Instrument Flight
The Human Factors In Instrument Flying
I
by Michael J. “Mick” Kaufman recently watched a video presentation by AOPA on the “Impossible Turn,” and it brought back some memories of the movie I had seen a number of years ago, “SULLY,” starring Tom Hanks as Captain Chesley Burnett “Sully” Sullenberger III. Most pilots and aviation enthusiasts have seen the Michael Kaufman movie, which is based on the 2009 ditching of U.S. Airways Flight 1549 in the Hudson River off Manhattan after both engines were disabled by a bird strike (i.e. Miracle on the Hudson). One of the things both the video and the motion picture emphasized was “human factors,” which is the focus of this column. Today, we have so much information at our disposal in the cockpit with state-of-the-art avionics that we have “brain overload.” As an instrument flight instructor, I watch instrument pilots push buttons, twist knobs, and configure different views on their touch screens, and when I ask them what they are looking for, they can’t tell me! I can hand-fly a precision approach (ILS) in my airplane using what is referred to as a “sixpack” with no flight director, HSI or moving map better than they can, and probably equal to what their autopilot can do. “How can this be?” pilots
ask. “I just spent 50K on these new avionics and you did that using a King KX-175, designed and built in the 1970s?” There is a factor of too much information and brain overload which is a human factor. I am not trying to discourage or pooh-pooh that new technology as I am a geek for new advances and love to fly this equipment myself. It is the instrument pilot of today that we have created who has become “A Child of The Magenta” (the subject of one of my previous columns). In four days, I will start training a new instrument pilot in a 10-day course. This will be my first full instrument student in over a year due to the pandemic, and I am very excited! I picked up my syllabus that I have used for over a decade and saw that little has changed in the way an airplane flies: “The Wing Is The Thing, And If You Don’t Understand It, It Will KILL YOU!” We still use the same basic concepts as far as the instruments are concerned, but they may be displayed on a glass screen and driven by an attitude and heading reference system (AHRS), instead of a vacuum pump. I still teach attitude instrument flying, pitch + power + configuration = performance, and instrument scan. Navigation and approaches will still be taught using the VOR, however I have elected not to teach automatic direction finder (ADF) approaches, unless there is one in the airplane, and we have some time to do so. As training progresses, we will teach GPS and the buttonology that goes with those new boxes, if there is one in the airplane (and there usually is). And finally, we will hopefully – weather permitting – be able
Read previous issues of Midwest Flyer Magazine or specific articles, at www.midwestflyer.com - Archives
10 AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2021 MIDWEST FLYER MAGAZINE
