Jakub Kraus

Determining importance of physiological parameters and methods of their evaluation for classification of pilots psychophysiological condition

At present, several studies exist describing the relevance of human factor in air transport with main focus on pilots and flight safety. Within such studies, monitoring of physiological functions is used. There are lot of physiological parameters and methods of their assessment; however, they are mostly based on principles originating from clinical practice. Yet, sensitivity and specificity of these methods with regard to assessment of aviation professionals — pilots is unknown. Therefore, this paper is oriented towards description of the most common methods for physiological parameters assessment. The paper also describes evaluation methods, which are on experimental level in terms of physiological data evaluation, namely recurrent quantification analysis. Within the research carried out, sample group of pilots was subjected to measurement for evaluation of their psychophysiological condition and performance. Selected evaluation methods were applied on the collected data and importance of those parameters and methods, which provided best classification for level of psychophysiological stress, was evaluated by means of statistical analyses. The results indicate that the most important physiological parameter for psychophysiological condition assessment of pilots is heart electrical activity where the possibility to perform signal processing whilst preserving its importance is provided by linear methods in the time and frequency domain, or alternatively by non-linear methods utilizing recurrent quantification analysis.

Helicopter Approach to Offshore Objects

This article is focused on the helicopter approach to landing on offshore objects. It describes helicopter approaches and specially designed approaches for the sea. The evaluation of safety in aviation is shown with applications to SOAP approach as well. The helicopter approach to the landing can be considered as part of aviation, which has long been neglected because helicopters are represented only by a minuscule percentage in the overall volume of civil aviation. Because of this, the approach procedures were not designed especially for helicopters, but this type of aircraft with a vertical take-off and landing has irreplaceable role in certain operating situations.

The Methodology for Evaluating the Safety of Operations at the Uncontrolled Aerodromes

The objective of this methodology is to determine the general procedure for the evaluation of safety indicators for operation at uncontrolled aerodromes. The basis of this assessment is to determine the processes that take place at the aerodrome and finding critical points in these processes. They are determined on the basis of observations at aerodromes and are based on current legislation. The result of applying this methodology to aerodrome operations is the identification of several indicators, which monitoring and the adoption of safety measures can enhance safety at these uncontrolled aerodromes in the Czech Republic.

Air Traffic Control Tools Assessment

Undoubtedly air transport in today’s world wouldn’t be able to exist without any air traffic control service. As the air transport has been coming through major changes and it has been expanding, it is assumed that its volume will be doubled in the next 15 years. Air traffic control uses strictly organised procedures to ensure safe course of air operations. With the skies covered with more airplanes every year, new tools must be introduced to allow the controllers to manage this rising amount of flying aircraft and to keep the air transport safe. This paper provides a comprehensive and organized material, which describes the newest tools and systems used by air traffic control officers. It proposes improvements for further research and development of ATC tools.

Automation of Taxiing

The article focuses on the possibility of automation of taxiing, which is the part of a flight, which, under adverse weather conditions, greatly reduces the operational usability of an airport, and is the only part of a flight that has not been affected by automation, yet. Taxiing is currently handled manually by the pilot, who controls the airplane based on information from visual perception. The article primarily deals with possible ways of obtaining navigational information, and its automatic transfer to the controls. Analyzed wand assessed were currently available technologies such as computer vision, Light Detection and Ranging and Global Navigation Satellite System, which are useful for navigation and their general implementation into an airplane was designed. Obstacles to the implementation were identified, too. The result is a proposed combination of systems along with their installation into airplane’s systems so that it is possible to use the automated taxiing.

Safety of Cargo Aircraft Handling Procedure

The aim of this paper is to get acquainted with the ways how to improve the safety management system during cargo aircraft handling. The first chapter is dedicated to general information about air cargo transportation. This includes the history or types of cargo aircraft handling, but also the means of handling. The second part is focused on detailed description of cargo aircraft handling, including a description of activities that are performed before and after handling. The following part of this paper covers a theoretical interpretation of safety, safety indicators and legislative provisions related to the safety of cargo aircraft handling. The fourth part of this paper analyzes the fault trees of events which might occur during handling. The factors found by this analysis are compared with safety reports of FedEx. Based on the comparison, there is a proposal on how to improve the safety management in this transportation company.

French Approach to IFR Aerodromes

This article focuses on the comparison of equipment requirements for IFR aerodromes across Europe. The aim is to show to the reader that despite the single European, respectively global regulations it is still possible to find significant differences in the rules of individual states. The article describes an analysis executed at the Department of Air Transport.

Safety Study in Aviation

The objective of this article is to provide a brief look at safety studies, which are a necessary part of every change of system or a new system in aviation. The main focus is put on the area of air traffic management, because it affects most of the aviation stakeholders. The article begins with a description of safety and safety assessment of changes in systems. Then it discusses analysis of processes, hazard identification and risk assessment. Main part focuses on Safety studies and briefly describes the elements of the study. At the end, possible ways of safety study evaluation are mentioned.

Runway Safety Areas

This article is focused on areas around runway and their dimensions for safety reason of air accidents and incidents. There is proposed new calculation of these dimensions.

Thermal Imaging in Aviation

This article focuses on the use of thermal imaging in aviation. In the never ending pursuit of lower costs, the Thermal Imaging offers shorter inspection times thanks to its application in aircraft inspections and can reduce the number of costly goarounds using the Enhanced Vision System, which also increases safety in one of the most dangerous parts of flight. Thermal Imaging also offers solutions for Airport Perimeter Security and it can be used for construction of ground surveillance system.