aviation

Situational awareness:

Awareness of what happens around you to understand how information, events, and your own actions impact your goals and objectives now and in the near future.

Traffic is hectic as you take yet another daily commute on the interstate. Suddenly someone swerves into your lane. You hit the brakes and fervently glance behind you to see if a rear-end crash might be eminent.

While dangers that come with travel on crowded freeways are unavoidable, how we react to those dangerous situations is within our control. If fatigued or stressed, we are likely to be less aware of what is going on around us. This leads to poor reactions that heighten the chance of tragic outcomes.

MAF pilots and maintenance staff who work long, non-routine hours in remote locations often face stress and fatigue which can lead to unsafe conditions. To address this issue, MAF Learning Technologies (LT) staff is working with Kent Contrucci, MAF Safety Specialist and a former MAF pilot and flight instructor, on a safety curriculum that emphasis situational awareness.

In 1945 God challenged a handful of ex-military airmen to overcome geographic barriers to the Gospel.  They answered the call with airplanes, forming a flight service known today as Mission Aviation Fellowship.  Suddenly, days on the trail changed to minutes in the air.  Missionary dreams of reaching people living in remote mountain valleys or impenetrable jungles gave way to the reality of doing it.  They rejoiced that the Lord finally enabled them to surmount such formidable obstacles.

But then He presented a new challenge.  By the end of WW II both military and airline operations routinely included 2-way radio communications.  So, our early pilots, fresh from those environments, automatically integrated radios into their flight service. When missionaries saw our base staff routinely speak with pilots a hundred miles into the bush, they quickly realized the potential for their own work.  “That’s amazing.  Is there any way we could do that too?” they asked.

“Sure.  Here’s how it works,” we answered and quickly found ourselves in communications ministry, installing radios in central offices and remote camps.  Runners bearing notes stained with many days sweat gave way to instant conversations with near telephone ease.  Today, setting up and maintaining a radio network comprises MAF’s entire ministry in some countries and an important part in others.

But, professional aviation’s demand for mastery of the growing body of information compelled us to adopt computers at the dawn of the digital era.  MAF began automating shop, reporting and flight planning tasks.  When missionaries saw the boon these strange machines provided to our record keeping, they asked, “That’s amazing.  Is there anyway we could do that too?”