Isn’t it ironic, don’t you think

Thirty-five years ago a paper was presented at a conference, titled Ironies of Automation, by Lisanne Bainbridge. It included many insightful ideas: The designer’s view of the human operator may be that the operator is unreliable and inefficient… so should be eliminated from the system. There are two ironies of this attitude. One is that designer errors can be a major source of operating problems… The second irony is that the designer who tries to eliminate the operator still leaves the operator to do the tasks which the designer cannot think how to automate…it means that the operator can be … Continue reading Isn’t it ironic, don’t you think

With the automagic off, are you confident?

With autopilot, autothrottles, flight directors, GPS off — are you practised enough?  Really ready?  Comfortable? Many experts aren’t sure we are. The accident data is worrying. One test-pilot and astronaut with 60-years of flying experience has spoken out about the adverse side effects of automation. He’s noted that Apollo astronauts practised every procedure with and without automation. “We felt comfortable in our spacecraft, capable of flying them when the automatics failed and confident of returning home. This preparation paid dividends for Apollo 13.” “Pilots must be confident operating automated aircraft and capable to defer to their hands-on flying skills” Jim Lovell … Continue reading With the automagic off, are you confident?

Active Monitoring

How do we monitor autopilots better? How do we stop just sitting and sorta watching the magic show? A major US airline training slide says ‘Active Monitoring’ works by:   Visualizing the outcome. Acting to achieve the desired result. & Comparing expectations to reality.   Look FOR something, not just AT something.   I think they’re on to something. Monitoring has to be active, not passive enjoying the clever automation. What do you think of this? SaveSave SaveSave SaveSave

Fighting complacency

Fighting complacency is not as exciting as fighting fires, but it’s a battle we will join many more times. We train for engine failures, electrical loss, and lots more. And we should practice multiple worst case failures. But we must also learn to handle ourselves on all those flights when nothing is going on. (Quote is from Coelho’s 2008 novel The Winner Stands Alone.)