We’re in the middle of a three-part series on monitoring and attention – two of the most commented on airmanship skills in the industry today. In our last post we elaborated on Posner’s Spotlight model of attention, simplified graphically below, to describe what is likely the most simple and accurate description of how the brain …
If we were forced to choose only one of the Nine Principles outlined in our book, Automation Airmanship, whose mastery would lead to the greatest leap in individual and team performance in aviation (or any other high-risk/high-reliability endeavor), we would choose the Fifth Principle, Monitoring. For it is in monitoring that we find foundational knowledge …
In a recent talk given to a large regional aviation group, we elaborated on the 3rd principle of Automation Airmanship – Data Entry – to some initial skepticism of the audience. It seems the general feeling that prevails among many flight crews is that wherever human operators are involved in data input, there we must …
Sixty-three years ago this week one of the earliest commercially available computers was delivered to the US Government by the Remington Rand Corporation, UNIVAC-1. The joke that circulated for years afterward goes like this: A bunch of scientists created a huge machine capable of complex calculations and called it UNIVAC. Eager to test their invention, …
I often hear from experienced modern aviators when I’m presenting the precepts of Automation Airmanship to groups, both large and small: “What’s so different about your approach to operating the contemporary flight deck from what most people are already doing?” and, “Why should I adopt it?” Two great questions; to be honest, they are the …
Sometimes it’s hard to believe that the seemingly simplest flight deck duties are in fact the hardest to grasp, remaining elusive for decades in spite of the intense analysis that our industry constantly undergoes. Even the most up-to-the-minute aviation safety news of our time will report that poor monitoring weighed heavily in findings of “pilot …
Sometimes it seems as if business and industry rush into the future-world with so much energy and eagerness that those who we rely on to keep watch over high-risk/high-reliability endeavors are barely managing to keep abreast of developments. For those of us in aviation, the entities that provide this oversight function (primarily the FAA in …
In our first post of the year, we discussed one part of the human-machine team, the inherently flexible, adaptable, and powerful human operator. Ignoring the popular media and its leanings towards science fiction – and the views of many in our own industry – we hope to have reinforced the prominence of the human over …
One of our previous posts, entitled “Contemporary Cockpits: No Place for Luggage or Dogs,” was an introduction to a multi-part series that discusses what we know about the human-machine relationship, and what others from outside aviation have learned and applied in the last decade. Recent accidents and the media attention they’ve attracted has brought this …
Depending on where you sit in this industry, 2013 was a year of great change and great drama, some of it tragic. Though you might be reading this during a rest break while on a long trip over the Christmas holidays, this is still a time to “slow down the conveyor belt” just a little …