Chris Lutat 
So much of the way we discuss contemporary flight deck automation and how pilots use technology to “get things done” is centered on mode and situational awareness, we thought it would be a good topic for this forum. In fact, it seems that in surveying some recent accident reports the concept of what a mode …
A couple of weeks ago we started a discussion here about the upcoming “minimum standards” for “manual flying” and “monitoring” that the FAA’s recent IG report (see the last post) has recommended for implementation. Though we don’t know just what the FAA will put in place for standards that their enforcement arm (individual flight inspectors) …
We are barely into the new year and already it looks as if we have one of the prime drivers of this year’s safety agenda (well, actually, it’s going to be longer than that). On January 7, 2016 the FAA’s Office of Inspector General issued its Audit Report on the “…hazards associated with increased use of …
In our last posting we introduced what we think will be one of the most enabling aviation technologies of the coming decade, SVGS, which is short for Synthetic Vision Guidance System. With the fusion of enabling technology that already exists on many flight decks, it could enter every kind of aircraft cockpit faster than any …
Instead of starting the new year with some lofty goals for improving overall airmanship in advanced aircraft, or looking back at what positive trends we can bring forward from last year, we decided to get out in front of what we think will become one of the hottest aviation technology topics of the next decade. …
An oft-used idiom to describe how quietly Progress changes the way we do things is that it does so one day at a time. Gradually we find ourselves wondering how it is that we have come so far while noticing so little about how our working environment has changed down the years. Recently, partly in …
From this year’s safety events it seems that the emphasis at the end of 2015 is on some very important challenges for our industry, subjects that every aviation organization is trying to stay ahead of. The agendas from many events around aviation this year are looking strangely similar—perhaps for good reason—but maybe to the exclusion …
Every aviation professional learned early in their careers that if they plan to be in aviation, they have no choice to be a safety professional, too. Like so many others, every year at this time I keep a bag packed for a series of Fall events that start as dates on a calendar—mere safety symposiums—but …
In our last two posts we shared the premise and the general conclusions of one of the most important recent studies into flight crew proficiency on the automated flight deck. With this posting, we look at the study’s implications for modern airmanship (if you need a refresher from the previous two postings, click here for …
In our last post, we shared the premise and the general conclusions of one of the most important recent studies into flight crew proficiency on the automated flight deck. With this posting, we look at the study’s implications for modern airmanship, (if you need a refresher, click here). Scientific research can be daunting for the …