More thoughts on the subject:
I worked on a research project where pilots were run through a scenario where the weather at destination deteriorated from CAVU to WOX0F over the 50 miles it took the participants to get there. Updated weather information was presented in the form of visual cues (exterior weather display) and audio cues (aircraft diverts, updated AIRMETS and AWOS/ASOS). Some pilots were quite passive and flew merrily on their way while others were active information seekers who made decisions based on the current weather and traffic status. The behaviors seemed to be linked to training – those who had trained in a rule and authority based (you will behave according to an established flight manual) environment behaved in one way while those who had trained in less formal and structured (and more playful) environments behaved in another. My thought is one group was more sensitive to the physical environment while the other was more sensitive to the social (regulatory) environment, two different elements of SA.
So how are these priorities established?
And how much can you train and how quickly?
There was a section of the Steve Hislop thread where folks were discussing how to train for inadvertent IFR. Some advocated a 180, others to descend and land, while a third group advocated teaching avoidance. It got me thinking how do you train for this type of event? My one inadvertent IFR experience was just after I had departed from an airport on the California shore - I descended back to VFR and all was well. But my decision in this case was much different than it would have been had I been flying over the Sierras, exploring canyons of the desert southwest, or navigating the perma-MVFR we flew in Korea. Which got me thinking, can you train a single strategy for this scenario, or is it better to train awareness and flexibility?
“Slightly off topic - how do you know you've lost SA? What replaces it??”
Good question Shawn, and not off topic. One hazard of losing SA is that you may not be aware that you’ve lost it.