Sector: Aviation
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CHIRP appoints first programme manager in Advanced Air Mobility
CHIRP is pleased to announce the appointment of William (Bill) Dean as their new Advanced Air Mobility Programme Manager. Bill, a former military pilot who specialised in flight test, served with the Royal Navy’s Fleet Air Arm for 23 years, firstly as a helicopter pilot and then for most of his career flying the Sea…
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CHIRP appoints new Director of Aviation
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CHIRP is pleased to announce the appointment of Nicky Smith as their new Director of Aviation. Nicky, who is a former military and commercial helicopter pilot, takes on the role following the retirement of Steve Forward who has been with CHIRP since 2020. Having started her aviation career almost 40 years ago, Nicky flew a…
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Controller Pilot Data Link Communications (CPDLC) growing pains
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This Edition’s ILAHFFT entries are taken from our US NASA ASRS[1] sister organisation’s CALLBACK publication Issue 537(October 2024) that highlights some misunderstandings, expectation bias, complacency and problems with overly complex message formats from CPDLC. CPDLC is a great tool, but crews need to use it with care to ensure that the entire message is understood, and controllers need to…
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To cap it all…
Our syndicate aircraft had been in and out of action for a few months over the summer as a consequence of some engineering work, following permit expiry. On resuming flying, two members of the group observed that the fuel tank was not venting correctly and that a vacuum was forming during flights, leading to a…
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Video assets
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CHIRP Aviation Training Video CHIRP has recently produced an animated video (approx 6mins long) to highlight the key elements of our activities and encourage awareness of the CHIRP role and processes. The video can be accessed at the link below. CHIRP Aviation ‘About Us’ Video CHIRP has recently produced an animated video (approx 4mins long)…
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Getting your game face on – time to focus on the task in hand
It was Autumn 2014 and it was an afternoon shift. At the time, there were numerous ‘Getting Your Game Face On’ posters around the Tower; they’d been on display for a while but if you weren’t into rugby they were pretty easy to walk past. I thought it would be an idea, therefore, to share an experience of…
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CHIRP Aviation Advisory Board Chairs explain what we do
CHIRP has recently produced a video (approx 10mins long) voiced by our Advisory Board Chairs to highlight the key elements of our role and encourage awareness of our activities. The video can be accessed at the link below.
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CHIRP Aviation Annual Report FY2023-24
FY2023-24 saw the first full year of flying since the end of the COVID-19 pandemic and the associated removal of general travel and social restrictions in UK. Commercial aviation activities continued their recovery over the twelve months and reached pre-pandemic levels of flying towards the end of the reporting period, albeit with some interruptions in…
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Stress, distraction and flying don’t mix
It was back in 2002 and I was working for a major Telecoms provider as part of their first team selling classified advertising in their new “Purple Book” in the North England region. I was recruited as I’d had considerable success in contract labour recruitment – a game that required a very high work ethic, lots…
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There are no hyphens in “Jeppesen”
It may be useful if I share my recent experience with the Jeppesen database upload into my AVIDYNE IFD 440. You can imagine a “Swiss Cheese” IFR approach scenario in which this could become a safety issue. In July 2023, I took out an annual subscription with Jeppesen for their European database. The methodology was…
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Monitoring automation and having clear CRM responsibilities
This report is taken from our US NASA ASRS [1]sister organisation’s CALLBACK publication Issue 533 (June 2024) and refers to some sobering consequences of a B767 crew’s VNAV interactions. The Relief Pilot’s report is a little blunt in pointing out what wasn’t done correctly, and neither report really explores why this incident occurred with 3 pilots on the flight deck.…
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CAA
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The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) in the UK regulates all aspects of civil aviation to ensure the safety, security, and efficiency of air travel. Its core functions include setting safety standards for airlines, aircraft, and airports, licensing aviation personnel, and managing air traffic services. The CAA also handles consumer protection issues, ensuring passengers are treated…