Patrick Stuart Murray

The Development of Airline Pilot Skills through Simulated Practice

Pilot education and training has historically been centred on knowledge of aircraft systems and flying skills. Additions to pilot training syllabi over the years have generally occurred due to advances in technology that have required new skills and knowledge to be taught. However, research into aviation accidents over the last 30 years has identified disconnects between current syllabi and pilot needs in the work place. Despite the new perspectives of required pilot skills, traditional habits within training are still embedded in modern training syllabi and, more importantly, the current practice-based methods. Changes are needed in pilot training programmes to improve areas such as team skills, decision making, and communication. These changes are likely to see an increasing use of simulators of varying levels of sophistication to allow authentic practice-based training activities for pilots. Importantly, there is also a need to improve assessment methods for practice-based activities.

Fear-Potentiated Startle: A Review from an Aviation Perspective

Pilot performance following unexpected critical events has been either ineffective or inappropriate in some recent aircraft accidents. The deleterious effects of startle have been identified as causal or contributory in these events. The startle reflex, fight or flight reaction, and stress response are discussed. Threat has the effect of potentiating startle effects and has significant deleterious effects on cognition. This could contribute to poor performance following an unexpected critical event in aviation. Training strategies for improved performance, which would expose pilots to unexpected critical events more often, and develop greater self-efficacy, are discussed.

Training Flight Accidents

Civil aviation is broadly categorized into two sectors: air transportation and general aviation. While the former sector is considered to be ultrasafe the latter requires a stronger focus on safety improvement. There has been considerable research examining the causes of general aviation accidents with a view to improving safety. However, there has been very limited research specifically focused on accidents involving training flights and associated causal factors. A total of 293 training flight accident reports, comprising 111 fatal and 182 nonfatal accidents were reviewed and analyzed to identify causes of training-flight accidents. The study found that based on the odds ratio, if a fatal accident involving training flights occurred it was 4.05 times more likely to be a dual training flight. Other findings included that most accidents occurred during the landing phase and the majority of accidents related to skill deficiency (e.g., an improper/inadequate flare). This was a major causal factor in nonfatal accidents in both dual and solo training flights. However, on dual training flights there were more fatal accidents involving decision deficiencies and mechanical malfunctions (e.g., loss of engine power). A previous study suggested that lack of supervision of student pilots by flight instructors was found to be a main causal factor and thus flight instructor training and recurrency requirements need to be reviewed.

A systematic review of the role of regional aviation in the airfreight industry

The purpose of this article is to explore the themes and challenges for regional aviation regarding the provision of airfreight services. The systematic review highlights three major challenges affecting the regional airfreight sector including: integration; infrastructure; and service reliability. There is a considerable dearth of academic literature available in this area. Thus, this paper aims to assist in highlighting these gaps and illustrating the potential for future research opportunities. It is hoped that this work will assist policy-makers, supply chain and air transport industry representatives as they seek to overcome the challenges hindering the development of regional aviation.

Measuring Success: The Search for Assessment Criteria in Determining the Impact of Deregulation in Regional Aviation

Regional aviation is considered critical to the development of regional and remote communities. It has been recognised by the Australian, Brazilian and Canadian governments that regional aviation is also crucial to the continued economic development of these countries. Whilst all three countries have similar economic structures, they have also completed a cycle of regional aviation deregulation over the last twenty years. A comparative analysis of the economic regulatory reforms conducted in Australia, Brazil and Canada has been provided. The paper uses this analysis to suggest the development of four criteria (improved service quality, increased competition, increased efficiency and increased innovation), to determine the impact of government economic policy on regional aviation.

A Training-Centered Approach to the Situational Control Model

Situational awareness (SA) has been conceptually defined as an awareness of current and past events that contextualize an understanding of what is currently happening and future implications of that state. While SA has been considered widely in previous research, the literature provides little guidance on the actual skill sets that contribute toward a state of SA, or, beyond that, the additional skills that then contribute to a state of controlled flight path management; a state we describe as situational control (SC). A set of social and cognitive skills are required to develop awareness of the current situation and likely future developments; however, the skills that provide SC are additional to those required for SA, and are elaborated on. SC is further considered within the context of flight training.

An exploratory study on the post-implementation of threat and error management training in Australian general aviation

Abstract Threat and Error Management (TEM) training, endorsed and recommended by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), was mandated in Australia with the aim of improving aviation safety. However, to date, there has been very limited, if any, formal post-implementation review, assessment or evaluation to examine the ‘after-state’ in terms of the effectiveness of the introduction of TEM. This exploratory study, is a first step in examining how TEM is regarded among Australian general aviation pilots in terms of its use and effectiveness. Fifty-nine general aviation pilots participated in a survey. The survey results indicated a large decline in positive support for TEM compared with the findings of an earlier study. Other results from the current survey indicated a variable uptake of TEM principles and differing opinions as to its effectiveness, suggesting further study should be conducted in respect of TEM as an important safety initiative within Australian general aviation.

Peer Observation in the Online Learning Environment

Distance education has emerged as an issue of high importance in the field of aviation higher education (Prather, 2006; Scarpelline & Bowen, 2001). Fullingim (2011) suggests that training needs in the aviation industry are expected to grow by more than 40 percent over the next two decades. Online learning offers great potential in meeting this increased demand (Raisinghani et al., 2005).