Re: Automation induced error

Reid Fairburn (cr_king_at_cr_king.seanet.com)
Sat, 18 Oct 1997 10:01:35 -0700 (PDT)

At 07:31 AM 10/18/97 +0800, you wrote:
>
>Thanks Dick,
>
>We certainly need to understand the underlying reason for the "new push for
>situational awareness", and it could be a symptom of cockpit advances,
>particularly because pilots no longer get that "rounded grounding" demanded
>by older generation aircraft. The "sink or swim" filter may be
>dissappearing. Could it also be the result of an increasingly
>inappropriate set of criteria for flight crew recruitment?
>
>John
>
>At 08:50 AM 10/17/97 -0400, you wrote:
>>
>>John,
>>
>>I did read your entire treatise and I think you set the record straight. I
>>agree that manufacturers have come a long way toward human-cetered design of
>>systems and pilots are far more productive as a result. However, I can't
>>help but think that the new push for situation awareness training is, in
>>part at least, the result of our new cockpit advances. It seems that no
>>matter how much we advance, the need for training does not diminish.
>>Perhaps, as humans, we expect technical advances to improve productivity
>>rather than safety. Perhaps we leave safety to the trainers?
>>
>>Dick

For Dick & John:

Situational awareness has always been an absolute necessity in a
fighter pilot's life, or he won't have one. In addition, I think that all
the "steam gauge" pilots have a form of situational awareness in their mind
as they progress along the flight profile...they almost have to since they
have to do frequent mental exercises to determine exactly where they are,
what should be happening next, and how to plan for upcoming events. What we
found out was that the new EFIS or "glass" cockpits reduced the need for the
pilot to make mental exercises along the profile and it also was so easy to
see where you are that there was no mental activity required and the
information was just passed thru the eyes and out the ears. This was
complicated by the "mental processor overload" caused by trying to interpret
the new displays while remembering how all the new switches in the automatic
cockpit related to the job to be done. The result was that you would see
pilots looking at the EFIS and happily flying down ILS final approach at 250
knots not cognizant of where the airplane was or what was going down until
very short final where they all seemed to wake up with a start. Somehow or
other the new displays provide a lot of information but the new pilots brain
does not provide the cognitive clues as a result of the visual
stimulii...until several weeks of forced exposure to the glass environment.
However, they are allowed only days of training.

This caused us to put more emphasis on planning or maintaining
situational awareness along the route, even if all the automatic stuff was
doing the work. We threw in position checking exercises, map checks,
emphasized setting up the cockpit early for descents and approaches, etc. ,
in order to keep the pilots mind mentally active and not become a spectator.
So, while all along throughout the years pilots have had situational
awareness the new cockpits were making spectators out of them.

Just a bit of information for your interest...which you may already
know.
Reid Fairburn
Creative Kingdom, Inc.
cr_king_at_cr_king.seanet.com
206-946-9455/4815