If It Gets Measured, It Can Be Managed

The ICAO requirement for aviation operators to adopt a Safety Management System has led to innovative approaches in order to satisfy the measurement and monitoring of performance. One pilot human factors performance evaluation methodology that has gained support in both civil and military operations is Mission Operations Safety Audits (MOSA). MOSA has evolved from an experimental research program which was initially tested in a single pilot FA/18 Hornet simulator. It was then adapted to multi-crewed flight decks and further tested in a European civil airline and an Indian sub-continent regional airline before being reintroduced to military multi-crewed transport operations. Following the success of the trials, a mature MOSA Program was recently rolled out to all of the transport squadrons from 86Wing, Royal Australian Air Force. These included squadrons operating the C-17 Globemaster III, the KC30A MRTT (Multi-Roll Tanker) and the KA350 King Air. MOSA is a structured pilot self-assessment program that collects data across subject matter expert designed categories of behaviour that are tailored to meet the specific requirements of the operation. Each pilot assesses him/herself, their co-pilot and how they perceive the overall performance of their operation as a crew. The anonymity of the self-reporter is protected and the data is submitted by use of electronic tablet technology where it is analysed to produce a system evaluation report and highlight developing issues. Once base-line measures are established, the effectiveness of interventions can be can be measured by subsequent MOSA evaluations. This paper will discuss the development of the MOSA methodology and give examples of the results that it can provide to users.