Where Birds Don't Fly

An SMS enterprise is required to operate with a process to identifying hazards to aviation safety. Defining hazards to aviation safety is subjective and based on prior experiences, guidance, or fear of failure. When there are none, or very few, hazards in the hazard register, the regulator view this as a nonconforming to a regulatory requirement to identify hazards. A limited hazard register is a red flag to the regulator who then will issue findings to operators. An experienced and high time pilot may view a gravel-runway as a non-hazardous condition, while a low time pilot with, or a pilot without gravel-runway experience rates gravel-runway as a hazardous condition. Both pilots view the same scenario, at the same location, at the same time and with the same meteorological conditions, but experience, guidance and fear of failure leads to two different conclusions. One accepts the condition as hazardous, while the other rejects the conditions as a hazard to aviation safety. However, t...

A successful Accountable Executive (AE) is a person who fully comprehend their Safety Management System (SMS). The successful AE is result oriented and focuses on leadership motivation. The AE set clear goals and provide personnel with their empowerment and tools needed to achieve success. The successful AE is a motivational leader inspiring personnel with directions to work toward goals, and successfully complete one goal at a time. A goal without directions is not a goal but a wish, or a dream. Just as a successful CEO is surrounded by highly qualified personnel to guide them with business transactions, a successful AE accepts the confidential adviser as their go-to person to maintain processes that conform to regulatory requirements.     A safety management system is an evolving system through three phases. A successful AE is in the third phase of their SMS evolution. Every SMS enterprise go through the same three phases before the accountable executive becomes a ...