Because of recent incidents involving glass-cockpit aircraft, there is growing concern with cockpit automation and its potential effects on pilot performance. However, little is known about the nature and causes of problems that arise in pilot-automation interaction. The results of two studies that provide converging, complementary data on pilots' difficulties with understanding and operating one of the core systems of cockpit automation, the Flight Management System (FMS) is reported. A survey asking pilots to describe specific incidents with the FMS and observations of pilots undergoing transition training to a glass cockpit aircraft served as vehicles to gather a corpus on the nature and variety of FMS-related problems. The results of both studies indicate that pilots become proficient in standard FMS operations through ground training and subsequent line experience. But even with considerable line experience, they still have difficulties tracking FMS status and behavior in certain flight contexts, and they show gaps in their understanding of the functional structure of the system. The results suggest that design-related factors such as opaque interfaces contribute to these difficulties which can affect pilots' situation awareness. The results of this research are relevant for both the design of cockpit automation and the development of training curricula specifically tailored to the needs of glass cockpits.


    Access

    Access via TIB

    Check availability in my library


    Export, share and cite



    Title :

    Cognitive Engineering in Aerospace Application: Pilot Interaction with Cockpit Automation


    Contributors:
    N. R. Sarter (author) / D. D. Woods (author)

    Publication date :

    1993


    Size :

    76 pages


    Type of media :

    Report


    Type of material :

    No indication


    Language :

    English





    Cognitive cockpit systems: information requirements analysis for pilot control of cockpit automation

    Taylor, R. M. / Abdi, S. / Dru-Drury, R. et al. | British Library Conference Proceedings | 2001


    Cognitive Cockpit Systems Engineering: Pilot Authorisation and Control of Task

    Taylor, R. M. | British Library Conference Proceedings | 2001



    Cockpit automation

    Wiener, Earl L. | NTRS | 1988