Next generation may trust computers too much

Several speakers expressed concerns over apparent ‘dumbing down’ of pilot examination standards, allied to the well-known phenomenon that skill areas that were not tested tended to be ignored. Capt Terry Buckland, deputy head of flight crew standards at the UK Civil Aviation Authority, noted that situations presented in simulators were becoming increasingly complex and that pilots enjoyed this complexity: “They take the view that this may save their bacon one day.”

The next generation of pilots will be very accustomed to computers but are likely to place excessive trust in them, the conference heard. Training had to continue to emphasise abnormal situations and it would be up to instructors to instil flightdeck discipline.

A typical long-haul pilot with Air France only flies his aircraft manually for between six and 10 minutes each month, despite professional pride and the desire to switch off the autopilot, the conference heard. However, said Captain Philip Adrian, 737 chief technical pilot and chief of regulatory affairs at Boeing, after a long intercontinental flight and indifferent weather on the approach, “perhaps it’s better to let the aircraft do the landing”.

Will fully-automated, pilotless passenger airliners become the norm? Perhaps not for a while yet. A US FAA study of 9,000 flights between 2001-9 found that 20% suffered some malfunction that required the pilots to intervene. These were not accidents or even incidents, but normal completed flights.

There tend to be differences in character between the pilots of Boeing and Airbus products. The US airframer’s models tended to attract more physically-inclined personalities, while those getting behind the controls of the European manufacturer’s aircraft tended to be more cerebral and introverted.

“Present and future [cockpit] systems bring a wealth of information to the commander, but unless he knows how to unlock the computer system it’s just data, not information,” noted consultant Captain Jacques Drappier.

NASA has found that the nearer to their destination, the more likely pilots were to disregard risk, said Rhona Flin, professor of applied psychology at Aberdeen University in the UK. Sometimes captains had to pause and re-assess situations. Professor Flin cited a senior surgeon who became frustrated with a junior colleague getting increasingly fixated with a problem during an operation, eventually shouting: “Don’t just do something, stand there!”