A busy time for us!

Paul Dickens • 24 April 2018

Apologies for not having posted in a while but its been a very busy time lately! We have been working with one of the UK's biggest airlines to develop their pilot support programme and an associated CRM package, as well as being busy carrying out psychological assessments for a North Sea helicopter operator. Next month continues in the same vein. On May 2nd Paul Dickens is in London to be filmed as part of a TV documentary series from Pioneer Productions London - makers of "Aircrash Confidential" and "Terror in the Skies". During May he will be giving talks at two events:

"Mental Health Awareness in Helicopter Operations"
Royal Aeronautical Society Aircrew Mental Heath conference, London 24th May

"Conscientiousness and Safety in Pilots and Aerospace Engineers"
Flight Safety Foundation Safety Forum, Eurocontrol, Brussels, 29-30 May

Our work developing pilot support programmes with two operators continues, as does psychological assessment of pilots and engineers. We are in discussion with a number of new clients about the psychological assessment services we can provide to meet the new EASA rulings. We will also be attending the European Pilot Peer Support Network workshop in Frankfurt in June, and will be working on the same topic in Zurich during July. Once again we will be presenting at the EAAP conference in Dubrovnik in September.

Update!

by Paul Dickens • 25 March 2021

UPDATE!

Its been sometime since I posted an update on here, for the simple reason that since late last year I have been extremely busy! Some of that was in relation to European AOC holders needing to be compliant with CAT.GEN.MPA. 175 by 14th February. What has been interesting has been the variety of work I have been engaged in:

- our regular in-depth psychological assessment of pilots for recruitment and command upgrade with a number of operators

- designing psychological assessment processes for a number of operators in compliance with CAA CAP1938 including job analysis and OM A policy development, and training Basic Interviewers in line with CAP1938 requirements

- individual psychological assessments for pilots returning to work after Class 1 medical suspension

- assessment and support of pilots involved in serious incidents

- assessments of private pilots with mental health diagnoses for granting Class 2 medicals

- individual treatment/support work with pilots with sim anxiety and other aviation-related anxiety conditions

- training aviation peer supporters

- delivering webinars on aviation mental health and wellbeing awareness

- acting as a subject matter expert on a project for Leonardo Helicopter and the Norwegian Armed Forces

- participating in the ICAO mental health working group online meetings and the CAA FOLG Crew health and welfare subgroup

 

Phew! I'm sure there are things I've missed too. Since the start of 2021 we have acquired some significant new clients including Loganair Limited , BlueIslands, Castle Air and Air Charter Scotland, and we have a number of additional new contracts with operators in the UK and Europe in the offing. We also continue to support Kura Human Factors MAPS peer support programme working with over 40 AOCs across Europe as a result. We are now the exclusive suppliers of aviation psychology services to all 4 main offshore helicopter operators, Babcock Onshore and UKSAR and Irish Coast Guard SAR operations.

 

In April May I will be presenting at two online Royal Aeronautical Society events. On 27th and 28th April I will presenting during the Mental Wellbeing and Human Performance event and on 17th May I am presenting at the HF SG Engineering and Maintenance Conference. Both cover the topic of mental wellbeing and aviation, the first focussing on pilots the second - importantly - on aerospace engineers. I am also planning to update my "Cleared for Take Off" guide produced last year in the light of changed circumstances in the run up to flight operations post Covid, and new research that has emerged.

 

Keeping busy!

by Paul Dickens • 21 June 2020
Despite being restricted in my usual travel (I am usually flying from Edinburgh Airport at least once a week) it has been a busy time. Work has included:
  • urgent aircrew mental health assessment for operators
  • online pilot peer selection interviews for the North Sea pilot peer consortium
  • translating the "Cleared for Take Off!" guide into French and Spanish following requests from Canadian and Columbian pilot's unions
  • presenting a Webinar (see above) on the guide for up to 1500 Avianca pilots across Central and South America
  • reviewing papers for our professional aviation psychology journal
  • planning activities with a number of operators for when travel is less restricted next month
The "Cleared for Take Off!" guide has now been distributed to up to 65000 pilots in the USA and Canada, including those at United and Delta airlines. It was recommended in the BALPA checklist for pilots in the UK, and distributed by Flight Operations Inspectors of the UK CAA

Challenging times!

by Paul Dickens • 29 April 2020
With most scheduled airlines currently grounded as a result of the quarantine measures most nations have adopted, aviation is facing extremely challenging times. In particular aircrew who have been furloughed or laid-off face great uncertainty about their financial position and their furture career. However at some stage airlines will begin to return to flying, although maybe in a different way than previously and may take longer to return to full operations.

In order to help pilots return to work we have produced a guide - "Cleared for Take Off!: A pilot's guide to returning to flying". You can download it and distribute it from this website by clicking the button on the home page.

Review: 2019

by Paul Dickens • 15 December 2019
2019 has been another busy year at Core Aviation Psychology as many operators are beginning to implement the new regulations that come into force in August 2020, and we have been supporting a number of them to this end. We have welcomed a number of new clients: Wizzair DHL Air NHV Helicopters Bristow Helicopters Babcock Offshore and Onshore CargoLogicAir West Atlantic We are now the sole provider of aviation psychology services to the offshore helicopter AOCs. We have also cemented our relationship with Kura Human Factors and look forward to some exciting future joint ventures with them in the corporate aviation sector. We continue to see individual pilots at the request of AMEs and the CAA, who are working towards their PPL and need a Class 2 medical, and have a mental health diagnosis, and we have consulted with the CAA on both pilot support and pilot psychological assessment. Our input into mental health and wellbeing awareness continues, working alongside both jet2.com and DHL to develop CRM packages on the topic, and we have delivered awareness sessions for Babcock Offshore in Aberdeen and Sumburgh. Other work has included presentations at the Royal Aeronautical Society and the CHC Safety and Quality Summit in Dallas TX (on Pressure to Fly), contributing to the ICAO Mental Health Working Group and to the European Association for Aviation Psychology working groups. I was pleased to contribute two chapters to the newly-published textbook on Pilot Psychological Assessment (on interviewing pilots and assessing helicopter pilots), and even more honoured to be made a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society.

Busy, busy!

by Paul Dickens • 27 September 2019
A busy few weeks in prospect. I am travelling to Dallas TX to participate in the annual CHC Helicopter Safety and Quality Summit where I will be presenting on "Pressure to Fly", looking at the psychological aspects behind faulty decision making in helicopter operations. The first week in October I will be back in Aberdeen where I am involved in a meeting with all four offshore helicopter operators - CHC, NHV, Babcock and Bristow - looking at how we can set up a consortium approach to providing a Pilot Peer Assistance Newtwork together with the CAA Project Officer Nick Goodwyn. On the same day I will be at a meeting of the CAA FOLG Pilot Welfare subgroup. Following that I will be heading to Munich as I have been invited to participate as an aviation psychologist on an expert panel at Inter Airport Europe 2019.

Honoured!

by Paul Dickens • 12 August 2019

ICAO Working Group on Mental Health

by Paul Dickens • 7 March 2019
ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) has set up a working group to look at issue and report on aviation mental health. Paul Dickens of Core Aviation Psychology has been invited to be a member. Its objectives are to: review available statistics related to mental health and accidents, serious incidents, medical incapacity during flight and loss of licence; review global legislation and policies on mental health and public safety; review guidance material in Manual of Civil Aviation Medicine (Doc 8984) review training programme for aviation medical examiners; develop proposal and guidance material in order to balance medical confidentiality & aviation safety (reporting to regulatory authorities and sharing of information between regulatory authorities); evaluate and provide advice on the role of psychological assessment, psychometric testing and psychiatric assessment during the aviation medical assessment (initial and recurrent); evaluate and provide advice on the role of simulator assessment (and performance criteria) in the determination of fitness to fly; review/develop risk assessment tool for fitness-to-fly; develop a Statement on mental health promotion material and distribution channels; and develop a Statement on the role of Peer Support Programmes -for aircrew and AMEs . Meetings will start in March 2019.

EASA publish AMC and GM for new aircrew medical fitness regulations

by Paul Dickens • 25 November 2018
EASA published the Acceptable Means of Compliance and Gudiance material for the new regulations on aircrew medical fitness last Friday. They are available on this website.

October activities

by Paul Dickens • 19 November 2018
Just been reviewing our work in October and what a busy month it was! Our activities included; 4 days of aero engineer psychological assessment in Aberdeen Presentations on mental health and wellbeing, CISM and single-crew CRM at Universal Helicopters in St John's Newfoundland, Canada Working on expert evidence relating to an aviation-related civil case in Scotland's Court of Session Writing two chapters for a forthcoming book on the psychological assessment of aircrew, one co-authored with my colleague Christine Farrell Meetings with potential new clients and updating with existing ones Lecturing to MSc students at the University of Edinburgh on aviation psychology

Pilot Support Programme - Guidance for Commercial Air Transport Operators

by Paul Dickens • 14 September 2018
The UK Civil Aviation Authority today published CAP 1695, which is the guidance material for operators on establishing and running a pilot support programme. It sets out the necessary requirements for such a programme, including education on mental health issues and the provision of access to a pilot peer support network. A copy is on this website.