I have to make a differential training for a new airplane type and it is done by a flying school I’ve never worked with. So they sent me their briefing check list (obviously they insist on following theirs instead of using your own you’ve used in the last 10 years) and at the bottom of it it’s written:
“Die Unterlagen sind auf Papier ausgedruckt mitzuführen. Es werden nur Unterlagen verwendet, welche vom Homebriefing/Skybriefing stammen. Keine anderen Quellen sind ‚hoheitlich‘ akzeptiert.”
Roughly translated: “The documents must be carried printed on paper. We only use documents which originate from Homebriefing / Skybriefing. No other sources are ‘sovereignly’ accepted.”
The check list is from March 2015 so it seems even today this school doesn’t like any type of electronic apps and still requires everything on paper. The word “hoheitlich” with the meaning of “sovereign” (and in an example phrase “verbindlich hoheitlich erlassene Normen” = “mandatory regulations”) makes me think again about the requirements to bring paper with us. If I am not mistaken there is no requirement to bring proof of weather checks in paper form.
What would you do in such a situation? Print everything and let the 5 hours differential training pass or try to convince them working with a tablet is legal and acceptable?
It’s a load of BS. However, you want to get a signoff so just do as they say — that would be my attitude. “Students” lecturing experienced instructions most often does not go well.
The good thing about a market is that it includes freedom of choice. If you don’t like what a vendor does, you can vote with your feet.
I don’t know the ATO you talk about and thus should not comment much. Personally, I find the words being used being a smell and I would not feel comfortable working with people who show the kind of attitude which shines through the words being used.
Other than that … If you need their signoff, do what @achimha already said.
The “problem” is that many (mostly the bigger) ATOs have their “own” procedures (ridiculously sometimes called SOPs by them). This does not necessarily have anything to do with legal requirements. But the way they do it, they blur the two, making it hard for their students to differentiate between what is a legal requirement and what is school procedure.
As Achim says, if you don’t want to make a fuss with them, just do as they please and get it done. It’s a bad situation – experienced students / customers adapting themselves to the style of the school, making them feel uncomfortable, yet paying a lot of money. The moment they pass the course, they go home and go back to “their” proven style.
The training manual of every FTO must be approved by their national aviation authority. The “hoheitlich” bit in that phrase. Getting that aproval is a tedious procedure that takes in excess of a year to achieve right now (I have been waiting for a specific training syllabus for myself since May 2014 and still nothing is happening). So FTOs are usually very careful when it comes to make small changes in their paperwork because you can not make the next change until the previous one has been approved. Carrying a met briefing on paper is acceptable everywhere in the world, so it is a safe and approved option that is better left untouched… Changing that to “paper or electronic form” (and who knows if all countries accept that yet?) would mean to block all important and urgent changes to the training syllabi for months to come.
Stephan_Schwab wrote:
Personally, I find the words being used being a smell and I would not feel comfortable working with people who show the kind of attitude which shines through the words being used.
I see absolutely no trace of “attitude” in that one sentence quoted above. That is just a phrase in “legal speak” and nothing more.
Do you have to print it out at home and bring it with you, or can you use their printer? If it’s the latter, I would just do what they say. Often there is also a difference between what is written on some paper and what really matters to the instructor. When you meet him for the first time and there is an occasion to casually discuss this, you may want to bring it up.
Every instructor and every organization that I have done some training with had their differences, some of them directly contradicting each other. I always try to see it as an enriching experience to pick the bits that I like and forget about the rest. The most valuable information can be learned by discussing these differences with a knowledgeable person. Well, for the paper vs. electronics debate this is probably not the case.
It reminds me, in several places in Germany for the radio telegraphy oral exam, you are required to read back wind information during the landing clearance. This is of course totally wrong and against all rules but yet it is required to pass the test. The reason: they want to make sure you understand the information.
You could argue with them, go to the administrative court, appeal, spend 3 years of your life to get your radiotelegraphy license without wind read back or you can just read back the wind and go home with your license.
Rwy20 wrote:
Every instructor and every organization that I have done some training with had their differences, some of them directly contradicting each other.
Maybe. But if I, as an instructor, contradict the approved scheme under which a flying school operates, I will take every possible consequence as my personal responsibility. If I show my iPad weather briefing when getting ramp inspected (have been through that quite a few times as an instructor) and our manual says “paper only” then I have committed the violation. As most other instructors I do this freelance beside another job. No FTO can have too many violations on it’s record, so the (freelance) instructors who commit them will not be employed any longer. Has happened already at “my” FTO, although not over a paper/electronic flight preparation issue. So if the book says “paper”, as an instructor I would be foolish not to insist on paper.
and our manual says “paper only” then I have committed the violation.
…of the company procedures.
A “ramp inspector” wouldn’t be interested in that. He won’t even know them.
boscomantico wrote:
A “ramp inspector” wouldn’t be interested in that. He won’t even know them.
Of course he is. That’s the first thing he asks for when you are flying or instructing commercially. Operating manuals consist always of a further restriction to the official rules and regulations. Therefore they check your actions against the rules of your operating manual (or training manual in case of an FTO).
