained to
fly referencing them, they might have nosed the
aircraft over regained airspeed and successfully
recovered.
The basic rule of flying is: aviate, navigate and
communicate. It has always been and it will always
be, "FLY THE AIRPLANE FIRST." The other two prime
directives follow. Autopilot dependent pilots too
often don't monitor important parameters during
approach allowing the aircraft to do whatever the
computers decide it should be doing. They are not
pilots, they are simply sitting there allowing the
automation to do their thinking and flying for them
and too often, with the autopilot off they are not
properly trained to fly basic instruments.
As
mentioned above with Air France 447, all the crew
had to do was reference the stand- by
instrumentation, maintain the previously set cruise
attitude and the power setting that was already
established for Mach 80. In the recovery, they
might have gotten a little off heading, or a little
off altitude, but they would not have lost
control of the aircraft! (and 228 passengers and
crew would still be alive)
On
a routine flight to Cancun Mexico at FL 360, I once
experienced the loss of airspeed indication in a
707-300 (classic, steam gauge aircraft). All we did
was maintain power and pitch, keep it level until we
figured out the problem. We declared an emergency,
turned back and descended to a safe landing at the
Atlanta's Hartsfield airport with 189 safe but
disappointed passengers. In another case, in a
Boeing 727, the autopilot did not like the fact that
the airspeed was gone (iced up because the F/E had
been testing the ship's systems on the ground and
burned up the heating elements.) An FAA inspector
was catching a ride with us when that happened.
Because I had flown 20,000 hours in aircraft that
had only round instruments this was not a big deal.
We again turned around, descended and landed in a
snow storm using power settings and attitude to
control airspeed. (No sweat!)
The automation of today's third gen jet aircraft is
so complex that during initial and transition
training pilots are schooled on all the intricacies
of the automation, excluding much of how to actually
fly the aircraft and more importantly, what to do
when the automation quits.
The allotted simulated hours to learn to fly one of
these aircraft is the same hours used when the
aircraft were much simpler and basic and you
actually had to fly them. The problem is that no one
wants to require extra simulator periods because
they cost money and lengthen the time the pilot
spends in training and not earning money for the
company. As a result many of the new (younger)
pilots sitting in the crew seats have no idea what
to do when the automation fails and the big blue
screens go dark.
There is a great deal of pressure to get a pilot
through the course in minimum time. Instructors and
the students know this so everyone in the training
and testing structure is focused on how the pilot
handles the automation- not how, or even if, he can
hand-fly the aircraft solely by reference to the
"stand-by" instrumentation. When I learned to fly,
these so called "stand by" instruments were in fact
our primarily instruments. We had stand- by
instrumentation but they were just smaller identical
instruments to the primary ones.
To
fix this problem, save lives and huge amounts of
money, the insurance companies and regulatory
agencies should insist that each pilot be required
to fly a periods of additional training while
simulating selective failures of the automated
systems. This program, the Caribex Air Remedial
Training Curriculum RTC, is carefully and
professionally crafted to "teach," absent any
insinuation of a lacking of a pilot's abilities and
entirely without intimidation. Our background, and
that of all my instructor pilots, is focused on
transferring knowledge in a very positive
atmosphere. This is not a pass / fail
curriculum. Learning ceases to be effective and is
vastly diminished when one fears the instructor or
the ouitcome. Our program bolsters the pilot's
confidence in himself and strengthens his abilities
to handle his aircraft in any situation and will
absolutely save lives and treasure. No one cares
more about the costs of accidents than the insurance
companies (underwriting syndicates) who provide
coverage to the world's air carriers and private
operators and the air carriers who stand to loose
ridership.
Included in our program is a requirement that during
line operations, every 30 days, every pilot be
required to disconnect the autopilot at FL 180 and
hand- fly the aircraft to a landing without engaging
the automated systems. The program also trains the
crews to hand fly the aircraft from altitude (below
RVSM) to a visual approach while maintaining
airspeed within five knots and making good the
descent, approach and landing. (this we accomplish
in the simulator) Our program also introduces
recognition and recovery from a full stall which is
obviously a vital skill. Stated plainly, any pilot
unable to perform those simple tasks does not belong
in a cockpit and, perhaps more importantly, you
don't want to be a passenger aboard his aircraft.
Allowing young pilots with 650 hours into the right
seat of a modern airliner such as the Germanwings
pilot is not a good idea. Of course, in his case
this was a individual with severe mental problems.
All carriers train pilots to handle engine failures
but, as mentioned, they too often don't train them
to handle the aircraft when the automation fails.
That process was probably ok when the older pilots,
(those who spent years flying round instruments who
actually knew how to fly), were present throughout
the industry but today, most of these guys have
retired or soon will. Now we have to train the
new pilots how to fly the aircraft
instead of merely pushing buttons and monitoring the
autopilot. If we don't, we will see more of the Air
France and Air Asia type of accidents.
As
part of the Caribex Air Remedial Training Program
(RTC) we also, require regular line air crew to
participate in functional test flights where
actual stalls (not in the simulator) are
performed. This is to drive home an understanding of
how a stall really feels and how far down
the nose must be pushed in a swept wing aircraft to
recover from an actual full stall. We know that
few, if any, of the world's current airline pilots
have any idea what this entails. As the test pilot
for Winglets
Systems, flying a Delta Airlines 727 aircraft, we
routinely stalled the big aircraft at altitude and
even I was surprised at the difference in real
recovery vs. a simulated one in the training
device.
Please give us a call or send an email if you have
any questions. Our program is reasonably priced and
can be worked into any carriers training syllabus in
a few days. It positively will save lives and money.
We are highly motivated to get this program into the
industry and so should you be. If you agree that
this is important, call us! | 
