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The Design of the Flight Deck
Published in Steven J. Landry, Handbook of Human Factors in Air Transportation Systems, 2017
Consider the user population; pilots are required to have a certain amount of training before they even obtain an airline transport pilot certificate, including at least 1,500 flight hours. Pilots hired by the major U.S. airlines typically have about 4,000 flight hours (Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2015). This is a select and highly trained user population who tend to specialize in a small number of aircraft types and so are very familiar with the aircraft and very sensitive to any changes that might be made. Flight operations tend to be safe and routine; millions of flight hours pass without incidents, much less accidents. However, when unusual or emergency situations arise, the pilots must be able to react quickly and accurately and the flight deck must support all the information and actions needed to do so.
Assessing Cognitive Aging in Piloting
Published in R. Key Dismukes, Human Error in Aviation, 2017
Neither pilot age nor gender was independently associated with pilot error in major airline or commuter/air taxi crashes. For GA pilots, those under age 20 had a significantly higher accident rate than the rest (including those over age 60). The odds of pilot error decreased as total flight time increased and certificate rating advanced. Pilot error was more likely to be attributed to pilots with student/private pilot licenses than other GA pilots were. For commuter/air taxi crashes, pilots who held airline transport certificates had a lower prevalence of pilot error than commercial pilots did. A nonlinear relation between total flight hours and accident rate was observed: the safety benefit of flight experience was greater in the early stage (GA) and diminished as total flight time increased (commuter/air taxi and major airlines). However, advanced certificate rating continued to have a protective effect against pilot error for pilots with high hours. These results showed that the true benefit of flight experience would not be captured entirely by the total accumulated flight time alone because the type of flying also played a significant role. Li et al. (2001) concluded that although certain pilot characteristics such as flight experience contributed to pilot error rate, these endogenous factors in general were less important than environmental factors such as weather and crash locations.
CBE from Above: The ICAO and Underlying Regulations
Published in Suzanne K. Kearns, Timothy J. Mavin, Steven Hodge, Competency-Based Education in Aviation, 2017
Suzanne K. Kearns, Timothy J. Mavin, Steven Hodge
Back in 1919, long before Annex 1 was drafted, some of the earliest standards were created for pilots, and pilots needed to pass a series of tests to achieve the “Pilot’s Flying Certificate for Flying Machines Used for the Purposes of Public Transport.” The tests aligned quite nicely with the skills required for real-world flying—as a single pilot. No minimum number of training hours was specified for the certificate. However, by 1920, the ink was barely dry on the Standard when States began implementing its recommendations and introduced a focus on experience, which was measured by a required number of hours (PIL8).1 This focus on hours of experience has had a lasting impact on aviation training. To this day, pilots meticulously track every flight hour throughout their training and professional experience. A specific number of training hours are required to earn a license, and airlines require a few thousand flight hours before pilots are eligible for a job interview.
The risk-taking behavioural intentions of pilots in adverse weather conditions: an application of the theory of planned behaviour
Published in Ergonomics, 2023
Xiaohan He, Xiaofei Nie, Ronggang Zhou, Jiazhong Yang, Ruilin Wu
To further verify the effects of flight experience on pilots’ behavioural intentions, this study chose skill level as one of the important independent variables and divided participants into two groups, a low skill level group (including flight cadet and first officer, N = 155) and a high skill level group (including captain and flight instructor, N = 118). The results of the t-test showed that the flight cadets and first officers (M = 724.54, SD = 1266.11) had significantly fewer flight hours than captains and flight instructors (M = 5014.83, SD = 3842.91) [t(271) = 11.66, p < 0.001]. Generally speaking, a higher skill level (flight licence) means more flying hours, but these two variables are not exactly the same. Before obtaining a higher technical licence, pilots are not only required to accumulate a certain number of flight hours, but also to pass the tests of aeronautical theory and flying skills, as well as meeting a range of requirements for judgement, practical ability, and psychological fitness (CAAC 2018a and b). An independent analysis of variance was conducted on each variable for the two groups, and the means and standard deviations were summarised in Table 5. As evidenced in Table 5, participants with lower skill levels (M = 2.74, SD = 1.35) scored significantly higher on attitude than those with higher skill levels (M = 2.34, SD = 1.37), F(1,271) = 5.52, p = 0.019; and scored significantly lower on self-identity (M = 1.58, SD = 1.19) than participants in high skill level group (M = 2.22, SD = 0.80), F(1,271) = 24.76, p = 0.001. In addition, the difference in behavioural intention between participants in the low skill level group (M = 3.26, SD = 1.52) and those in the high skill level group (M = 2.91, SD = 1.57) was marginally significant, F(1,271) = 3.46, p = 0.064. However, the results of ANOVA showed that there were no significant differences in the overall scores of participants on the subjective norm, PBC, and risk perception in the two groups. It can be found from the results that participants who had less experience had a stronger behavioural intention to take risks in adverse weather conditions and held more positive attitudes towards risk-taking behaviour. On the other hand, participants with more flying experience were more likely to perceive themselves as safe pilots.