Shift change is when the most information moves in the least time. The outgoing crew is tired and thinking about home; the oncoming crew is still getting their bearings. A sticky note on the panel, a quick verbal rundown or a text message can work on a quiet day. On a busy one, something gets lost: a write-up, a fuel number, a NOTAM that changed overnight.
Why handoffs fail
- They depend on memory. Whatever the outgoing pilot remembers to mention is all that gets passed on.
- They depend on overlap. If the crews don't see each other, as with a late flight or an early relief, the handoff may not happen at all.
- They aren't recorded. When something goes wrong later, there's no way to see what was known at the start of the shift.
What the oncoming pilot needs
- Aircraft status: in service or not, open write-ups, deferred items and MELs.
- Numbers: total time, fuel and maintenance due in days and hours.
- Notes: anything unusual about the aircraft, equipment or base.
- What changed: new NOTAMs, TFRs or weather trends since the last brief.
Make the aircraft carry the story
The most reliable handoff doesn't depend on two people being in the same room. Tie the information to the aircraft instead of the person: when the outgoing pilot updates the aircraft's status, times and notes, the oncoming pilot sees them automatically when they start their brief on that tail number. Then each pilot confirms what they found and adds what changed.
Put it in the brief
Handoffs work best when they're a step in the start-of-shift brief, not a separate task. The oncoming pilot reviews what was passed on, checks it against the aircraft and the latest weather and NOTAMs, and the brief records both. See What every HEMS pre-duty brief should cover.
BRIEFED carries aircraft status, fuel, times, maintenance items and notes from shift to shift by tail number, so every brief starts where the last one left off.