Sometimes its all night time.
Night flight into Germany.
High performance teams start with thorough preparation. For Airline Crew, this includes a briefing, which sets the tone for the flight. Captain Frank Delpierre is briefing the crew as we gather on board, shortly before the flight. This is South African Airways SA260, Johannesburg to Frankfurt. This Airbus A330-200 is loaded with 68000kgs of fuel and will take us 10:30 to fly through the night.
After the briefing, the cabin crew will check their emergency equipment, their doors, the lavatories and catering.
Frank will head to the flight deck to brief us and get ready for departure. I’ve completed the walk around. The technician is refueling the aircraft. The ramp agent is making sure all passengers are through the boarding gate. Load control is finalizing our paperwork, cargo loading is taking place underneath, potable water is being loaded and the tug driver has connnected his tug for the push-back start. This symphony of mini-teams work together to get this flight airborne, on time.
How can we improve this collaboration? After the flight there is a debriefing. This is an opportunity for feedback to the respective teams and make improvements for tomorrow.
High performance teams prepare. High performance teams deliver. High performance teams review.