Study pilot workload during approach and landing

I'm an engineering student from Belgium and I study at the faculty of
aerospace engineering of the Technical University of Delft, The
Netherlands. I'm currently doing a human factors study about the
difficulties of an approach and landing. So i thought maybe this is a
good place to reach many pilots of different experience at once. I'd
be very gratefull for the feedback you could provide me on the next
questions. They're quite general but will give me a good starting
point for a more detailed study.

Note: where applicable please differentiate between IFR and VFR
approaches.

1) Which fase (initial descent, ILS approach, approach stability,
flare, touchdown, taxi) of an approach and landing do you find most
difficult and why?

2) Which specific tasks during approach and landing do you find most
difficult to combine?

3) Which of the four primary tasks, defined below, do you find hardest
to combine during an approach and landing?

4) Which of the four primary tasks are most demanding for the pilot
flying and the pilot non flying? If possible, you could also mention
some very demanding specific subtasks.

5) Which external factors (e.g. bad wheather, disagreements with other
crewmembers) do you find the most influencing on the general pilot
workload?

6) Which parameters (length runway, slope runway, crosswind, weather,
available aids,...) do you find most important for the difficulty of a
landing?

7) If you could make a suggestion to the authorities like the FAA to
alleviate the workload during approach and landing, what would this
be?

8) If you believe important aspects are not adressed in the
questionnaire, please mention them here. Any other comments are also
welcome here.

Extra information; if you could provide me with general information
about yourself, this would be much appreciated:
- general aviation or commercial
- estimate of flight hours

Many thanks in advance!!!!!!!






NOTE: DEFINITION OF TASKS

flight management task: collection of all discrete tasks, so tasks tha
have a limited time span, e.g. doing the landing checklist

manual control task: the continuous task of manually flying the
airplane. If the autopilot is used, this can be replaced by an
intensive continuous monitoring task.

scanning and monitoring: continuous task of perception of information
on the state of the aircraft. So scaaning is the acquisition of data
and understanding it, while monitoring stands for the
guarding-function of the pilot with respect to the aircraft-state.

ATC task: includes the obvious comm tasks and the less obvious tasks
imposed by the consequences of ATC-dictated altitudes and speeds. Both
discrete tasks and continuous tasks.

"Freshfighter" wrote:
1) Which fase (initial descent, ILS approach, approach stability,
flare, touchdown, taxi) of an approach and landing do you find
most difficult and why?

Flare. This is the most difficult to judge with consistency, the goal
(in my airplane) being to have the wheels touch just as the stall
warning sounds. Flaring too soon can result in a stall at some height
above the runway, with possibly damaging results. Flaring too late can
produce a 3-point, high speed landing or, worse, a nose wheel-first
landing, also with possibly damaging results.

2) Which specific tasks during approach and landing do you find most
difficult to combine?

Scanning and monitoring and seeing and avoiding traffic.

3) Which of the four primary tasks, defined below, do you find hardest
to combine during an approach and landing?

Scanning and monitoring, ATC task

4) Which of the four primary tasks are most demanding for the
pilot flying and the pilot non flying? If possible, you could also
mention some very demanding specific subtasks.

PF: scanning and monitoring
PNF: scanning and monitoring

5) Which external factors (e.g. bad wheather, disagreements with other
crewmembers) do you find the most influencing on the general pilot
workload?

Bad weather. Nothing else (besides mechanical or medical emergencies)
comes close to this as a workload-increasing factor.

6) Which parameters (length runway, slope runway, crosswind,
weather, available aids,...) do you find most important for the
difficulty of a landing?

Crosswind, wind shear and ice on the runway.

7) If you could make a suggestion to the authorities like the FAA
to alleviate the workload during approach and landing, what
would this be?

Create more straght-in LNAV/VNAV (GPS) instrument approaches.

8) If you believe important aspects are not adressed in the
questionnaire, please mention them here. Any other comments
are also welcome here.

Your questionnaire seems to concern task saturation. This is a poorly
understood factor in many aviation accidents, in my opinion. One aspect
of this is the man-machine interfaces pilots must operate during high
workload situations. The GPS navigation systems I have used are
particularly bad in this respect, but instrument panel clutter also
contributes.

Extra information; if you could provide me with general
information about yourself, this would be much appreciated:
- general aviation or commercial
- estimate of flight hours

My perspective is that of an instrument rated, private pilot flying a
light, single-engine aircraft. I usually do not have a copilot. I have
about 750 hours.
--
Dan
C172RG at BFM

Well, flying a fixed gear, simple airplane VFR only doesn't offer a
lot to study. Heavy crosswinds and lots of traffic in an
uncontrolled pattern are my main challanges.
--
Gene Seibel
Hangar 131 - http://pad39a.com/gene/plane.html
Because I fly, I envy no one.


(Freshfighter) wrote in message . com...
I'm an engineering student from Belgium and I study at the faculty of
aerospace engineering of the Technical University of Delft, The
Netherlands. I'm currently doing a human factors study about the
difficulties of an approach and landing. So i thought maybe this is a
good place to reach many pilots of different experience at once. I'd
be very gratefull for the feedback you could provide me on the next
questions. They're quite general but will give me a good starting
point for a more detailed study.

Note: where applicable please differentiate between IFR and VFR
approaches.

1) Which fase (initial descent, ILS approach, approach stability,
flare, touchdown, taxi) of an approach and landing do you find most
difficult and why?

2) Which specific tasks during approach and landing do you find most
difficult to combine?

3) Which of the four primary tasks, defined below, do you find hardest
to combine during an approach and landing?

4) Which of the four primary tasks are most demanding for the pilot
flying and the pilot non flying? If possible, you could also mention
some very demanding specific subtasks.

5) Which external factors (e.g. bad wheather, disagreements with other
crewmembers) do you find the most influencing on the general pilot
workload?

6) Which parameters (length runway, slope runway, crosswind, weather,
available aids,...) do you find most important for the difficulty of a
landing?

7) If you could make a suggestion to the authorities like the FAA to
alleviate the workload during approach and landing, what would this
be?

8) If you believe important aspects are not adressed in the
questionnaire, please mention them here. Any other comments are also
welcome here.

Extra information; if you could provide me with general information
about yourself, this would be much appreciated:
- general aviation or commercial
- estimate of flight hours

Many thanks in advance!!!!!!!






NOTE: DEFINITION OF TASKS

flight management task: collection of all discrete tasks, so tasks tha
have a limited time span, e.g. doing the landing checklist

manual control task: the continuous task of manually flying the
airplane. If the autopilot is used, this can be replaced by an
intensive continuous monitoring task.

scanning and monitoring: continuous task of perception of information
on the state of the aircraft. So scaaning is the acquisition of data
and understanding it, while monitoring stands for the
guarding-function of the pilot with respect to the aircraft-state.

ATC task: includes the obvious comm tasks and the less obvious tasks
imposed by the consequences of ATC-dictated altitudes and speeds. Both
discrete tasks and continuous tasks.

I have not looked to see if there is a website, but... every other year
(odd years), an international aviation psychology symposium is held. If
you ever have the opportunity to attend, do it. The topics and papers
presented are diverse and interesting, covering most aspects of
aviation, from design to processes.

EDR wrote in message ...
I have not looked to see if there is a website, but... every other year
(odd years), an international aviation psychology symposium is held. If
you ever have the opportunity to attend, do it. The topics and papers
presented are diverse and interesting, covering most aspects of
aviation, from design to processes.

I've searched the proceedings of these symposia and found some
interesting material. But i need replys of actual pilots to fill in
the black spots. So please reply, and I'd be very gratefull.

In the interests of science, and with the sympathy of having faced my own
Ph.D. in the past, I'll give you the perspective of a rather new student
pilot.

1) Which fase (initial descent, ILS approach, approach stability,
flare, touchdown, taxi) of an approach and landing do you find most
difficult and why?

I would have to say flare and touchdown. The approaches were certainly
difficult at first, and it took some time to understand that you control
airspeed with the elevator and altitude by using thrust. But like nearly
all students, I eventually got over that. To this day, though, I still have
trouble picking the right time to flare. I often do it a bit too early, and
have to apply some additional thrust to keep from touching down a bit to
hard. Touchdown was also a challenge for me. My instructor kept
complaining that I simply stopped flying the airplane for about 3-5 seconds
prior to touchdown. I acted like I was in a skidding car that was about to
rear-end the car in front of me. I acted as though I had done everything I
could do, and I was simply bracing for the eventual impact with the ground.
Once I put the plane into what I thought was the proper flare attitude, I
simply stopped manipulating the controls and waited for the ground to come
up and meet me.

2) Which specific tasks during approach and landing do you find most
difficult to combine?

Probably flaring and remining aligned with the runway. Once the nose comes
up, I lose sight of the end of the runway, and I feel like I know longer
know which way I should be pointing.

3) Which of the four primary tasks, defined below, do you find hardest
to combine during an approach and landing?

Probably what you call "flight management". I feel like I have my hands
full just flying the approach, and that I don't need any distractions that
require me to divert my attention elsewhere. This is why I do the
pre-landing checklist as early as possible, so that I don't need to look at
it again and can focus on the job at hand.

4) Which of the four primary tasks are most demanding for the pilot
flying and the pilot non flying? If possible, you could also mention
some very demanding specific subtasks.

I'm only a student pilot, so I don't have any experience as pilot not
flying.

5) Which external factors (e.g. bad wheather, disagreements with other
crewmembers) do you find the most influencing on the general pilot
workload?

Again, I'm a new student. I don't fly in bad weather and I'm usually solo
at this point.

6) Which parameters (length runway, slope runway, crosswind, weather,
available aids,...) do you find most important for the difficulty of a
landing?

My intructor has placed restrictions that limit my exposure to many of these
things, so I really can't give a decent answer.

Extra information; if you could provide me with general information
about yourself, this would be much appreciated:

General aviation, about 50 hours, student pilot.