Neil Posthumus1
1Toll Aviation
Biography:
Neill Posthumus (Posti) is a former Special Forces Helicopter Pilot who served in the British and Australian Armies for a combined 17 years. In that time he operated military helicopters across the world, in all environments, and served in Iraq and twice in Afghanistan. He led the Aviation Task Force in support of UK Special Forces during his final tour and, upon return to the UK, trained as a flying instructor at the Central Flying School (CFS) and subsequently trained pilots and crewmen on Lynx Mk7. He was also part of the Blue Eagles Display Team in 2014 that won the King Hussein Memorial Sword at the Royal International Air Tattoo.
In the ADF, Neill was a Blackhawk and MRH90 Pilot and Flying Instructor. His focus was on developing young Aviators to become more tactically astute and better Aircraft Captains. His operational experiences and interest in Human Factors formed the basis of his mentoring. Since joining Toll Aviation in November 2021, Neill qualified as a HEMS pilot and has continued his passion for Human Factors as an HFI.
Abstract:
Aeromedical crews are high performing teams.
These teams may consist of a pilot and nurse in an aeroplane to a full HEMS crew of five people. The operating environment is dynamic and diverse from sitting at 30,000 feet in a pressurised cabin on a smooth beautiful day with no patient stable to operations 35 ft off the trees in the Blue Mountains conducting winching operations in horrendous weather on night vision goggles for a patient who has fallen off a cliff.
Aeromedical teams are often tasked to an individual in great need of medical support during the worse day of their life. So how do we ensure that the aeromedical crews bring their A Grade self and contribute to enhancing their team’s performance?
From personal experience over 18 years of operations and close involvement with two separate Aviation Safety Management Systems, there are four destroyers of a high performing team, stress, fatigue, distraction and finally habit breaking. Using real aeromedical examples after discussing the nine mental skills required for improving an individual’s performance, the four destroyers will result in the high performing team failing. The failing could be benign and inconsequential to catastrophic with an adverse patient outcome, or worse, the loss of the aircraft and the entire team.