For a few months we’ve been writing and commenting on flight deck monitoring, automation bias, and how the human operator can adopt habits and patterns that keep them “in the loop” during high-risk/high-reliability operations on the modern flight deck. Hopefully we have drawn readers into a closer relationship with the equipment they operate. We want …
In the last post, we promised to provide a knowledge-based “do-list” of what to monitor, by phase of flight, every time you fly. Being able to adopt these guidelines, however, presupposes that you have already bought-in to the required “systems knowledge” that allows knowledge-based monitoring to be successful (if you have not, you can review …
One of my most persistent curiosities is in finding a new way to describe something that I thought I knew enough about already. In support of this urge, the journals I subscribe to pile up on my desk weekly, waiting to be opened and scoured for new knowledge that I can apply to my own …
If you are the kind of person who is intent on understanding current industry findings in the context of how it impacts you and your operation, then we have an end-of-the-year retrospective that will give you more than just a “year in review” wrap-up. For over a decade we have been giving voice to the …
One of our goals in maintaining this blog is to help keep the focus of our profession on the flying. This task is increasingly difficult in the face of so much commentary on the future of human-machine interaction, much of it following the high profile aviation accidents of the past 5 years. More than at …
I view one of the purposes of this blog as keeping readers informed on what trends we think deserve your consideration in both helping with ongoing issues on the automated flight deck and preparing pilots for the challenge of adapting to new technology that even a few years ago might have been unheard of. To …
In our book, Automation Airmanship, we argue that one of the most powerful influences on how we can successfully shape 21st-century airmanship is to adopt some of the findings and concepts from recent advances in the field of cognitive neuroscience (don’t quit reading just yet—stick with me). This field has made great strides in mapping …
I recently returned from giving a talk to the Southern California Aviation Association, one of many business aviation groups that are constantly promoting safe practices across the profession. As part of their Safety Stand-down for 2014, I was privileged to be able to address their members on the subject of Monitoring—the 5th Principle of Automation …
There are many “models” which have been offered up to flight crews over the past several decades that seek to explain the role of automation on the flight deck. Some have proven remarkably durable and easy to adopt, others have persisted in spite of the fact that they only obscure the essential knowledge that we …
It could not be a more fitting time for this last piece in our 3-part Monitoring series than at the end of a week during which aviation safety news has been dominated by findings in the Asiana 214 accident in San Francisco, nearly a year ago. In its hearing on the subject, the NTSB stated …