The toolbox
Brian Parsons
It flew in here didnt it? O ne of the basic tools everything is South from there
we were all taught in flight school was communication. The acronym was A-N-C: Aviate-NavigateCommunicate. These three words were drilled into our heads as a means to possibly one day save your life in the unlikely event we found ourselves in trouble.
Aviate - operate the machine as you would under any circumstance and don't give up. The operation of a helicopter does not change from one flight to the next. Simply put, it's pull pitch, add pedal, cyclic centered, and you're airborne. Its the same thing each and every time because the laws of physics and rotary wing flight are always the same. Gravity has a way of reminding you of this if you screw up. Navigate - be it to the nearest airport or the closest corn field. North is always North ,and South is always South, unless of course you're standing on the North Pole Then 
heliweb.com
The point is that navigational tools are used much the same way each and every time in order to get from point A to B. 360 degrees is always a circle, and a two minute turn is always 3 degrees per second for a standard rate turn. Communicate - Advise your position and, if practical, what's happening. Talk to ATC for vectors back to the airport or to ask for further assistance. Communicate to receive assistance. How many different ways can you think of that we can communicate? Be it verbal, written, hand signals, light signals, Morse code, or by smoke; With any of these methods of communication, there are a couple of things we need to have in order to effectively convey an idea and convert it into some kind of action. e need an expression of communication or a complete idea to disseminate and we need a receptor or somebody listening on the other end that understands your language. Pretty basic stuff, wouldn't you agree? So why is it that, when a pilot
writes down a discrepancy on the squawk sheet, it often becomes a foreign language? Or when a maintenance engineer reads the squawk sheet for a helicopter, and he or she suddenly finds themselves reading comprehensionchallenged? There is often a disconnect between pilots and maintenance when it comes to properly documenting discrepancies, as well as the interpretation of what the discrepancy actually is. Without a detailed interview of the pilot - who, by the way works the night shift, and is off for the next 3 days, how would one determine what was meant on the squawk sheet when the pilot has written, something loose in the cockpit? Of course, the corrective action would be tightened something in the cockpit, and we all would have had a big laugh at the pilot's expense. Effective communication requires the speaker to express a clearly stated complete idea. In the scenario above there obviously just wasn't enough information provided by the pilot to be effective. More than you know, it helps engineers