Capt. Rick Thomas

Rick has been a professional pilot for 34 years with British Airways.

His career has involved operating in both short and long haul environments. The majority of his experience has been on the B747 flying worldwide routes.

A large part of Rick's career has been spent in training and examining, approved by the Civil Aviation Authority as a Trainer and Authorised Examiner to conduct initial and recurrent checks on pilots and trainers. This training and examining has been in the aircraft, simulator and classroom. The last seven years he spent as part of the Training Standards Team responsible for the setting and maintenance of training standards within the company.

Since the late 1980s Rick's training involvement expanded to include the initial development, introduction and presentation of the Crew Resource Management (CRM) course. Over that time he has worked on all the 'Human Factors' projects gaining approval from the CAA as a CRM Instructor and Assessor. His particular expertise has been in the training of trainers, being responsible for the basic training skills Core Course mandated by the CAA for all trainers and examiners. He is a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society

As one of the Principal Directors of Omega Training Solutions he has long experience of working with other industries introducing 'Human Factors' and other training programmes. His major responsibilities are Risk and Error Mangement Training together with Aviation where he is still actively involved in pilot training and examining on behalf of the UK CAA and Hong Kong CAD.