mindFly Katha, From cockpit to culture — one podcast, many flight paths.

66% of pilots who participated in the survey responded that they have inadvertently dozed off in the cockpit without informing the other pilot.

Safety matters, a non governmental organisation based in India conducted a Safety Culture Survey beginning 16th Sept 2022 with the objective of assessing the prevailing safety culture in Indian aviation with the focus on pilot fatigue. The main aim of Safety Matters is to establish a generative safety culture. Fatigue poses an important safety risk to civil and military aviation. In addition to de...

Advaita Katha In its simplest form, storytelling remains a powerful element of learning, with the narrative being equally as compelling as books and presentations. They humanize learning . It offers us the opportunity to connect to like-minded characters, or see the world literally from within someone else’s skin. Stories touch our emotions and help develop empathy. Plus, no matter how organized o...

The fuselage of the Aloha Boeing failed, despite the fact that it was designed and built to well proven rules. Why? The whole industry had become complacent about maintenance and particularly about the durability of old aircraft. To put this in perspective the accident aircraft was nineteen years old, older no doubt than the cars driven by most of the passengers. The aircraft had operated for 35,4...

I am a true believer that society and culture cannot be separated from work and training. However best the training may be, it is under a controlled environment and the performance indicators needed to be achieved are briefed before hand. The crew undergoing training works together to achieve their objective and they are driven by performance indicators required to be achieved to declare them comp...

“Looking without seeing” is the most common error that most humans make daily. Our attention is distracted or preoccupied with other thoughts. The obvious in front of us is sometimes missed whereas the reaction to the situation or the call out is as per SOP. Pointing and Calling refreshes our attention to the specific point that we intend to look. This activity involves pointing at target objects...

Read the blog here The Runway Overrun Protection System (ROPS) is designed to alert the flight crew in the case of potential runway overrun situation. The overrun warning (ROW) function automatically arms at 400ft AGL and works until start of braking. The Runway overrun protection (ROP) works from start of braking until the aircraft stops. The surprising part is that the ROW/ROP LOST fault which i...

Listen to the congress sub-committee hearing on the 5G issue. The 5G mess in the USA has exposed the corporate culture in the USA where lobbies decide on the course of action. Is it the $81 billion which is shaping the policy or aviation safety? Safety is always a balance between production and protection. Too much of anything is bad.

Read the blog here Becoming a pilot is an expensive proposition due to the high training costs without an assurance of a job and on the other hand can be a lucrative business for some. Every year hundreds of youth train to become pilots at flying schools in India and abroad having borrowed huge sums in loans or mortgage. A pilots profession not only pays well but increases the social standing of a...

Interactions between aircraft and wildlife are frequent and can have serious financial and safety consequences. Birds are the most common threat to aircraft, with a host of terrestrial animals also implicated. This podcast is about the Wasps building mud nests in Pitot Probes of Aircraft. These can cause blockages and lead to aircraft instrumentation displays errors.

Read the final report here The aircraft was departing from Runway 26 at London Luton Airport, but when the PF made a normal aft movement of the side stick control at rotation airspeed, the aircraft did not pitch up. The PF increased the side stick input close to the maximum deflection. When the aircraft still did not pitch up, the PM selected TOGA thrust. The aircraft responded and a climb was com...

Watch the animation , click here! When the plane was on final for runway 25 at Orly, a Runway Incursion Monitoring and Collision Avoidance System (RIMCAS) warning was activated due to the presence of a bird-control vehicle in the vicinity of the runway safety area. However, the bird-control vehicle was behind the holding point and outside the runway safety area. The erroneous activation of the RIM...

A serious incident caused by a combination of operating factors in a complex system interacting in a manner which had neither been designed nor predicted. If passenger and cargo distribution on an aircraft leads to an undetected out of trim condition, the potential outcome could be unexpected handling qualities or control limitations.

Airbus and Boeing have had their share of the center of gravity issues due to placing the bigger engines under the wings. This was an opportunity to build a new medium range aircraft but the existing ones were selling like hot cakes, so it didn’t make much business sense. They now have to deal with basic issues like the center of gravity.

An emotional & inspiring farewell letter written by the residents of Dhariwal, Gurdaspur, Punjab. He established the 1st D.A.V. School in Dhariwal at the age of 24years and fought against Proselytism.

RASE is an open platform mobile application  where the users can share experiences/information that they normally write down in notes or remember at the back of their mind while flying an airplane or operating to an airport. Those unique features that are not normally found in company documents but are crucial or helpful. RASE app is available in iOS download here     &nbs...

Comair accident in the USA and 2 other incidents have highlighted the issue of spatial orientation of the human brain. While pilots remain heads down in order to conclude tasks, they are losing their orientation. The chain of errors can only be broken by a brief pause to reorientate before a takeoff.

My Grand Father, Chaudhari Prakash Chand was working at the New Egerton Mills in Dhariwal, Gurdaspur, Punjab. Protested against proselytism by the Britishers in 1920 & subsequently lost his 1st job for establishing the DAV school. Survived attempts on his life at the age of 20 yrs. The residents of Dhariwal, Gurdaspur wrote this touching farewell letter for his contributions to the society. Re...

Self awareness is the sense of an ongoing attention to one's internal states. In this self reflective awareness mind observes and investigates experience itself, including the emotions.

Air India Express IX1344 accident at Calicut airport where the aircraft plunged 35 meters killing 21 people including the pilots. The victims were transported to various hospitals in ambulances and private vehicles. While ambulances are equipped with life saving medical equipment,  the Co-Pilot was rushed to a hospital 25km away an hours drive on the backseat of a private car thereby deprivin...

A Qatar Airways newly acquired Airbus A350-1000 series aircraft had a close call over Iran on 12th April when it came into close proximity with another crossing aircraft. The airliner equipped with the state of art technology and traffic collision avoidance system was seen climbing by about 500ft while cruising at 34000ft on a flight from Doha, Qatar to Los Angles, USA.

When does fear set in and the different categories of near misses. McCurdy observed during the bombing of London in the World War that there were 3 categories. 1. Those who dies and those who were injured 2. Those who missed narrowly 3. The remote misses The behavior varied and so was their definition of fear.

The IATA Travel Pass is a solution for both. It is built it in modules as an industry solution based on open-source standards. It can be used in combination with other providers or as an end-to-end solution. The most important thing is that it is responsive to industry needs while enabling a competitive market.

Be skeptical about claims for effectiveness of training methods. Always ask questions and on implementation of these techniques.

COVID19 crisis has crippled the aviation sector which has witnessed salary cuts and job losses to stay afloat. In this time of crisis the civil aviation ministry has managed to overlook utilization of budgetary allocation of a staggering INR1450 Cr FY 2020-21.