ORM is not a "Ka-ching!"

Flying Safety, June, 2004 by Tom Rempfer, Juan Gaud

(Intentionally too small to read!)

Needless to say, the evolution of ORM makes it clear we don't have the corner on risk management in the armed forces or the USAF. Civilian aviation professionals have been honing ORM concepts as well for many years. One familiar civilian flying training program for many military pilots who have pursued FAA ratings is the King Schools. They provide useful hip pocket concepts and rules of thumb for pilots to contemplate.

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The Kings drive home the reality that classical risk management by using war stories, wives tales, snappy sayings, trial and error, or the "invincible until proven otherwise" attitude doesn't cut it. They emphasize that aviation's potentially vague and less intuitive risks, such as weather, dictate more formalized thoughts about risk taking. Sometimes, proper risk management goes out the window because you've been successful before, and there are rewards for taking the risks. These propensities for risk taking are exacerbated by our aviator culture that promotes "type A" risk takers, self-confidence, and challenge orientation--all potentially leading to risk tolerance in lieu of forth-right risk evaluation.

We've all read about, but of course have never fallen victim to the quirks of excessive risk taking, 'get-home-itis,' or pushing the edge. The Kings remind us that risk management finds us at war with ourselves and our nature. They emphasize that expertise, like our core values, requires us to recognize our inevitable mistakes, and to manage them and call the requisite "Knock It Off." We do this because of our training, prudence, sixth sense, checklist discipline, standards and, yes, ORM. It's another tool for our bag of tricks, and the Kings even offer a couple more we find useful.

They advocate acronyms to aid us in using "CARE" IN THE AIR in order to "PAVE" the way to ensure "I'M SAFE." "CARE" makes sense, and asks consideration of:

                  Consequences
                  Alternatives
                  Reality
                  External pressures

By "thinking through" the Consequences of your next maneuver, stunt or decision; by looking at Alternatives; by being intellectually honest about the Reality of how things are versus as we planned them to be; and by compartmentalizing and coping with External pressures, we effectively are using an adaptation of ORM. The Kings provide a checklist.

The Kings also remind us that risk factors change in flight with the "PAVE" acronym:

                   Pilot
                   Aircraft
                   enVironment
                   External Pressures

Obviously, the Pilot must be fit for duty. Makes sense, just like ORM. Our Aircraft must be fit for flight, with properly planned fuel and all mechanical issues resolved. Of course, we then try to calculate, or at least hypothesize, enVironmental risk factors such as the weather, wind, terrain and hours of daylight. And finally, as with the "CARE" acronym, we must ensure that External Pressures don't bite us due to our own goal-oriented behavior which might intensify a conscious or unconscious disregard of insidious risks.