The Little Prince
The Little Prince is a book written by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry. My father gave me this book in my early years in aviation, which has some very insightful thoughts. The narrator begins with a discussion on the nature of grown-ups and their inability to perceive especially important things. As a test to determine if a grown-up is enlightened and like a child, he shows them a picture that he drew at the age of 6 depicting a snake which has eaten an elephant. The grown-ups always reply that the picture depicts a hat, and so he knows to talk of “reasonable” things to them, rather than fanciful.
In the fall of 2008 as I took to flight crew training as the head of IndiGo’s Training department, I wrote a letter addressed to the DGCA. Later, on the request of the then CFOI, I prepared a roadmap for FSD, DGCA India since there is no guiding document in Indian aviation. Please note that this document is in much greater detail than the Indian National Civil Aviation Policy.
- The first was the need to implement Evidence Based Training in 2008. I had felt the need having worked very closely with Safety. Over the past decade the implementation of the concept elsewhere in the world has not met my vision of safety. The agenda like other has been hijacked by lobbies and quality has been gravely compromised for business prospects.
- The need for upset recovery training was also in the document. ICAO later made it mandatory and was included in the ICAO annex 6. India unfortunately has not been able to implement it till date.
- Training of trainers and inter rater reliability was also a key aspect which was sought to be included in training since it is the biggest lacunae.
- Need to strengthen the foundation of initial flight school training.
I am uploading the document so that if anyone feels the need for some ideas can pick it up or otherwise feel free to criticize. The document has not met its intended purpose, therefore its in the public domain.
Read here: FSD, DGCA India roadmap 2011 V1
mindFly analysis
An adult’s though process is coloured by many lenses or bias. A child has no inhibitions, the society or education system builds them as the child grows. Therefore , its important to address the interesting queries of a child for they may question ones very existence. Don’t suppress the child inside you.
Finally the Government acts.
The government has set the ball rolling for the complete overhaul of aviation regulator, the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA), to bring it at par with other global regulators.
The Civil Aviation Ministry has constituted a committee headed by former Skill Development Secretary and Air India ex-chief, Rohit Nandan for this purpose.
Members of the panel include former DGCA chief Satender Singh and a representative from global aviation consultancy, the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA). The terms of reference (ToR) for the committee include studying the best practices globally and suggest measures to put a technically strong body in place.
