Human factors of flight-deck checklists: The normal checklist

Although the aircraft checklist has long been regarded as the foundation of pilot standardization and cockpit safety, it has escaped the scrutiny of the human factors profession. The improper use, or the non-use, of the normal checklist by flight crews is often cited as the probable cause or at least a contributing factor to aircraft accidents. An attempt is made to analyze the normal checklist, its functions, format, design, length, usage, and the limitations of the humans who must interact with it. The development of the checklist from the certification of a new model to its delivery and use by the customer are discussed. The influence of the government, particularly the FAA Principle Operations Inspector, the manufacturer's philosophy, the airline's culture, and the end user, the pilot, influence the ultimate design and usage of this device. The effects of airline mergers and acquisitions on checklist usage and design are noted. In addition, the interaction between production pressures and checklist usage and checklist management are addressed. Finally, a list of design guidelines for normal checklists is provided

The Impact Of Safety On Fleet Acquisition And Management In U.S Commercial Airlines

The topic of aircraft safety is pervasive in many domains of the airline industry and it influences all types of air transportation operations. Aircraft acquisition and fleet planning are key functions in a commercial airline to ensure the achievement of the airline’s operational goals such as matching capacity with demand. With fluctuations in passenger demand, it is vital to strategically plan an airline’s fleet to best accommodate these changes and to safely do so. Existent literature suggests that aircraft safety is factored into passenger decision to choose an airline which then impacts the economics of an airline. The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of safety on fleet acquisition and management processes in commercial airlines in the U.S. The findings suggest that safety plays a major role in the aircraft acquisition and fleet management activities in commercial airlines and generates contributory variables that influence and are influenced by safety events in relation to an aircraft type. The results from this study serves as a conceptual framework for commercial airlines to better gauge the crucial elements that drive fleet planning decisions and to effectively execute strategic fleet management decisions

The Head Up Display Concept : A Summary with Special Attention to the Civil Aviation Industry

This paper is a literature study of the Head Up Display (HUD) in general with focus on the HUD's role in the civil aviation industry in particular. The objective is to present the history of the HUD in brief, summarize the basic design, describe the HUD's role in today's civil aviation and present the HUD in a human factors concept. This includes describing the human information processing behavior and human spatial disorientations concerning instrument scanning techniques and the most common sensory illusions experienced. There is also a summary of HUD symbology in different phases of flight. Some of the main sources of information have been Richard L. Newman's book ?Head Up Displays: Designing the Way Ahead? (1995) and Stoke's ?Display Technology? (1990). The main conclusion is that the HUD aids the instrument scanning process in phases of flight with high workload, such as take off, approach and landing resulting in increased situational awareness, flight precision and flight safety. It also provides airlines with a cost effective alternate in reaching low visibility operations

The impact of cockpit automation on crew coordination and communication. Volume 1: Overview, LOFT evaluations, error severity, and questionnaire data

The purpose was to examine, jointly, cockpit automation and social processes. Automation was varied by the choice of two radically different versions of the DC-9 series aircraft, the traditional DC-9-30, and the glass cockpit derivative, the MD-88. Airline pilot volunteers flew a mission in the simulator for these aircraft. Results show that the performance differences between the crews of the two aircraft were generally small, but where there were differences, they favored the DC-9. There were no criteria on which the MD-88 crews performed better than the DC-9 crews. Furthermore, DC-9 crews rated their own workload as lower than did the MD-88 pilots. There were no significant differences between the two aircraft types with respect to the severity of errors committed during the Line-Oriented Flight Training (LOFT) flight. The attitude questionnaires provided some interesting insights, but failed to distinguish between DC-9 and MD-88 crews

A Basic Analysis Of Aging Aircraft, Region Of The World, And Accidents

Differences in aviation safety records around the world should be minimal or nonexistent considering the global nature of aviation. However, significant differences exist and the reasons for those require the attention of governments, regulatory agencies, aircraft manufacturers, airlines and the flying public. One concern is that aircraft are increasingly used beyond their designed economic life. This study focuses on the relationship between aging aircraft and the country where the aircraft was registered. Findings support the idea that in general, the frequency of accidents increases with the age of an aircraft. The study also revealed that there is a correlation between the number of accidents, their severity and aircraft manufacturers. The aircraft’s phase of flight was also related to the number of accidents, with the Approach/Landing phase having the greatest number of accidents. The FAA and JAA have been influential in the development and dissemination of safety programs around the world. However, their efforts have not yet resulted in a world-wide standardization of safety and maintenance programs. This may be an indication that while an aircraft may be a global product, the aviation industry lags behind in becoming a global industry

The Pilot Proficiency Audit of Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities: Adding to the Air Carrier Safety Toolbox

The correlation between air carrier pilot performance and age, total flight time, total airline flight time, and time in current position has not been fully documented. This study observed 62 F/Os in line operations and graded 74 knowledge, skills, and abilities performance variables, utilizing a five-point Likert scale. Knowledge items scored slightly below the referent, with no improvement over time; skills improved with both flight time and years of service; and abilities decline markedly across all independent variables. Changes to pilot training syllabi and techniques, as well as hiring practices, may be indicated. Integrating Pilot Proficiency Audit data into existing LOSA, AQP, ASAP, and FOQA programs can provide a more robust air carrier safety program

Planning of aircraft fleet maintenance teams

This paper addresses a support information system for the planning of aircraft maintenance teams, assisting maintenance managers in delivering aircraft on time. The developed planning of aircraft maintenance teams is a computer application based on a mathematical programming problem written as a minimization one. The initial decision variables are positive integer variables specifying the allocation of available technicians by skills to maintenance teams. The objective function is a nonlinear function balancing the time spent and costs incurred with aircraft fleet maintenance. The data involves the technicians’ skills, the hours of work to perform maintenance tasks, the costs related to facilities, and the aircraft downtime cost. The realism of this planning entails random possibilities associated with maintenance workload data, and inference by a procedure of Monte Carlo simulation provides a proper set of workloads instead of going through all the possibilities. The based formalization is a nonlinear integer programming problem, converted into an equivalent pure linear integer programming problem, using a transformation from initial positive integer variables to Boolean ones. A case study addresses the use of this support information system for planning a team for aircraft maintenance of three lines under the uncertainty of workloads, and a discussion of results shows the serviceableness of the proposed support information system