Page 13 - InterPilot Issue 1 2016

INTERVIEW WITh AIRbUS 13

Interview

with Airbus capt. Harry Nelson

IfALPA had the pleasure to interview Captain harry Nelson, Operational Advisor at Airbus, about the
company’s latest key safety developments that can further enhance aviation safety.

y name is Harry Nelson and I am the Operational Advisor to the There are many examples of “low hanging fruit” that need to be
MProduct Safety Department at Airbus. After a long 49-year career picked; simple things that the industry has learned the hard way but still
as a pilot, I joined the Safety department in 2012 where I have several need to be shared and understood by today’s generation.
roles. High amongst these is that I lead the relationship between Airbus The importance of FLY, NAVIGATE and then COMMUNICATE
and the various professional pilot groups including, of course, IFALPA. encapsulates what I mean. These “Golden Rules” do not tarnish with
I spent 12 years in the military during which I became an instructor time. One pilot always flying the aircraft along a safe trajectory and at a
straight from training and then a Vulcan B2 Captain at the age of 23. This safe energy level is as true now, if not truer, as it was in my early days.
was followed by going to test pilot schools and carrying out my first tour The operation, automatism and reliability have generated a situation
of duty in that capacity on the Blind Landing Experimental Unit. I flew where the pilot is a bit less in contact with the FLY bit. The role today
the full range of experimental aircraft there and helped develop such requires less pilot-direct-intervention and hands on “touch”. This
things as the Precision Approach Path Indicators (PAPIs). Upon leaving changing role has also created a more challenging role for the pilot
the Royal Air Force, I joined British Aerospace and went to Saudi Arabia monitoring. Some of us actually think that monitoring may well be the
on their training contract firstly as an instructor and then later as an unit more difficult role of the two, when carried out fully and well.
test pilot and Head of Standards squadron. AVRO subsequently invited
me to join their team at Woodford near Manchester where I flew a Is there a key safety initiative(s) that Airbus is currently working on
mixture of military and civil aircraft: Vulcans again during the Falklands that can enhance aviation safety?
war, Andovers and Nimrods on the military side and HS 748s and ATPs At Airbus, we have been working hard on trying to get rid of “dive and
on the civil. A secondment to Filton got me some valuable flying on the drive” non-precision approaches and replacing circling approaches by
VC10, as we converted it to a tanker for the Royal Air Force, and later I Required Navigation Performance (RNP). Our most recent Safety First
was posted to Prestwick where I flew the various marks of Jetstream. Magazine Special edition is about how to plan and fly a Functional Check
Finally, I moved to France where I joined Airbus. Initially I operated out Flight. And our main magazine remains filled with articles written by
of Hamburg before returning to Toulouse to fly all the Airbus types of specialists and pilots for pilots. I recommend it to all the IFALPA
aircraft including the A380 and the A400M. members. We also learn from every accident and serious incident and try
The move to Airbus was largely driven by my passion for flying and to put in place future mitigation means, but in doing so, one has to be
the fact that British Aerospace was withdrawing from civil aircraft careful that any proposed modification will have no unintended
manufacture. There was clearly a future there with strong product design, consequences either in the legacy designs or in future operational
plenty of innovation and a highly motivated international team. scenarios.
Runway Overrun Protection is one such modification that was
Could you tell us a little bit about the company’s latest key safety created out of the need to prevent longitudinal runway excursions. The
developments? What can we expect to see from Airbus in the near A350 now carries a Take-off Securing modification that is aimed at
future? preventing, amongst other features, incorrect data from being loaded into
It is difficult in a short response to pick out from so many interesting the FMGS.
initiatives from Airbus to cover. You know safety is like most other Auto FD/TCAS is designed to ensure that the initial reaction of the
things. It involves a little bit of excitement and a lot of “grunt work” aircraft to an RA is in the correct sense. Data has shown that too many
looking through details of incidents and trying to search for clues that RAs generate an incorrect response at the moment.
may allow us to prevent a future incident or accident. It also involves a lot In the development phase of the A350, we decided to look again at the
of communication. The key messages have to be often repeated if they are assumptions that we had made in training to check their validity against
to be effective amongst our changing professional population. the changing aviation professional world. The crews coming through our
doors to be trained were critical in this initiative. They were starting to
InterPilot | The Safety and Technical Journal of IFALPA ISSue 1 | 2016