Dave Wilson Writes:
"I have friends who lament the "fighter pilot attitude", who decry "the
right stuff".
In the first generation (attitude and small group dynamics orientation) of
CRM, some of the primary figures publicly stated that "The Right Stuff for
military aviation" might actually be the "Wrong Stuff for commercial
aviation". While there was not much conclusive data to back up this
hypothesis, it was a widely held belief for many years. It also made for
great sound bites on PBS television. A study was conducted in 1994 that
this developer's group might be interested in. The reference is cited
below:
Flynn, C. F., Sipes, W. E., Grosenbach, M. J. & Ellsworth, J. (1994, May).
Top performer survey: Computerized psychological assessment in aircrew.
Aviation, Space, and Environmental Medicine, A39-A44.
Bart Stine, an F-15 pilot who frequents this listserver, addressed the
issues surrounding fighter pilot CRM in his Masters work. He highlights
the findings of the research by Flynn et. al. in passage below:
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"At first glance one might imagine the stereotypical macho fighter pilot
(Alkov, 1989) would be a difficult training subject for a CRM program
however, the opposite may be more common. Chidester (1991) found "marker"
personality characteristics in successful crews. The study used comparisons
of personality factors with aircraft simulation to determine the
relationship between personality traits and effective crew coordination
skills. A later study (Flynn, 1994) applied the personality rating scale
devised by Chidester (a four level categorization: best, middle, poor, and
worst) to a group of Air National Guard F-16 pilots with surprising
results. Of the tested fighter pilots 40% scored in the "best" group -
those who are likely to be highly effective in matters of crew
coordination, 40% in the "middle" group and 20% in the "poor" group. None
of those tested fell into the "worst" group -made up of those Chidester
said had "no stuff".
This result suggests fighter pilots will have a greater likelihood of
employing CRM skills effectively than will the general pilot population.
The Flynn states:
"It might be surprising that no F-16 pilot participant scored in the worst
category for crew coordination skills. However, deployed in one or more
pairs of aircraft, it is sometimes forgotten that single-seat fighter
pilots still need crew resource management skills. Communication between
pilots, and delegation and division of tasks are critical mission duties."
It has been suggested that fighter pilots have developed superior
resource management skills and techniques for the following reasons:
1. Communication is severely limited for pilots operating separate aircraft
forcing greater pre-flight coordination.
2. The average mission workload of a fighter pilot is significantly higher
than that of a transport pilot and a greater portion of the mission is of a
critical nature (when considering a combat situation) hence a need for more
effective time and workload management.
3. The average fighter pilot displays personality characteristics (i.e.
assertiveness, extroversion, and goal seeking) pre-disposing them to
effective management skills (Flynn, 1994, Ashman, 1983).
******************
I hope that this dispells some of the loosely supported hypotheses about
fighter pilots having the "wrong stuff" for commercial aviation that guided
popular thinking for many years.
Best Regards,
Vince Mancuso