Exploring the Underpinning Principles of the Multi-Crew Pilot Licence by Melanie A Todd BAvn ...

219 Pages·2014·1.92 MB·English

by  Melanie Todd

Exploring the Underpinning Principles of the Multi-Crew Pilot Licence

by Melanie A Todd
BAvn, MSciTech(Avn)

A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirement for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
in the School of Psychology
Division of Education, Arts and Social Sciences
University of South Australia

Submitted March 2014
Table of Contents
List of figures ............................................................................................................. vi
List of tables ............................................................................................................. vii
Glossary .................................................................................................................. viii
Summary ................................................................................................................... x
Acknowledgements ................................................................................................. xiii
Chapter One - Literature review ............................................................................. 1
1.1 Overview .......................................................................................................... 2
1.2 The discipline of Human Factors ...................................................................... 5
General overview ................................................................................................ 5
Aviation Human Factors ..................................................................................... 6
1.3 Expertise ........................................................................................................ 10
Pilot skill ............................................................................................................ 15
Technical skills ................................................................................................. 15
Psychomotor skills ............................................................................................ 16
Non-technical skills ........................................................................................... 17
Aeronautical decision-making ........................................................................... 18
Naturalistic Decision making ............................................................................. 18
Recognition-Primed Decision Making ............................................................... 19
Fast and Frugal Heuristics ................................................................................ 20
NDM and Fast and Frugal ................................................................................ 21
Workload .......................................................................................................... 22
Situational awareness....................................................................................... 23
Memory ............................................................................................................. 26
Summary .......................................................................................................... 27
1.4 Learning and skill acquisition ......................................................................... 29
Principles of adult learning ................................................................................ 29
Situated learning ............................................................................................... 30
Skill acquisition ................................................................................................. 32
Simulation training ............................................................................................ 35
Transfer of training from simulator to aircraft .................................................... 36
Fidelity in simulation ......................................................................................... 39
Summary .......................................................................................................... 44
1.5 Competency-based Training .......................................................................... 47
Definition ........................................................................................................... 47
ii
Background ...................................................................................................... 47
Philosophy ........................................................................................................ 47
The Australian experience and perspective ...................................................... 49
Competency-based training in Aviation ............................................................ 53
Benefits of competency-based training ............................................................. 55
Criticisms of competency-based training .......................................................... 58
Contextual learning and assessment ................................................................ 61
Summary .......................................................................................................... 64
1.6 Regulation of pilot training and licensing ........................................................ 66
International regulation ..................................................................................... 66
Australian regulation ......................................................................................... 67
1.7 Pilot Training philosophy and methodologies ................................................. 68
History and international influence .................................................................... 68
Australian model ............................................................................................... 69
Innovations in pilot training ............................................................................... 69
Criticisms of pilot training models ..................................................................... 70
Summary .......................................................................................................... 71
1.8 Rationale for studies ...................................................................................... 73
Chapter Two - Experience, competence or syllabus? Influences on Flight
Hours at Licensing of Commercial Pilots ........................................................... 76
2.1 Flight Training ............................................................................................ 77
Competency-Based Training ............................................................................ 77
Competency-Based Training in Australia .......................................................... 78
Competency-Based Training in Australian Aviation .......................................... 80
2.2 Exploratory Study ....................................................................................... 82
2.3 Results ....................................................................................................... 83
2.4 Discussion .................................................................................................. 87
Regulatory minimum hours ............................................................................... 87
Syllabus requirements ...................................................................................... 88
2.5 Conclusion ................................................................................................. 90
Chapter Three - Flight Hours and Flight Crew Performance in Commercial
Aviation .................................................................................................................. 91
3.1 Introduction ................................................................................................ 92
3.2 Method ....................................................................................................... 97
Subjects ............................................................................................................ 97
iii
Design and Procedure ...................................................................................... 98
Measures .......................................................................................................... 99
Statistical Analysis .......................................................................................... 101
3.3 Results ..................................................................................................... 102
3.4 Discussion ................................................................................................ 105
Chapter Four - Pilot Experience and Performance in an Airline Environment
.............................................................................................................................. 108
4.1 Introduction .............................................................................................. 109
4.2 Literature review ...................................................................................... 112
General Aviation pilots .................................................................................... 112
Airline pilots .................................................................................................... 114
4.3 Methodology ............................................................................................ 117
Data sources .................................................................................................. 117
Design and procedure .................................................................................... 117
Statistical analysis .......................................................................................... 123
4.4 Results ..................................................................................................... 124
Airline A .......................................................................................................... 124
Airline B .......................................................................................................... 128
Airline C .......................................................................................................... 135
4.5 Discussion ................................................................................................ 139
Simulator proficiency check results ................................................................ 140
Line check results ........................................................................................... 143
Limitations ...................................................................................................... 145
4.6 Conclusion ............................................................................................... 147
Chapter Five - Discussion and future directions .............................................. 149
5.1 Issues facing pilot training ........................................................................ 150
Background .................................................................................................... 150
5.2 Summary of findings ................................................................................ 154
Study 1 – Competency-based training ............................................................ 154
Study 2 – Pilot performance in an airline environment ................................... 155
Study 3 – Pilot performance in normal and non-normal operations ................ 156
5.3 Competency-based training ..................................................................... 157
Training and assessment ................................................................................ 157
5.4 Pilot performance ..................................................................................... 161
5.5 Future training .......................................................................................... 164
iv
5.6 Pilot performance in non-normal scenarios .............................................. 168
5.7 Future research ........................................................................................ 169
5.8 Conclusion ............................................................................................... 172
References ........................................................................................................... 173
Appendix 1 Permission from publishers .......................................................... 204
Appendix 2 Author Contribution ........................................................................ 206

v
List of figures

Figure 2.1: Box Plots of Experience at Licence Issue as a function of Flight Training
Organisation ............................................................................................................ 85
Figure 4.1: Performance in proficiency simulator check as a function of entry
pathway ................................................................................................................. 125
Figure 4.2: Performance in simulator proficiency check as a function of flight hours
.............................................................................................................................. 126
Figure 4.3: Performance in line check as a function of entry pathway .................. 127
Figure 4.4: Performance in line check as a function of flight hours ....................... 128
Figure 4.5: Performance in simulator proficiency check manoeuvres as a function of
entry pathway ........................................................................................................ 129
Figure 4.6: Performance in simulator proficiency check as a function of entry
pathway ................................................................................................................. 130
Figure 4.7: Performance in simulator proficiency check manoeuvres as a function of
flight hours............................................................................................................. 131
Figure 4.8: Performance in simulator proficiency check as a function of flight hours
.............................................................................................................................. 132
Figure 4.9: Line check at 5 year mark as a function of entry pathway ................... 133
Figure 4.10: Line check at 5 year mark as a function of flight hours ..................... 134
Figure 4.11: Performance in simulator proficiency check as a function of entry
pathway ................................................................................................................. 135
Figure 4.12: Performance in simulator proficiency check as a function of flight hours
.............................................................................................................................. 136
Figure 4.13: Line check as a function of entry pathway ........................................ 137
Figure 4.14: Line check as a function of flight hours ............................................. 138

vi
List of tables

Table 2.1: Descriptive Summary of Hours at Licence Issue .................................... 83
Table 3.1: Stabilised approach performance (at 500’), autopilot disconnect height,
and TEM performance by experience group ......................................................... 103
Table 3.2: Non-technical skills criteria and performance (mean, SD) by experience
group ..................................................................................................................... 104
Table 4.1: Airline A - Technical (T), Non-technical (N) and required regulatory
manoeuvres (M) .................................................................................................... 122
Table 4.2: Airline B - Technical (T), Non-technical (N) and required regulatory
manoeuvres (M) .................................................................................................... 122
Table 4.3: Airline C - Technical (T), Non-technical (N) and required regulatory
manoeuvres (M) .................................................................................................... 123
Table 4.4: Differences in performance between cadets and direct entry second
officers .................................................................................................................. 124
Table 4.5: Differences in performance between low- and high-hour second officers
.............................................................................................................................. 126
Table 4.6: Differences in performance between low- and high-hour first officers .. 130
Table 4.7: Overview of significant differences in performance across all three
airlines for simulator (S) and line (L) checks as a function of entry pathway (-
indicates not tested) .............................................................................................. 139
Table 4.8: Overview of significant differences in performance across all three
airlines for simulator (S) and line (L) checks as a function of flight hours (- indicates
not tested) ............................................................................................................. 140

vii
Glossary

A330 Airbus A330 aircraft
AF447 Air France Flight 447
AFE Above Field Elevation
AIPA Australian and International Pilots Association
ANOVA Analysis of Variance
ANTA Australian National Training Authority
ATC Air Traffic Control
ATP Air Transport Pilot
ATSB Australian Transport Safety Bureau
ATPL Air Transport Pilot Licence
AVI08 Aviation Training Package
AQF Australian Qualifications Framework
AQTF Australian Quality Training Framework
BASI Bureau of Air Safety Investigation
BEA Bureau d’Enquêtes et d’Analyses pour la sêcuritê de I’aviation civile
BITRE Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics
CAR Civil Aviation Regulation
CASA Civil Aviation Safety Authority
CBT Competency-based Training
CPL Commercial Pilot Licence
CRM Crew Resource Management
DHC-8 Bombardier Dash 8 aircraft
FAA Federal Aviation Administration
FCLTP Flight Crew Licensing and Training Panel
FOQA Flight Operations Quality Assurance
FTO Flight Training Organisation
GA General Aviation
viii
ICAO International Civil Aviation Organization
ILS Instrument Landing System
ILS MAP Instrument Landing System Missed Approach
IMC Instrument Meteorological Conditions
LOFT Line Orientated Flight Training
LOS Line Operational Simulations
LOSA Line Operational Safety Audit
LSD Fisher’s Least Significant Difference
MECIR Multi-Engine Command Instrument Rating
MPL Multi-Crew Pilot Licence
NCVER National Centre for Vocational Education Research
NDM Naturalistic Decision Making
NTF National Training Framework
NTS Non-Technical Skills
NTSB National Transportation Safety Board
PF Pilot Flying
PPL Private Pilot Licence
RPD Recognition-Primed Decision Making
RPT Regular Public Transport
SA Situational Awareness
SARPS Standards and Recommended Practices
S.D. Standard Deviation
SOP Standard Operating Procedure
SPL Student Pilot Licence
TAA Technically Advanced Aircraft
TAFE Technical and Further Education
TEM Threat and Error Management
VET Vocational Education and Training
VFR Visual Flight Rules
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Summary

At just over 100 years old, aviation is relatively new compared to other modes of
transport, and in that time there have been innovations in nearly all aspects of the
industry. Improved aircraft manufacturing materials and techniques, and the
introduction of aviation human factors, have greatly improved the reliability and
safety of air travel. However, save the introduction of simulation and human factors
to the training syllabus, pilot training is still predominately based upon a model from
the Second World War.
In 2006, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) introduced a new type
of pilot licence. The Multi-Crew Pilot Licence (MPL) was designed to enable pilots to
enter an airline directly from the training environment and commence flying
immediately as part of a two-crew operation.
This new licence created much debate within the aviation industry, as it presented a
very different model from the traditional approach, where pilots would accumulate
significant flight hours in general aviation, before gaining entry into a large
passenger jet airline. In particular, some in the aviation industry argued that MPL
pilots would be less safe than their high-hour non-cadet peers. In addition, the
introduction of the MPL relied on competency-based training as a risk mitigator.
Competency based training is “…geared to the attainment and demonstration of
skills to meet industry-specified standards rather than to an individual’s achievement
relative to that of others in a group” (National Centre for Vocational Education
Research, 1999).
The three studies in this thesis were conducted with the overall aim of evaluating the
underpinning principles of the MPL, and test empirically some of the potential
criticisms of this new form of pilot training.
The first study examined Australian Commercial Pilot Licence data for the hours
pilots held at licence issue grouped by flight training organization. The results
showed that the effect of the flight training organization and airline client
requirements appeared to influence the amount of hours commercial pilots obtained
prior to licensing to a greater degree than would be expected in a competency-
based system. Another strong effect on the data appeared to be the hours-based
regulatory requirements that pilots had to meet to in order to hold a licence.
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