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Erosion Of Flying Skills

 

In an Associated Press article (see this link) Joan Lowy reports that "automation addiction" has eroded pilots' flying skills. I've received emails asking what I think about this article. There is a lot to say. First, automation addiction? Where can you find people who are more obsessed with control than pilots? Pilots want to make sure everything about the plane is under their control. Pilots are not people eager to turn over control to anyone or anything.

 

Yet, a draft FAA study found pilots sometimes "abdicate too much responsibility to automated systems." Though there are cases in which automated systems have in some way led to an accident, there is nothing wrong with using them correctly. Pilots are required to be on duty for so many hours that to operate the plane manually would mean becoming brain numb. It is like driving your car on a long trip; you can shed some of the mental load by using cruise control. On a plane, pilots can control speed (as you can in a car with cruise control), but also altitude control, heading control, and navigation control. Use of automation gives pilots relief from constant engagement with the brain numbing task hand-flying the plane during cruise.

 

Even with automation, when too many hours are spent on duty in the cockpit, cognitive ability declines. Due to airline industry competition and inadequate federal anti-fatigue rules, pilot are pushed to put up with fourteen hour duty periods day after day with insufficient intervening rest . Pilots have to find the best ways they can to maintain mental acuity. It is a challenge, and when pilot fail to meet that challenge, accidents sometimes take place. Since both working conditions and pay have deteriorated, the job no longer attracts the talent it used to. 

 

The article says the FAA has warned that "opportunities for airline pilots to maintain their flying proficiency by manually flying planes are increasingly limited." True, but that seems to infer that pilots could improve their skills by not using the automated systems. Turing off the autopilot and flying the plane straight down an airway on a routine flight does not sharpen skills for handling the plane in challenging situations. As an analogy, a driver gets no increased ability to deal with skids by steering a car down an Interstate highway. To learn to deal with skids, special training is needed. For pilots to maintain their stick-and-rudder skills, they need an opportunity to fly either a plane or the simulator in a more dynamic way than it can be flown with passengers on board. 

 

In the most recent fatal airline crash in the U.S., in 2009 near Buffalo, N.Y., the plane was allowed to slow to an unsafe speed. That triggered a warning. The captain first ignored the warning. Then, when the plane's stall prevention system nosed the plane down to pick up speed, he responded by pulling back on the control week, inducing a full stall, and the resulting crash.


 

The Buffalo accident combined 1. a not-very-talented captain, 2. insufficient training, and 3. "pilot pushing" (scheduling pilots for too much flying to maintain alertness). 1. As to talent, the captain's previous job was stock clerk at a Publix Supermarket. He had been fired at another airline for poor performance but was able to cover it up. 2. As to training, there had been no hands-on training in how to respond to the stall warning system. 3. As to pilot pushing, the crew was underpaid and overworked. In May, the FAA proposed requiring airlines to train pilots on how to recover from a stall, as well as expose them to more realistic problem scenarios. The regulations, proposed to remedy these situations as well as pay and experience, have not been passed by Congress.

 
Third, some automated systems are more destructive of a pilot's skills than others. The article says safety experts are seeing cases in which pilots suddenly confronted with a loss of computerized flight controls (a politically correct way to say, the Airbus fly-by-wire control system) don't appear to know how to respond, or they make errors as was the case in the Air France A330 crash. While a Boeing flies like a traditional airplane, on Airbus planes, the pilot uses a joystick to direct the computer that flies the plane. This arrangement removes some of the feedback traditional flight controls provide. In the 2009 crash of an Air France A330 from Brazil to Paris, iced-up pitot tubes gave the pilots bad airspeed information. In a traditionally controlled plane, feedback - how the plane responds to the controls - would have made it abundantly clear that the plane was flying too slow, not too fast as the pilots believed. Lacking feedback, the pilots mistakenly believed the plane was flying too fast and slowed the plane more and more until not enough air was flowing over the wings to maintain flight.


 

The feedback a pilot senses when flying a conventionally controlled plane was not available. It muddies the situation to call lack of feedback an automation problem; the problem the Air France pilots ran into was a flight control system designed to make the Airbus easier to fly, and harder to fly wrong. But in rare circumstances, makes it easier to fly wrong.




Fourth, the writer credits US Airways Captain Sullenberger's "precision flying" with saving the lives of all 155 people aboard an Airbus that landed in the Hudson River two years ago. Sullerberg's flying was anything but precision. Though his decision-making was spot on, his flying of the plane was as dumb as that of the pilot who caused the Buffalo crash. Sullenberger, not knowing what speed to fly the plane for an immediate landing (something he should have checked before taking off), abdicated control of the plane's speed to the Airbus's fly-by-wire system. He did this by simply moving the joystick full aft. This told the plane's computers to slow, and then to maintain, the slowest speed at which the plane would glide. This left him no way to "flare" before entering the water. As a result, the plane impacted the water three times harder than the fuselage was designed to handle. The underside of the rear fuselage broke open, allowing water to rush in and submerge some of the passengers.



 


Rory Kay, an airline captain and co-chair of a Federal Aviation Administration advisory committee on pilot training is quoted as saying, "We're seeing a new breed of accident with these state-of-the art planes. We're forgetting how to fly." Sullenberger had flown fighters in the Air Force. Clearly he once possessed excellent stick-and-rudder skills. But these skills are not needed - nor are they maintained - when flying an Airbus. Since Sullenberger lucked out, he has the undeserved status of a hero, while the captain of the Buffalo accident has the deserved status of a screw-up. Both panicked and pulled back on the controls. The Airbus - plus luck that no passengers drowned - let Sullenberger get away with it. The plane the Buffalo captain was flying didn't.

 

Did the Airbus design save Sullenberger? Yes and no. By being easy to fly, the Airbus' fly-by-wire system softened his flying skills. Perhaps it led him to see no reason to check what speed to fly if an immediate landing after takeoff was necessary. Still, there is no excuse for not knowing the speed the plane must be flown at if, immediately after takeoff, the plane must be landed in an emergency. Pilots are required to know this simply because there may not be time to look up the speed. So much for irresponsibility. What about stupidity? It was stupid to slow the plane to a speed at which flare was impossible? Though I'm sure some Airbus enthusiasts will claim there is no proof for this, in my opinion that a conventionally controlled plane that forces a pilot to maintain his or her skills - say a 737, 757, 767, or regional jet - would have resulted in a landing in the Hudson that would not have caused structural failure.


Want to hear a self-serving solution to the problem? Paul Railsback, operations director at the Air Transport Association, which represents airlines, said, "We think the best way to handle this is through the policies and training of the airlines to ensure they stipulate that the pilots devote a fair amount of time to manually flying. We want to encourage pilots to do that and not rely 100 percent on the automation. I think many airlines are moving in that direction." Why is that self-serving? Because it does not provide for additional training in the plane or the simulator in dynamic flight situations. As I pointed out before, flying an airliner manually down an airway does nothing to improve stick-and-rudder skills. But providing pilots with additional training would cost the airlines money. And, if you didn't notice it, the Air Transport Association is an association of airlines.



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Research Shows Link Between The Amygdala And Maternal Depression





Research is continuing to show that the brain is sensitive to the quality of child care. Already it was clear that children reared in orphanages  - where their care was discontinuous or minimally responsive - were found to have an enlarged amydala, a part of the brain that contributes to how we respond to uncertainty. 




Does research at an orphanage mean something to the rest of us? Yes, when considered along with new research at the University of Montreal. The same thing that happens to kids raised in orphanages happens to kids whose mothers are severely depressed. In both bases, lack of personalized attention to children's needs seem to be the key factor.

 

The children in the study were found to be more reactive when presented with unfamiliar situations. This seems to indicate that a larger amygdala means greater stress hormone delivery when facing uncertainty, such as when flying. The study was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
on August 15, 2011. An article on the study can be found at http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/08/110815152041.htm






Other research recently has show how the relationship a child has with the mother influences emotional development. Irritable children are more influenced by the relationship they have with their mothers than less difficult children. If securely attached to their mothers, they fare well as they develop socially because they can turn to their mothers for comfort when frusterated. But if insecurely attached to their mothers, children can't use their mother as a "secure base" and as a basis to learn skill; thus they have continuing difficulty in interaction with people and objects. See this link.





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Top Ten Airlines In Terms Of Safety




A Swiss organization, Air Transport Rating Agency, has posted its top ten airlines in terms of safety ratings. In alphabetical order, they are Air France-KLM, American Airlines, British Airways, Continental Airlines, Delta Airlines, Japan Airlines, Lufthansa, Southwest, Airlines, United Airlines, and US Airways. The web page for this is http://www.atra.aero/News/HOLISTIC_SAFETY_RATING_2011/5/







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Wikileaks On Australian Airline Operations




Wikileaks has released a US State Department cable that indicates the FAA audited Australia's Civil Aviation Safety Authority (their equivalent of the FAA) and found it does not meet international standards. The leak says there was consideration of downgrading Australian operations to Category 2 which would mean no code-sharing between Qantas and American Airlines. See story at this link. 




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To Hawaii Plus A Helicopter Ride 




I just wanted you to know I flew from Chicago to Hawaii yesterday.  My first flight in 37 yrs.  It was wonderful.  




Thank you for your program, words of encouragement and instruction.  The pictures were very helpful.  Knowing I could call you at the airport was a lifeline for me.  Even though I did not user it, just knowing it was there for support was a support.  No I did not use any medication but wanted to feel the experience.  I even took a nap or two.I shared the letter with the staff and it was a comfort too.  They were helpful and kind.  Monday, I am taking my husband on a helicopter tour of the Oahu.




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SOAR Will Work For You Too


Even if you are doubtful, SOAR nevertheless works. This is because we, with the help of brain scan research that showed us how the mind works, broke the code on flight anxiety, claustrophobia, and panic.

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Unsure Which To Choose




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