Moral Development in Pilot Populations

Ethical issues are becoming more commonplace in society today and while most industries are taking steps to improve poor ethical decisions through ethics education, aviation is lagging behind in both understanding of ethical issues inherent to the industry and ethics education. In this study three groups of pilots (students, instructors, and faculty) at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University are examined in an effort to determine moral development level in terms of P score on the Defining Issues Test 2 (DIT2) and two domain specific additional questions. It was hypothesized that differences would be found between the groups and that the moral development score would increase from students, through instructor pilots to faculty. This was found to be the case, with significance shown (p\u3c0.10) with the Student and Faculty groups. The Instructor pilots scored marginally lower than expected in the DIT2 questions and this may be due to the lack of formal ethics training and/or the more technical/regulatory focus in aviation. The Instructor pilots scored higher than expected in the additional questions and this may be due to the dilemmas being directed towards topics directly related to their jobs

Peer Counseling for Student Success in University Flight Education: A Case Example

In response to attrition rates, the Department of Aeronautical Science in the College of Aviation at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, AZ, analyzed how best to identify and assist students who were struggling with their flight training. In order to maximize student retention, students at risk must be identified early, prior to training failure or financial distress. The assessment of these findings of the flight program and the attrition rates resulted in a “Student Success Initiative” (SSI) being established that would identify students approaching ‘at-risk’ points in flight training, both fixed-wing and helicopter. These students would be assessed and ultimately required to attend an intervention session with support staff in coordination with his/her academic faculty advisor and/or flight staff. This meeting concludes with a contract of expectations signed by the student that includes a plan of action and specific timelines. One critical challenge in the implementation of the SSI program was to find an effective way to provide support for students in the program. The answer was to develop a program manned by “peer counselors” to provide tutoring and other support resources for students in need of help

Attitudes Toward the Practical Incorporation of Scenario Based Training (SBT) into a Commercial Pilot Training Syllabus: A Preliminary Study

As aviation moves into its second century, aircraft accidents still occur, though at a very low rate. With that said, the rate of pilot-related accidents in General Aviation (GA) has not decreased when compared against the rate of mechanical-related accidents in GA. According to the 2010 Nall Report, the number of GA aircraft accidents that were pilot-related made up for 73.9% (857 accidents), mechanical-related accidents made up for 15.0% (174 accidents) and other unknown causes made up for 11.1% (129 accidents) of all accidents that year (Kenny, 2011). According to Kenny (2011), “Most pilot-related accidents reflect specific failures of flight planning or decision-making or the characteristic hazards of high-risk phases of flight.” As pilot-related accident rates continue to be higher than mechanical-related accidents, exploration and experimentation is being conducted to look for new ways to address this issue

Early Morning Concurrent Session: Aviation Management and Operations: Presentation: Analysis of Factors Related to True Airspeed (TAS) Calculation Utilizing the Handicap Procedure for the 2015 Women\u27s Air Race Classic

In most post-WWII cross country air racing events, the “handicap” method of determining race scoring is utilized. A typical example is the Women’s Air Race Classic transcontinental annual competition. In such races, an aircraft competes against its own established maximum True Airspeed (TAS) and all race aircraft entries are ranked based on how much faster than this speed they are able to achieve through adjusting route, altitude, etc. Use of this method allows aircraft with very different maximum speeds to for the most part, have equal chances of winning a given race with the emphasis moved from the fastest aircraft to best piloting skill. All contestants in the annual Women’s Air Race Classic (ARC) must complete a “handicap” flight to establish maximum TAS in specified conditions in as close to race configuration as possible. The goal of this study is to analyze factors impacting TAS under this specified configuration by using information obtained from the Flight Data Monitoring program at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Prescott, AZ. This data is from the C-172S Nav III utilized by the authors for the 2015 Women’s Air Race Classic as recorded by the Garmin G1000 data logging system