I am the first to admit that I have had
little management training. I do know, however, that there is a type of
management called, “Just in time management”. That title seems to describe a
lot of the way I operate, which is often not a good thing. The daily fires
(metaphorical ones, not actual) need putting out, and they crowd out the longer
term, often more time-consuming, but ultimately more strategic tasks.
For months, even years, I have wanted, as
one of my long-term projects to update and upgrade the Crew Resource Management
course that is part of our Twin Otter ground school. The old version that I
wrote over five years ago is too theoretical and needs to be more grounded in
reality. Lack of time, too many other things demanding attention until … I have
a Twin Otter ground school starting on Monday!
Of course, I’ve known for weeks that the
course was coming up, but the progression from valuable to important to urgent
to critical had not yet occurred. Come last week criticality was reached and I
told everybody that come what may, I was working from home on Thursday and
Friday so that I could make headway with the revision. Working in the office
inevitably results in distractions and disruption.
Thursday and Friday extended to most of
Saturday and a major chunk of today, Sunday. I rarely work to this extent over
weekends as I know that time out is an important part of a survival strategy.
Exceptions need to be made on occasion, and this is an exception.
I doubt that the course will be finished to
my satisfaction by tomorrow morning, in fact I know it won’t because it still
isn’t finished, but I’m not doing any more today, and won’t be getting up at
3:30 a.m. to do it then either. So, I expect it’ll go back on my projects list
to wait until the next ground school in January 2018.
Perhaps, just perhaps, I’ll finish it off
before then.
In the meantime, I hope I’ll have enough
done for a presentable course. Just in time.
*************
The urgent things that delayed the revision
starting were check flights I needed to do. Two were assessing MAF pilots as
check captains, meaning they can do the periodic 6-monthly flight checks all of
us are subject to.
The other was a routine check for the owner
of one of the larger PNG tourist companies who flies his own Beech Baron. I
enjoy flying with him and we had a bit more cloud around on this flight than
usual, which added a more realistic dimension to his instrument rating
assessment.
In summary, it’s been a busy, somewhat
intense week, with the last four days feeling like I’ve become a bit of a
hermit. Tomorrow will be back into the interactive environment as the course
begins.
*************
Thursday will see me depart on the next
long-haul trip back to the UK, to see Nicki at about 6:30 (if I’ve remembered
the arrival time correctly) on Friday morning. Daily chats via WhatsApp have
been great, but I do wish that I could have seen Andrew, Querida and the boys
as well. There are discussions going around the family as to whether we might
be able to arrange something for next year.
*************
Running each day has kept me sufficiently
exercised so as to be able to sit still and concentrate reasonably well. A
longer run up Rondon Ridge yesterday turned into a gentler walk home after
coming down the hill too fast and straining a muscle in my hip. It was a shame,
because coming down is much more fun than puffing uphill. My overall distance
(12km) stayed the same, but the time to achieve it was lengthened considerably.
*************
If you want any fresh bananas I have two
ropes of them hanging under the house. First come, first served! One rope has
turned yellow in the last 24 hours, the other, which I expected to ripen first,
are intransigently green, but no doubt will come ready in a rush shortly – just
in time before I leave, I expect.
