Remote Pilot Lesson: Human Factors

Hazard and Risk for the Remote Pilot (part 1)

Now, we’re going to talk about human factors. We’re going to try to wrap up this module on aeronautical decision making and judgement with human factors and a few other things. Some of these things might be a little bit of a review, but we want to hone them in. FAA wants you to know it, so let’s try to finish up this module. Human Factors,  Why are human conditions, such as fatigue, complacency, and stress so important in aviation?

Human factors directly cause or contribute to many aviation accidents and have been documented as a primary contributor to more than 70% of aircraft accidents. Typically, human factor incidents and accidents are associated with flight operations, but recently have also become a major concern in aviation, maintenance, and air traffic management as well.

Over the past several years, the FAA has made the study and research of human factors as a top priority by working closely with engineers, pilots, mechanics, and ATC (air traffic control) to apply the latest knowledge about human factors in an effort to help operators and maintainers improve safety and efficiency in their daily operations. Human factors science, or human factors technologies, is a multidisciplinary field incorporating contributions from psychology, engineering, industrial design, statistics, and operations research.

It is a term that covers the science of understanding the properties of human capability, the application of this understanding is to the design, development and deployment of systems and services, and the art of ensuring successful application of human factor principles into all aspects of aviation to include pilots, ATC (air traffic control), and aviation maintenance. Human factors is often considered synonymous with CRM (crew resource management) or MRM (maintenance resource management), but is really much broader in both its knowledge base and scope.

Hazard and Risk for the Remote Pilot (part 1)

Human factors involves gathering research specific to certain situations (i.e., flight, maintenance, stress levels, knowledge) about human abilities, limitations, and other characteristics, and applying it to design, machines, systems, jobs, tasks, and environments to produce safe, comfortable, and effective human use.

The entire aviation community benefits greatly from human factors research and development, as it helps better understanding how humans can most safely and efficiently perform their jobs and improve the tools and systems in which they interact. An understanding of the decision-making process provides the pilot with a foundation of skills for ADM (aeronautical decision making) and SRM (single resource management) skills.

While some situations, such as engine failure, require an immediate response using established procedures, there is usually time during a flight to analyze any changes that occur, gather information, and assess risks before reaching a decision.

Risk management and risk intervention is much more than the simple definitions of the terms might suggest. The Decision-Making Process Risk management and risk intervention are decision-making processes designed to systematically identify hazards, assess the degree of risk, and determine the best course of action.

These processes involve the identification of hazards, followed by assessments of the risks, analysis of the controls, making control decisions, using the controls, and monitoring the results. The steps leading to this decision constitute a decision-making process. Three models of a structured framework for problem-solving and decision-making:

The 5P, the 3P using PAVE, CARE and TEAM, and the DECIDE models.

They provide assistance in organizing the decision process. All these models have been identified as helpful to the single pilot in organizing critical decisions. Single-Pilot Resource Management (SRM) is about how to gather information, analyze it, and make decisions. Learning how to identify problems, analyze the information, and make informed and timely decisions is not as straightforward as the training involved in learning specific maneuvers.

Hazard and Risk for the Remote Pilot (part 1)

Learning how to judge a situation and ‘how to think’ in the endless variety of situations and encountered while flying out in the “real world” is more difficult. There is no one right answer in ADM. Rather, each pilot is expected to analyze each situation in light of experience level, personal minimums, and current physical and mental readiness level, and make his or her own decisions. Perceive, Process, Perform (3P) Model The Perceive, Process, Perform (3P) model for ADM offers a simple, practical, and systematic approach that can be used during all phases of flight.

To use it, the pilot will: • Perceive the given set of circumstances for a flight • Process by evaluating their impact on flight safety • Perform by implementing the best course of action Use the Perceive, Process, Perform, and Evaluate method as a continuous model for every aeronautical decision that you make.

Although human beings will inevitably make mistakes, anything that you can do to recognize and minimize potential threats to your safety will make you a better pilot. Depending upon the nature of the activity and the time available, risk management processing can take place in any of three timeframes.

Most flight training activities take place in the “time-critical” timeframe for risk management. Perceive, Process, Perform with the PAVE, CARE and TEAM checklists. Pilots can help perceive hazards by using the PAVE checklist of: Pilot, Aircraft, Environment, and External pressures. They can process hazards by using the CARE checklist of: Consequences, Alternatives, Reality, External factors.

Pilots can perform risk management by using the TEAM Choice list of: Transfer, Eliminate, Accept, or Mitigate. In the first step, the goal is to develop situational awareness by perceiving hazards, which are present events, objects, or circumstances that could contribute to an undesired future event. In this step, the pilot will systematically identify and list hazards associated with all aspects of the flight: Pilot, Aircraft, Environment, and External pressures, which makes up the PAVE checklist.

All four elements combine and interact to create a unique situation for any flight. Pay special attention to the pilot-aircraft combination, and consider whether the combined “pilot-aircraft team” is capable of the mission that you want to fly. For example, you may be a very experienced and proficient pilot, but your weather flying ability is still limited if you are flying an unfamiliar aircraft. On the other hand, you may have a new technically advanced aircraft that you have flown for a considerable amount of time.

Hazard and Risk for the Remote Pilot (part 1)

A solid approach to decision-making is through the use of analytical models, such as the 5Ps, 3P, and DECIDE. In some situations, there is not always time to make decisions based on analytical decision-making skills. A good example is a quarterback whose actions are based upon a highly fluid and changing situation. He intends to execute a plan, but new circumstances dictate decision-making on the fly. This type of decision-making is called automatic decision-making or naturalized decision-making.

For the past several decades, research into how people actually make decisions has revealed that, when pressed for time, experts faced with a task loaded with uncertainty first assess whether the situation strikes them as familiar. Rather than comparing the pros and cons of different approaches, they quickly imagine how one or a few possible courses of action in situations will play out. Experts take the first workable option they can find. While it may not be the best of all possible choices, it often yields remarkably good results.

The terms “naturalistic” and “automatic decision-making” have been coined to describe this type of decision-making. The ability to make automatic decisions holds true for a range of experts from firefighters to chess players. It appears the expert’s ability hinges on the recognition of patterns and consistencies that clarify options in complex situations.

Experts appear to make provisional sense of a situation, without actually reaching a decision by launching experience-based actions that, in turn, trigger creative revisions. This is a reflexive type of decision-making anchored in training and experience and is most often used in times of emergencies when there is no time to practice analytical decision-making. Naturalistic or automatic decision-making improves with training and experience, and a pilot will find himself or herself using a combination of decision-making tools that correlate with individual experience and training.

Although, more experienced pilots are likely to make more automatic decisions, there are tendencies or operational pitfalls that come with the development of pilot experience. These are classic behavioral traps into which pilots have been known to fall. More experienced pilots, as a rule, try to complete a flight as planned. The desire to meet these goals can have an adverse effect on safety and contribute to an unrealistic assessment of piloting skills. These dangerous tendencies or behavior patterns, which must be identified and eliminated, include the operational pitfalls.

The operational pitfalls are:  • Peer pressure • Mindset • Get-there-itis • Duck-under syndrome • Scud running • Continuing VFR (visual flight rules) into IMC (instrument meteorological conditions) • Getting behind the aircraft • Loss of potential or situational awareness • Operating without adequate fuel • Descending below the minimum en route altitude • Flying outside the envelope • Neglect a flight planning, preflight inspections, and checklists Stress Management.

Hazard and Risk for the Remote Pilot (part 1)

Everyone is stressed to some degree almost all of the time. A certain amount of stress is good since it keeps a person alert and prevents complacency. Effects of stress are cumulative and, if the pilot does not cope with them in an appropriate way, they can eventually add up to an intolerable burden. Performance generally increases with the onset of stress, peaks, and then begins to fall off rapidly as stress levels exceed a person’s ability to cope. The ability to make effective decisions during flight can be impaired by stress.

There are several techniques to help manage accumulation of life stresses and prevent stress overload. For example, to help reduce stress levels, set aside time for relaxation each day or maintain a program of physical fitness. To prevent stress overload, learn to manage time more effectively to avoid pressures imposed by getting behind schedule and not meeting deadlines. Use of Resources To make informed decisions during flight operations, a pilot must also become aware of the available resources.

Since useful tools and sources of information may not always be readily apparent, learning to recognize these resources is an essential part of ADM (aeronautical decision-making) training. Resources must not only be identified, but a pilot must also develop the skills to evaluate whether there is time to use a particular resource and the impact its use will have upon the safety of flight.

Situational Awareness Situational awareness is the accurate perception and understanding of all the factors and conditions within the five fundamental risk elements (flight, pilot, aircraft, environment, and type of operation that comprise any given aviation situation) that affect safety before, during, and after the flight. Maintaining situational awareness requires an understanding of the relative significance of all flight related factors and their future impact on the flight. When a pilot understands what is going on and has an overview of the total operation, he or she is not fixated on one perceived significant factor. Not only is it important for a pilot to know the aircraft’s geographical location, it is also important he or she understand what is happening.

Hazard and Risk for the Remote Pilot (part 1)

Fatigue, stress, and work overload can cause a pilot to fixate on a single perceived important item and reduce an overall situational awareness of the flight. A contributing factor in many accidents is a distraction that diverts the pilot’s attention from monitoring the aircraft. Effective workload management ensures essential operations are accomplished by planning, prioritizing, and sequencing tasks to avoid work overload.

As experience is gained, a pilot learns to recognize future workload requirements and can prepare for high workload periods during times of low workload. In addition, a pilot should listen to the ATIS, Automated Surface Observing System (ASOS), or Automated Weather Observing System (AWOS), if available. And, then, monitor the tower frequency or Common Traffic Advisory Frequency (CTAF) to get a good idea of what traffic conditions to expect.

Recognizing a work overload situation is also an important component of managing workload. The first effect of high workload is that the pilot may be working harder but accomplishing less. As workload increases, attention cannot be devoted to several tasks at one time, and the pilot may begin to focus on one item. When a pilot becomes task saturated, there is no awareness of input from various sources, so decisions may be made on the incomplete information and the possibility of error increases. When a work overload situation exists, a pilot needs to stop, think, slow down, and prioritize.

It is very important to understand how to decrease workload. Wow! Are you still with me? I sure hope so. I know that was long. A lot of stuff in there, but that’s the assets of what the FAA wants you to know about being a pilot. They’re basically wanting to make sure you take your time, do your preflight, check the weather, do everything that you need to do to be ready for that flight. And be aware as you’re doing your flight and going out and just using the care and the caution to be a safe and prudent pilot.

Hazard and Risk for the Remote Pilot (part 1)

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Gary Cleveland, Chief Pilot

Remote Pilot Online

FAA Safety Representatives

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