Panel
Jason Demalgaski, Human Factors and Fatigue Risk Manager, ATO
David Bricker, Human Factors Representative, NATCA National Safety Committee John Drexler, Air Traffic Services Group, ALPA
Mike Schilz, Safety Information Analysis Programs, ALPA
Ric Loewen, National RSAT Representative, NATCA
Dennis Kelly, National PBN Representative, NATCA
Human Factors in Pilot/Controller Comms
Climb and descend via is one of the most misinterpreted actions in aviation currently. The pilots are having the majority of their issues with the bottom altitudes on optimized profile descents (OPDs). If they are taken off the routing to rejoin later they have ambiguity as to whether or not to continue with the descent or keep level flight. The expectation is to issue an altitude when vectoring off the arrival. To help with this issue, phraseology is being reworked to clear up confusion.
Centers can issue a runway assignment at the top of the OPD in conjunction with an LOA with the terminal approach. If the pilot is forced to guess which runway to expect and is wrong, the workload is considerable inside the cockpit to reprogram the arrival.
“Some of these [RNAV STAR/SIDs] are not one size fits all, what works for 737 may not work for an ERJ ”
Aircraft on an FMS/OPD aren't always keen on shortcuts because of the workload to come off the FMS or OPD. For example, if a routing is ABC..DEF..GHI and you short cut them to GHI, the pilot will go and delete all of the previous routing and go to GHI. If we then need them to go to DEF, the pilot has to manually rebuild the routing in the computer not to mention review any speed and altitude restrictions. A lot of heads down time for the pilot.
“You may start to see pilots refusing a shortcut of 1000 miles, maybe its not the most efficient route. When giving shortcuts, you may not always be doing us the favor you think you are.”
New jets are very clean and efficient as far as movement through the air. It's difficult for aircraft to slow down because of this. Particularly in a descent. If you need speed reductions, don't expect immediate results.
“I hope they never get rid of the human interface, because I have seen the infinite loop and its ugly.”