The IAFTP Question of the Month for February 2013 asked how your flight training organization manages the daily training activities of its students? This month’s question takes this discussion one step further by asking how your organization manages compliance.
The term compliance unfortunately stirs bad vibes in aviation. The first thoughts that come to mind include inspections, checkrides, rules, regulations and related activities. Yet, the basic truth is that we can’t achieve operational excellence unless we comply with a set of predetermined standards. And, the list of such standards is not short!
Whether these standards are mandated by organizations like the FAA or EASA, required by an insurance underwriter, or strongly suggested by industry best practice … the long term success of any organization in any industry is directly dependent on its compliance to generally accepted or mandated standards.
To go one step further, safety management is actually a common misnomer … you can’t manage safety. For example, the FAA doesn’t define it, nor measure it. Rather, you can only manage and measure compliance to specific standards which the industry believes should ultimately result in acceptable levels of safety.
So, if we accept the premise that ensuring all stakeholders (employees, flight instructors, students, mechanics, etc.) are complying with standards is essential to the success and safety of an organization, how does your organization manage such compliance?
March 8th, 2013 | 
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We use Noverant Online to manage compliance of our students, instructors and crewmembers. We started using it in our Part 61 operation, and then deployed it to our Part 135 and Part 141 operation. It allowed us to receive approval for 100% electronic records from our local FSDO and TSA, and so it’s made life much easier. Rather than relying on pieces of paper, files and spreadsheets across the organization, we can view the training and compliance status of any student or employee with just a simple click. It greatly simplifies the on-boarding and tracking of students and employees; reduces the stress of on-site inspections by FAA or TSA; and lowers our cost of compliance while improving training effectiveness.