Pilot Sim Programme
A fresh perspective on the human factors that decide outcomes
Experienced airline pilots observe your live clinical simulations and deliver clear, non-judgemental human factors feedback using aviation parallels. Your team leaves with practical habits they can use on the very next shift.
No obligation. We will visit your trust to talk it through.
185+
Pilot Sims delivered across NHS trusts
Delivered with NHS teams across the country
- 185+ sims delivered, 100+ in the first year
- From EDs and theatres to the back of an ambulance
- Highly Commended, HSJ Partnership Awards 2021
- Top Prize, Edinburgh Anaesthesia Festival 2022
How it works
Aviation safety thinking, applied to your simulations
Pilot Sim is an interprofessional collaboration between healthcare and aviation. Our pilots observe your teams in their real working environments and translate what they see into simple, relevant human factors feedback.
We get to know your service
We start with a no-obligation conversation about your teams, your simulation programme and the safety challenges you want to work on.
Pilots observe your sims
Experienced airline pilots, in uniform, observe your teams practising real emergencies in a safe space, watching the human factors in play.
Structured, clear feedback
You receive non-judgemental, anonymised feedback drawn from a developed competency matrix, with aviation parallels that make it stick.
Your team takes it to the ward
Simple take-home messages mean clinical teams leave with practical non-technical skills they can use on the very next shift.
What your team gains
Practical outcomes your teams can feel
Sharper non-technical skills
Communication, leadership, situation awareness and decision-making, the human factors that decide outcomes when teams are under pressure.
A fresh outside perspective
An interprofessional view from aviation surfaces latent safety threats and habits that are hard to spot from inside the team.
Memorable, lasting learning
Aviation parallels turn abstract safety principles into stories and habits your people genuinely remember long after the session.
The work so far
Delivered hand in hand with clinical teams, across trusts who keep inviting us back.
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- NHS Trusts
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- Pilot Sims Completed
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- Different Specialties
A systems approach to learning during live clinical simulations
The Pilot Sim Programme is an opportunistic collaboration between healthcare and aviation, formed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Regular discussions about simulation training in the NHS highlighted an exciting opportunity for shared learning.
Our pilots, in uniform, observe clinical simulations and produce simple, clear human factors feedback supported by aviation examples. The result is memorable, practical insight that clinical teams can carry straight back to the ward.
The WingFactors brand, its staff and its training material have no affiliation with a specific airline. Our strength comes from our experience and diversity across the industry.
Recognised and published
Our work has been recognised by the HSJ and the BMJ, and presented at national conferences. Recent publications and presentations include:
- Identifying and mitigating latent safety threats using in-situ simulation.
- GAMC 2021: Navigating difficult airways, a pilot's perspective.
- ASPiH: A multi-specialty simulation programme with human factors debriefing by pilots.
- Supporting the NHS Patient Safety Syllabus.
How WingFactors began
During the COVID-19 pandemic, a group of furloughed airline professionals founded the Pilot Sim and Patient Engagement programmes. Our courses provide a range of training methods and techniques designed to help NHS staff make better patient safety decisions.
Innovative, established and flexible, we respect the challenges of educational delivery and adapt to your needs.
The highly professional, structured approach by the team of pilots at WF’s who are unquestionably experts in HF’s has provided a very new and enlightening approach to running these simulations. The targeted, non-judgemental, anonymised written feedback and take home messages allow the participants to learn and remember some very important non-technical skills.
Dr Andrew Levison
Anaesthetics Consultant
Who delivers it
Led by experienced airline captains
Alex Jolly
Short Haul Captain | CRMT
Alex is a commercial airline captain and Crew Resource Management trainer who brings the discipline of flight deck human factors into clinical teams to improve patient safety.
Dave Fielding
Long Haul Captain | CRMT
Dave is a long haul airline captain and Crew Resource Management trainer who helps healthcare teams adopt the non-technical skills that underpin aviation safety.
Our pilots are commercial airline captains and Crew Resource Management trainers who bring flight-deck human factors to clinical teams. Read the full team bios.
Bring a fresh perspective to your next simulation
Tell us about your service and your simulation programme. We will come back to you personally to talk through how Pilot Sim could work for your teams, with no obligation.
We reply to every enquiry personally, and we are happy to visit your trust to talk it through.