Frank Caron Bio
At 48, I am actually living in Hong Kong with my family. I was born in Amiens in France (133 Km north of Paris). But I spent most of
my childhood in Châlons-en-Champagne (174 Km east of Paris).
I have at least five passions:
- my two boys and
their charming and always positive mother,
- the airplanes (so
why I involved myself in aviation safety),
- flying at night,
- people and training peoples,
- and computers.
I hate:
- people who pretend to know everything,
- those intellectually dishonest,
- people with no sense of humor,
- to wake up very early in the morning.
My professional life is made of four parts:
The first part is four years in the French Railways and one year
as a swimming and/or sports instructor. These time were
interesting, just because I understood I have made a
huge mistake quitting school..
The second part starts in 1981 with a sound come back to the studies world. During 8 years I am going to study all the psychology fields (but I mainly focused on experimental and cognitive psychologies), statistics, computing/data
analysis, psychophysiology, neuro-psychology and even sexology, in five different universities.
I received a PhD in
Cognitive Psychology from the University Paris V Rene
Descartes in September 1999, with a study regarding how drivers
build mental maps when they have to move in large urban cities.
During my PhD years, I found the spark to start my dream of always: flying. I have always thought I was not enough clever to fly an airplane. Studying the human sciences gave me a different approach in which being clever or not was not the key. Therefore, I started a Private Pilot Licence training, sharing my time with lectures and researches at the university. After 3 months of intense training I got my first pilot licence. Then, I left France for the United States, where I got my FAA Commercial Pilot Licence. I also flew the Beech 76, but for some reasons I had to come back to France.
The third part is the continuity of the previous educational years, as I spent 13 years as a tenured
assistant professor and researcher in three universities in France
(Université
Paris V Rene Descarte, Université
de Picardie Jules Vernes, Université
Paris X Nanterre). I lectured
psychology (most of its fields and statistics, tests construction,
safety/human error in complex systems, etc.) and computing.
I also made and
managed researches most of them dedicated to aviation. I also was member of the French Civil Aviation Authority (DGAC) and the AIRBUS Human Factor groups. |
The four and last part started in 1999, as I joined the aviation
industry (my dream of always)
as an airline
pilot for Air Bretagne (Vannes, France). I flew Beech 100 and 200 on schedule charter flights and regular domestic routes mainly between UK and France.
After 8 months, I was hired by a small cargo company Taxi Air Fret (Toussus-le-Noble, France) where I flew Beech 90 and 99 throughout western and eastern Europe.
Six months later, I was hired by R-Lines (Angers-Marcé, France) where I flew Beech 1900D on schedules passengers flights. I was promoted Captain after 9 months. Two years later, this company reached bankruptcy.
I have been lucky to be certified as flight
instructor (JAA FI) since 1999. Later on, I got the Multiengine Instructor (JAA CRI) and the Instrument Instructor Qualifications (JAA IRI). Providing some flight instruction gave me the opportunity to improve my skills and experiences. This also allows me to stay involved in the aviation after I lost my job. I never stopped instructing in different training organization until I quit France for Hong Kong in 2006.
In 2004, I decided to get a FAA Airline Transport licence with a B737 type rating.
Beside these previous operational positions, I always got involved as:
In February 2006, I joined Hong Kong Dragon Airlines (Dragonair) as a full time Manager Air Safety. Because the company merged with the another Hong Kong airline, I quit this position in October 2006.
I was hired as a pilot by Hong Kong Airlines in February 2007. I first started on ground as the company IOSA (IATA Operational Safety Audit) coordinator. In May 2007, I was sent to KAL-Alteon training center in Incheon (South Korea) where I got a B737NG type rating. Back in Hong Kong, I started my line training in July and I was released to line on September 2007.
As a full time pilot I fly scheduled international routes to China, Vietnam, and charters to China, Malaysia, Thailand, Japan and Korea. I also fly for the Chinese carrier Hainan Airlines (Hong Kong Airlines owner company) on a regulary basis wet lease domestic flights in mainland China.
Since April 2008, I was appointed Manager Human Factors, in charge of developping and organizing a company CRM program for every department involved in airline operations.
Frank Caron |
