Situational awareness. Situational awareness is the accurate perception and understanding of all the factors
and conditions within the five fundamental risk elements of flight, pilot, aircraft environment,
and type of operation that comprise any given aviation situation that affects safety before,
during, and after the flight. Monitoring radio communications for traffic, weather
discussion, and ATC communications can enhance situational awareness by helping the pilot develop a
mental picture of what is happening. Maintaining situational awareness requires an understanding of the
relative significance of all flight related factors and their future impact on the flight.
When a pilot understands what is going on and has an overview of the total
operation, he or she is not fixated on one perceived significant factor. Not
only is it important for a pilot to know the aircraft's geographical location, it
is also important he or she understand what is happening. For instance, while
flying above Richmond, Virginia towards Dullis Airport or Leesburg, the pilot should know
why he or she is being vectored and be able to anticipate spatial location.
A pilot who is simply making turns without understanding why has added an additional burden
to his or her management in the event of an emergency to maintain situational awareness.
All of the skills involved in ADM are used obstacles to maintaining situational awareness.
Fatigue, stress, and work overload can cause a pilot to fixate on
a single perceived important item and reduce an overall situational awareness of the flight.
A contributing factor in many accidents is a distraction that diverts the pilot's attention from
monitoring the instruments or scanning outside the aircraft. Many light deck distractions begin as
a minor, such as a gauge that is not reading correctly, but result
in accidents as the pilot diverts attention to the perceived problem and neglects to properly
control the aircraft. Workload management. Effective workload management ensures essential operations are accomplished
by planning prior toizing and sequencing task to avoid work overload refer to Figure seventeen
sixteen. As experience is gained, a pilot learns to recognize future workload requirements
and can prepare for high workload periods during times of low workload, reviewing the
appropriate chart and setting frequencies well in advance of when they're needed helps reduce workload
as the flight nears the airport. In addition, a pilot should listen to
adis, automated surface observation system a SAUCE or automated weather observing system a WASPS,
if available, and then monitor the tower frequency or Common Traffic Advisory Frequency
c TAFF to get a good idea of what traffic additions to expect. Checklists
should be performed well in advance so there is time to focus on traffic and
atc instructions. These procedures are especially important prior to entering a high density traffic
area such as Class B airspace. Recognizing a work overload situation is also an
important component of managing workload. The first effect of high workload is that the
pilot may be working harder but accomplishing less. As workload increases, attention cannot
be devoted to several tasks at one time, and the pilot may begin to
focus on one item. When a pilot becomes saturated, there is no awareness
of input from various sources, so decisions may be made on incomplete information,
and the possibility of error increases. Refer to figure seventeen seventeen team. When
a work overloaded situation exists, a pilot needs to stop, think, slow
down, and prioritize. It is important to understand how to decrease workload.
For example, in the case of the cabin door that opened in VFR flight,
the impact on workload should be insignificant. If the cabin door opens under
IFR conditions, its impact on workload will change. Therefore, placing a situation
in the proper perspective, remaining calm and thinking rationally are key elements and reducing
stress and increasing the capacity to fly safely. This ability depends upon experience,
discipline, and training. Managing risks. The ability to manage risk begins with
preparation. Here are some things a pilot can do to manage overall risk.
Assess the flight's risk based upon experience. Use some form of risk assessment.
For example, if the weather is marginal and the pilot has low IMC training,
it is probably a good idea to cancel the flight. Brief passengers using
the safety list s seat belts fastened for takeoff taxi landing, shoulder harness fastened
for takeoff landing, seat position adjusted and locked in place, A air vents
location and operation. All environmental controls discussed. Action in case of any passenger
discomfort, F fire extinguisher location and operation, E exit doors, how to
secure, how to open emergency evacuation plan, emergency or survival kit location and
contents, T traffic scanning, spotting, notifying pilot talking, sterile flight deck
expectations, why your questions speak up In addition to the safety list discussed with
passengers, whether or not smoking is permitted, flight route altitudes, time and
route destination, weather during flight, expected whether at the destination, controls and
what they do, and the general capabilities and limitations of the aircraft. Use
a sterile flight deck one that is completely silent with no pilot communication with passengers
or by passengers, from the time of departure to the first intermediate altitude and
clearance from the local airspace. Use a sterile flight deck during arrival from the
first radar vector for approach or dissent for the approach. Keep the passengers informed.
During times when the workload is low, consider using passenger in the right
seat for simple tasks such as holding the chart. This relieves the pilot of
a task. Automation in the general aviation community. An automated aircraft is generally
comprised of an integrated advanced avionics system consisting of a primary flight display PFD,
a multifunctioned flight display MD, including an instrument certified gluible Positioning System GPS with
traffic and terrain graphics, and a fully integrated autopilot. This type of aircraft
is commonly known as an advanced avionics aircraft. In an advanced avionics aircraft,
there are typically two displays, computer screens PFD left display screen and the MFD.
Automation is the single most important advance in aviation technologies. Electronic flight displays
efds have made vast improvements in howation is displayed and what information is available to
the pilot. Pilots can access electronic databases that contain all of the information traditionally
contained in multiple handbooks, reducing clutter in the flight deck prefer to figure seventeen
eighteen. With errata. Multifunction displays mds are capable of displaying moving maps that
mirror sectional charts. These detailed displays depict all airspace, including temporary flight restrictions
TFRs. MFDs are so descriptive that many pilots fall into the trap of relying
solely on the moving maps for navigation. Pilots also draw upon the database to
familiarize themselves with departure and destination airport information. More pilots now rely on electronic
databases for flight planning and use automated flight planning tools rather than planning the flight
by the traditional methods of laying out charts, draw the course, identifying navigation
points assuming a VFR flight, and using the pilot's operating handbook to figure out
the weight and balance and performance charts. Whichever method of pilot chooses to plan
a flight, it is important to remember to check and confirm calculations. Although
automation has made flying safer, automated systems can make some errors more evident,
and sometimes hide other errors or make them less evident. There are concerns about
the effective automation on pilots. In a study published in nineteen ninety five,
the British Airline Pilots Association officially voiced its concern that airline pilots increasingly lack basic
flying skills as a result of reliance on automation. This reliance on automation translates
into a lack of basic flying skills that may affect the pilot's ability to cope
with an in flight emergency, such as sudden mechanical failure. The worry that
pilots are becoming too reliant on automated systems and are not being encouraged or trained
to fly mannually has grown with the increase in the number of MFD flight decks.
As automated flight decks began entering everyday line operations, instructors and check airmen
grew concerned about some of the unanticipated side effects. Despite the promise of reducing
human mistakes, the flight managers reported the automation actually created much larger errors.
At times in the terminal environment, the workload in an automated flight deck actually
seemed higher than in the older analog flight decks. At other times, the
automation seemed to lull the flight crews into complacency. Over time, concern surface
that the manual flying skills are the automated flight crew deteriorated due to overliance on
computers. The flight crew managers said they worried that pilots would have less stick
and rudder proficiency when those skills were needed to manually resume direct control of the
aircraft. A major study was conducted to evaluate the performance of two groups of
pilots. The control group was composed of pilots who flew an older version of
a common twin jet airliner equipped with analog instrumentation, and the experimental group was
composed of pilots who flew the same aircraft but newer models equipped with an electronic
flight instrument System EPHIS and a flight management system FMS. The pilots were evaluated
in maintaining aircraft parameters such as heading, altitude, airspeed, glide, slope,
and localizer deviations, as well as pilot controlled inputs. These were recorded
during a variety of normal, abnormal, and emergency maneuvers during four hours of
simulator sessions. Results of the study, when pilots who had flown ephis for
several years were required to fly various maneuvers manually, the aircraft parameters and light
control inputs clearly showed some erosion of flying skills. During normal maneuvers such as
turns to headings without a flight director, the ephist group exhibited somewhat greater deviations
than the analog group. Most of the time, the deviations were within the
practical test standards PTS, but the pilots definitely did not keep on the localizer
and glide slope as smoothly as the analog group. The differences in hand flying
skills between the two groups became more significant during abnormal maneuvers such as slam dunks.
When given close crossing restrictions, the analog crews were more adept at the
mental math and usually maneuvered the aircraft in a smoother manner to make the restriction.
On the other hand, the EPHIS crews tended to go heads down and
tried to solve the crossing restriction on the f MS referred to figure seventeen Dash
nineteen with Arata. Another situation used in the simulator experiment reflected real world changes
in approach that are common and can be assigned on short notice. Once again,
the analog crews transitioned more easily to the parallel runways localizer, whereas the
EPHIS crews had a much more difficult time, with the pilot going head down
for a significant amount of time trying to program the new approach into the FMS.
While upon its lack of familiarity with the EPHIS is often an issue.
The approach would have been made easier by disengaging the automated system and manually flying
the approach. At the time of this study, the general guidelines in the
industry were to let the automated system do as much of the flying as possible.
That view has since changed, and it is recommended that pilots used their
best judgment when choosing which level of automation will most efficiently do the task,
considering the workload and situational awareness. Emergency maneuvers clearly broadened the difference in manual
flying skills between the two groups. In general, the analog pilots tended to
fly raw data, so when they were given an emergency such as an engine
failure and were instructed to fly the maneuver without a flight director, they performed
it expertly. By contrast, sop for EPHIS operations at the time was to
use the flight director. When EPHIS crews had their flight directors disabled, their
eye scan again began a more erratic searching pattern, and their manual flying subsequently
suffered. Those who reviewed the data saw that the EPHIS pilots, who better
managed the automation, also had better flying skills. While the data did not
reveal whether those skills preceded or followed automation. It did indicate that automation management
needed to be improved. Recommended best practices and procedures have remedied some of the
earlier problems with automation. Pilots need to maintain their flight skills and ability to
maneuver aircraft manually within the standards set forth in the PTS. It is recommended
the pilots of automated aircraft occasionally disengage the automation and manually fly the aircraft to
maintain stick and rudder proficiency. It is imperative pilots understand that the EPD adds
to the overall quality of the flight experience, but it can also lead to
catastrophe if not utilized properly. At no time is the moving map meant to
substitute for a VFR sectional or low altitude en route chart. End to Part
sixth of Chapter seventeen