Aeronautical Decision Making for Instrument Pilots

In flight operations, pilots are confronted with many problems that occur in continually changing situations that create a level of stress and lead to accidents. To make rapid decisions, pilots make decisions using a holistic process involving situation recognition and pattern matching. This research investigated 157 pilots from a B747 fleet to find out how pilots make in-flight decision in such stressful situations. The research method is based upon evaluating the situational awareness, risk management, response time and applicability of four different decision-making mnemonics in six in-flight scenarios. The data obtained in this research suggests that the FOR-DEC may be suitable as a basis for providing training which will be applicable for covering all basic types of decision. FOR-DEC was evaluated as the most applicable mnemonic-based decision making process across the six different scenarios used. It also had significantly superior performance compared with the other three mnemonic-based methods evaluated (SHOR, PASS & DESIDE) when making recognition-primed decisions, response selection decisions, non-diagnostic procedural decisions, and problem-solving decisions.

Forty-One male pilots from ROC Air Force Tactical Training Wings participated in the study. The flying experience of participants was between 354 and 220 hours with an average of 292 hours. Participants were randomly divided into two groups, 21 pilots in the experimental group, and 20 pilots in control group. Two ADM mnemonic methods, SHOR and DESIDE, that had been previously been assessed by instructor pilots as being the most applicable and having the potential to significantly improve the quality of military pilots' decision-making formed the basis of the ADM training programs. Overall, results from both the simulator-based trials (which assessed the product of the ADM training programme) and the pencil-and-paper tests (which assessed the process that the trainees applied) showed gains being made in both Situation Assessment and Risk Management skills attributable to the decision making training course. The results strongly suggest that such a short training course can be effective in terms of improving pilots' skill in situation assessment and risk management. However, these gains were at the cost of a decreased speed of responding. Nevertheless, it is suggested that a simple, short, cost-effective training program in the appropriate use of ADM mnemonic methods may ultimately produce significant gains in flight safety. Such a course may easily be integrated into current CRM or simulator-based training programs.

This research applies Human Factors Analysis and Classification System (HFACS; Wiegmann & Shappell, 2003) analyzing aviation accidents in the R.O.C. Air Force between 1978 and 2002 in order to identify the training needs of aeronautical decision-making (ADM). There were 523 accidents associated with 1762 human errors. The results indicated that decision errors had been involved in 223 (42.6%) accidents. Without in-depth analysis of decision errors in military aviation, it is unlikely to identify precisely the training needs of ADM and the nature of the training content required to prevent the decision errors in aviation (Patrick, 2003). This research found that 'decision-errors' has significant association with lieutenant pilots and at landing phase, and pilots at the rank of 'cadet' (experience) flying 'training aircraft' (tools) practicing 'close pattern' (missions) at 'landing phase' (working environment) with the highest probability of accidents. It is important to understanding the junior pilots were very vulnerable to the decisions and supervisions made by high-level management. As Dekker (2001) described that human errors is systemically connected to the tools, tasks, and operational and organizational environment of operators, it is important to clarify the role of decision errors in pilot's tools, tasks, experience, and operating environment in military aviation in order to develop effective ADM training programs for military pilots.

Journal of aeronautics, astronautics and aviation, Series A, 2014

Operating a high-technology commercial airliner is not only an issue in psychomotor skill performance but also of a real-time decision-making involving situation awareness and risk management within a limited-time condition. The number of aircraft accidents attributable solely to mechanical failures has decreased markedly in recent years, but the contribution of human error has declined at a much slower rate. Previous research demonstrated a belief rule-based decision support system has provided more reliable and informative performance after training. The purpose of this research was to identify the best mnemonic-based method of decision support systems for improving commercial pilot's performance in the advanced cockpit. A total of 157 airline pilots, all qualified on the Boeing 747-400 evaluated the suitability of four different ADM methods: SHOR (Stimuli, Hypotheses, Options, Response); PASS (Problem identification, Acquire information, Survey strategy, Select strategy); FOR...

2006

Many aeronautical decision-making (ADM) mnemonic-based methods exist. However, there is no empirical research that suggests that they are actually effective in improving decision-making. Klein (1993), in his study of naturalistic decision making suggested that the decision-making process centers around two processes; situation assessment to generate a plausible course of action and mental simulation to evaluate that course of action for risk management. In this study a short, ADM training course was constructed around two mnemonic methods, SHOR (Stimuli, Hypotheses, Options, and Response) and DESIDE (Detect, Estimate, Set safety objectives, Identify, Do, Evaluate). Forty-one pilots from the Republic of China Tactical Training Wing participated: half received a short ADM training course and half did not. After training, the procedural knowledge underpinning their Situation Assessment and Risk Management ability, two skills essential for successful decision-making, were evaluated using pencil and paper-based knowledge tests based upon several demanding tactical flight situations. These scenarios were designed to encompass the six basic types of decision making described by Orasanu (1993); go/no go decisions; recognition-primed decisions; response selection decisions; resource management decisions; non-diagnostic procedural decisions, and decisions requiring creative problem-solving. The results show gains attributable to the decision making training course in both situation assessment and risk management skills. The results strongly suggest that ADM is trainable and such a training course is effective in improving the bases of in-flight decision-making.

Proceedings of the 15th IFAC World Congress, 2002, 2002

At the end, risk taking is the cause of almost all accidents. But it is not always easy to find those who TOOK the risks; too often they are confused with those who RAN the risks." (Wagenaar and Keren, 1986) Abstract: Designers of new automated systems typically conduct human-reliability analyses to account for potential human errors that may contribute to system risk. In aviation, the National Transportation Safety Board (1994) found that the second most common type of error in accidents was tactical decision errors. Efforts to improve flight safety frequently involve training crews in effective decision-making. One fact that has become apparent in developing such training is that decision-making depends critically on the crew's perceptions of the risks entailed by various threats in the environment. This paper addresses two issues critical to improving the quality of aviation decision-making. (1) How do crews perceive risks associated with aviation decisions? (2) How does risk perception influence flight crews' decision-making processes? Research findings that address these questions will be presented, along with implications for improving flight crew decision-making. Copyright ©2002 IFAC.

IJERLAS , 2023

Aviation safety is the ultimate goal of aviation in both civil and military in several accident reports and data from the aviation safety directorate of the Indonesian Army Aviation Center (Puspenerbad) human factors rank first cause of accidents as much as 74%. The purpose of this study is to determine the magnitude of the influence Flight Experience and Flight Proficiency against pilots decision making which has implications for aviation safety. The method in this study used quantitative descriptive analysis, with 99 respondents. Data collection is carried out by distributing questionnaires Google Forms and analyzed with the app SmartPLS 4.0. The conclusions obtained in this study put Flight Experience and Flight Proficiency does not affect flight safety if not mediated by the pilot decision making and flight safety is affected by pilots decision making.

2008

: Increasing numbers of preventable mishaps across all military services led Secretary Rumsfeld and all Service Chiefs to call for a reduction in such events by 75% from 2003 levels. Most were attributed to human error. The highly task-loaded training and combat missions flown by fighter pilots place particularly high demands on effective management of cockpit resources for safe and successful mission accomplishment. While every flight training program already includes some form of resource management training, there is surprisingly little evidence regarding the effectiveness of varying training approaches to reduce flight mishaps. This paper describes a project to help the Air Force reduce preventable mishaps by determining the specific root causes of fighter and unmanned aerial system mishaps, developing behaviorally-based training objectives, identifying promising training media alternatives, and defining specific measures of effectiveness.

The Aeronautical Journal, 2007

The human factors analysis and classification system (HFACS) was developed as an analytical framework for the investigation of the role of human error in aviation accidents. A total of 523 accidents in the Republic of China (ROC) Air Force between 1978 and 2002 were analysed using this framework. The results showed that in a great many cases, poor pilot decision making was implicated. Following a survey of flight instructors’ opinions, two of most promising mnemonic-based methods currently available to guide the decision making of pilots were identified (SHOR and DESIDE). These methods were developed into a short (four hour) aeronautical decision making training course. A total of 41 pilots from the Republic of China Tactical Training Wing then participated in a study to evaluate the effectiveness of this training course. Half of the participants received the short ADM training programme and half did not. Their decision making skill was evaluated in a series of emergency situations ...