Originally Posted by peekay4
In his official statement to the NTSB, the Co-pilot PF stated that during the accident landing he used the PAPI as his "primary reference" and he was "working the PAPI" down to the "25-30 foot range", when the Captain took over.
The Captain on the other hand said that she referenced the HUD, that she "loved the HUD" and considered herself a "HUD cripple" (dependent on the HUD). She stated that at lower altitudes the HUD would be in "instrument mode". And just before landing she would still "look through the HUD" though not necessarily reading the numbers on the HUD.
Hi peekay4 … and I say again “I would suspect that there
aren’t many pilots who devote much, if any, specific attention to the VASI light indications, particularly after crossing the threshold.” I would wonder if the instructor who trained this pilot was ever aware of his tendencies to “rivet” his attention to one particular reference … apparently to the exclusion of all the others that
should remain an active part of his scan? And, based on her comment, I think there is at least a possibility that the Captain had tendencies along the same lines. Too me, this “wrong-headed attention riveting” is characteristic of those who learn a particular “habit pattern” while training in a simulator, where whatever the characteristic happens to be (and sometimes it is a contrived sequence or procedure – essentially a “cheat sheet”), it also tends to produce a reasonable result – in the simulator - but, in the airplane, it could lead to a less than satisfactory result!
It is the instructor’s job to be aware of any such developing tendencies and STOP them before they become HABIT. We want pilots to fly their simulators the way they fly (or the way we want them to fly) their airplanes … and this won't happen by allowing the pilot to flail about in a simulator, determining what works and what doesn't work "for him/her" outside of DIRECT instructor involvement and
understanding. To do this, we have to ensure that during initial, and ALL follow-on, simulator training, the INSTRUCTOR will step in and ensure that the student does not make these kinds of incorrect assumptions or incorrectly rivet his/her attention on something that could easily lead that pilot astray when piloting the
real airplane. This is not an easy task - instructing is not easy - and not every pilot (even every
good pilot) will make a good instructor!
I don’t have a particular problem with the Captain’s statement that “before landing she would still look through the HUD, though not necessarily reading the numbers on the HUD.” A HUD system was developed so that the pilot could do precisely that – “look through the HUD” and see what would normally be seen when looking through the front windscreen. Again, it should have been an instructor’s responsibility to ensure that this pilot was not developing a “crutch” that works in the simulator but could (and perhaps
DID??) become a problem if used in the airplane. I don't have any information about any other problems or any other history that this particular Captain may or may not have had ... I'm limiting my comments to this particular statement.
VASI lights were never intended to be, and are not an acceptable source of, glide path indication all the way to touchdown. This "approach aid" was merely intended to provide a night time visual reference to a pilot to help orient him/her with a visible, when visibility allows, and if it does, a vertically acceptable approach path to the runway. While I wasn’t standing next to those who developed the system when they were making the final adjustments to their product, I can imagine they well knew that if a pilot was going to make a vertical error, they would have preferred that pilot to be “too high” rather than “too low” during the approach. I would also expect that these folks were also well aware of the fact that their product was NOT able, and they did not build it to be interpreted as able, to provide "electronic instrument accuracy" for glide path indications all the way to touchdown.
As you can probably tell, my focus is
instructors – as I fervently believe it is the instructor’s proper use of proper training tools – and the best and most complete tool available today is the flight simulator – that will ensure that the student learns what is necessary for that pilot to competently and safely operate the airplane for which that pilot is in training to learn to fly. I have come to learn that far too many instructors have allowed the simulator to teach their students, instead of that instructor, himself or herself, teaching those students to accurately and competently fly the airplane, using the simulator as a tool to accomplish that end.