Human Factors: Enhancing Pilot Performance

Today’s aviation industry enjoys a remarkable safety record, primarily because it has learned from the mistakes of its past. Through the study of aviation accidents, most of the risks of flying have been identified and the threats they pose to safety can be managed. However, aircraft accidents, such as controlled flight into terrain, loss of control, runway excursions and incursions, and midair collisions still occur, and the hazards of flight remain.

Some accidents happen due to mechanical failure, improper maintenance, or hazardous weather—but the vast majority are caused by pilot action (or inaction). Pilots can commit errors and make decisions that lead to tragic outcomes. Most accidents are not intentional; inadvertent errors made by flight crews arise from normal human physiological, psychological, and psychosocial limitations.

Drawing upon the latest scientific research, aviation safety studies, and accident findings, Human Factors: Enhancing Pilot Performance thoroughly explores the nature of these human limitations and how they affect flight. Most importantly, this book provides best practice countermeasures designed to help pilots minimize their influence on flight performance.

Whether you are a fair-weather private pilot, a new-hire first officer at a regional airline, or a seasoned pilot with thousands of hours under your belt, Human Factors will help you understand why pilots make mistakes and arm you with the knowledge to successfully identify, avoid, and mitigate them.

Textbook Features:

• Designed for use as a primary textbook for courses covering the physiological and/or psychological aspects of flight crew performance
• Focuses on the practical application of human factors, primarily written for, and addressing the practical needs of, pilots
• Thorough coverage of the physiological, psychological and psychosocial factors that affect pilot performance
• Abundant examples of how these factors contribute to accidents and incidents
• Suggested best-practice countermeasures pilots can adopt to overcome or manage specific human factor limitations to pilot performance
• Extensive references and helpful resources for each topic
• Several appendices including CICTT’s Aviation Occurrence Categories, Glossary and Abbreviations/Acronyms,
• Over 150 color illustrations
• Aircraft Accident index with more than 130 entries
• FREE additional resources available for instructors who adopt Human Factors into their course curriculum
• Reviewed by experts in aerospace physiology, aviation medicine, experimental psychology, cognitive psychology, advanced flight deck design, pilot human factors education, and by experienced airline pilots representing several different airlines in the United States and Canada.
• Foreword by Jay Hopkins, veteran writer of the Human Factors column for Flying magazine

Dale Wilson, M.S., is Professor of Aviation at Central Washington University in Ellensburg, Washington, where he teaches courses in flight crew physiology and psychology, threat and error management, aviation safety management, and aviation weather. He holds a Master’s degree in Aviation Safety from the University of Central Missouri and a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from Trinity Western University in British Columbia, Canada. He has held several professional pilot certifications, including: Airline Transport Pilot, Certified Flight Instructor, Advanced Ground Instructor, and Instrument Ground Instructor from the Federal Aviation Administration; Master Flight and Ground Instructor from the National Association of Flight Instructors; and Airline Transport Pilot License and Class I Flight Instructor from Transport Canada. He has been a pilot for more than 30 years and has logged several thousand hours in single- and multi-engine airplanes in the U.S. and Canada. He has also served as an Aviation Safety Counselor and as an FAA Safety Team representative for the Spokane Flight Standards District Office. His primary research interests include visual limitations of flight, pilot decision-making, and VFR flight into instrument meteorological conditions. He has published more than a dozen articles in scholarly journals and professional aviation magazines, and has given numerous safety-related presentations to pilots at conferences and seminars in the U.S. and Canada.