Professional Pilot, January 2016

POSITION HOLD an editorial opinion Pilots need to stay alert and be better monitors of automated flightdeck equipment When where and how often should cockpit avionics equipment give a voice command blow a whistle ring a bell or flash a light to get the attention of the pilots After a long night flight from Moscow in an Aeroflot Airbus A321 the VQ BEA cockpit crew shown in this photo was concentrating 100 on the landing at Novosibirsk airport Tolmachevo on May 10 2012 Shhhh Let them do their job We dont want to bother them W hile cockpit automation may be regarded as a major advance in aviation technologies a unified strategy that optimizes flightcrew automation interaction reliability and efficiency to achieve flight operational safety remains a topic of vigorous debate Todays flightdeck technologies seek to enhance situational awareness improve performance and extend risk management beyond human limitations Automation has not merely made flying easier it has changed the very nature of flying from tactical manual control to more strategic flightpath management Modern aircraft automation requires less action but more monitoring by the crew who must retain the ability to intervene whenever reliability or safety are compromised Flying automated aircraft requires sustained vigilance for threats which are often subtle or rare Since missing cues to hazards can have severe consequences pilots are continually urged to be vigilant but absent deeper understanding and practical guidance this may be nothing more than motherhood counsel Threats and vigilance As flightdeck automation evolves and pervades new and often subtle threats may be introduced and failure can occur in catastrophic and unpredictable ways When 14 PROFESSIONAL PILOT January 2016 managing those threats pilot training has not kept pace with automation advances The nature of desirable pilot automation interaction remains debated because a pilots training on human factors is generally limited to topics like fatigue disorientation and hypoxia Training programs which allocate insufficient time to convey the underlying logic and features of automation errors fail to develop the pilots skills to fully manage FMS and other flightpath management systems Flightcrews could become overly dependent or fixated on attractive features when not properly trained to the specifics of the automation they use This can lead to complacency and degraded monitoring of aircraft performance and energy state In complex and highly computerized aircraft flightcrews can lose awareness of the automation mode in which the aircraft is operating and when problems arise crews sometimes respond inappropriately an outcome of inadequate pilot training incorrect diagnosis or poor systems knowledge Confused interaction between pilots and automation compounds the situation and it is only with difficulty that manual flying skills are applied to coping with the raw airplane This has led to nearly 50 well documented accidents due to loss of control Thus vigilant automation management is at least as important as maintaining manual flying skills in avoiding events that compromise safety and may require recovery from edge of the envelope situations Paraphrasing astronaut Frank Borman A superior pilot uses superior judgment to avoid situations requiring superior skills Expect the unexpected in long drowsing trips as dangers lurk in those supposedly failproof autonomous technical marvels By Don Van Dyke ATP Helo CFII F28 Bell 222 Pro Pilot Canadian Technical Editor