As flight instructors, we always strive to find ways to make learning more impactful. For better or for worse, most of us find accidents interesting; we just hope it was not us or someone we know.
David Moorefield is a former Naval Aviator, and taught Crew Resource Management to other Naval Aviators by analyzing mishaps and dissecting them for root causes to work towards ways the crews could have made different decisions. He’s since adopted this technique for his civilian students. Using accident data and NTSB reports, he teaches students to dissect the report and break down the planning, human factors, links in the chain, and other points where a different outcome or course of action may have avoided the mishap.
Moorefield’s presentation will show us how to use reports to construct scenarios appropriate to our students' stage in training; "I have had many friends who have been in mishaps, and I am sure they would all want us to learn from them."
Professor David Moorefield is the ERAU GAETZ Aerospace Institute’s Director of Flight Operations.
He is 28-year veteran of the Air Force and Navy. He served as a maintenance technician on the C-141B and C-5A. As a Naval Aviator he flew the TH-57 Bell Jet Ranger followed by the SH-60B Sea Hawk with missions ranging from Anti-Submarine Warfare to Counter Narcotics Operations. He also flew the T-34C as a Primary Naval Flight Instructor and taught multiple ground school courses.
After retiring in 2012, Moorefield flew in Helicopter Emergency Services in the Bell 206 and the EC-135. He later flew for Mesa Airlines Flying CRJ-700/900, and went on to work for Northrop Grumman as a Project Manager for the E-2D.
Moorefield holds the ATP and CFI/I in both Rotary wing and Fixed wing aircraft. He has over 5000 flight hours and has an undergraduate degree from Embry Riddle in Professional Aeronautics and a master’s degree from The Naval War College in National Security and Strategic Studies.
Aaron Dabney earned his Flight Instructor certificate in 2009, and has been an active instructor ever since. He has provided more than 5,000 hours of instruction in more than 30 models of aircraft, mentoring pilots from their first hour through becoming accomplished instructors themselves, and all points in between.
Dabney grew up in an aviation family. His maternal grandfather Joe was a World War II fighter pilot, and much of his childhood was spent in the family J-3 Cub with his grandfather or his uncle Mark. Aaron completed his first solo in that Cub in 1999 and is now its caretaker.
Aaron is a 6-time NAFI Master Flight Instructor, owns a small flight school, and has served as an adjunct lecturer for Baylor University's Aviation Sciences program since 2010. He serves on NAFI's Board of Directors and serves in several volunteer roles including coordinating MentorLIVE
Aaron lives in Waco, Texas with his wife of 20 years Alisa.
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