Are You the Ultimate Airline Pilot?

[Milt]

The Ultimate Average Airline Captain

I doubt whether the ultimate average airline Captain has ever been specified in any detail.

Initially, I and my compatriot test pilots have done our best to influence the design of your aircraft flight decks and controls to accord with the currently defined "standard man". Then TPs have demanded that the control characteristics of aircraft be designed and made as close as possible to specifications refined over evolutionary stages of development and much experience to produce the highest level of safety and ease of handling by the least skilfull pilots in your profession. Generally we TPs have assumed from opportunistic feedback whether we have produced the most satisfactory results.

Meanwhile training systems have evolved and become generally selective of those to be trained potentially as aircraft captains.

So this is to invite you professional airline pilots to contribute and describe your best and worst aviation and personal attributes which may be assembled into a specification of the Ultimate Average Airline Captain. Average needs be the level to select as you cannot all be perfect.

I''ll do my best to progressively refine your inputs which may well have a significant influence on future aircraft designs and pilot selection.

[GlueBall]

Pilot seats with built-in back massage, just as in seats in First and Business class cabins.

Dual, spaced, interlocked armored cockpit doors, with in flight logic that prevents both doors from being unlocked simultaneously.

Crew Lavatory inside armored cockpit bulkhead area.

CCTV cams outside and in between armored cockpit doors.

Improved, separate environmental controls for captain and copilot, with emphasis on chilled conditioned air flow when on the ground in hot tropical climates. :{

Improved cockpit in flight humidifiers.

[alf5071h]

Milt, this is a near impossible task - to define the ‘average’ pilot.
Even if an ‘average’ pilot could be defined then what is this average relative to; is the average pilot the same in every airline, or an individual the same everyday or in every situation?

For an aircraft, much of this variability can be specified or covered by probabilities; engineers can determine where or when structures will break, which modes of failure the systems might suffer, etc, etc.
For the human no such specification exists and I doubt that one can be written.
The nearest that we might come to in achieving this, is to write down all of the assumptions that the industry makes about pilots, from the little things such as seeing (and understanding) a mode change, to those really important items such as flaring the aircraft near the ground. Then we still have to evaluate these assumptions across ‘a realistic range’ of human behaviors and operational situations which might result in an unmanageable number of combinations.

The regulatory industry has attempted to update the human factors aspects of certification with extensive new guidance in CS (AMC) 25.1302. However, this data resulting (in part) from the findings of the 1996 FAA report is unlikely (IMHO) to be applied to existing aircraft in any meaningful way. By the time that any regulatory action might show benefit for new types, the social norms and commercial pressures on the industry are likely to have changed the human behavioral patterns that were assumed in the design and certification; it’s like trying to hit a moving target.
The best that we might hope for is to bound the problem of human variability with firm rules, list the assumptions so that they might be incorporated in operating procedures and trained, and enforce adherence to all of these (rules, SOPs, and assumptions).

Perfect safety might require accommodation of the lowest performance of the below average pilot (or even an above average one on a bad day); this is not practicable, thus the compromise must accept some risk. It is the management of the risk that defines the resultant level of safety.
So how can tps help manage these operational risks? This is not easy, but active involvement with the operators and good council from training Captains will aid certification judgement, but the result is still only as good as the experience and knowledge on which the judgement is based.
And what happens if the test, certification, or regulatory teams are not having an average day?

Ref: well worth reading by the ‘average’ pilot - EASA Rule CS25 Amendment 3. (www.easa.eu.int/ws_prod/g/rg_certspecs.php) see:-
AMC 1302 “Installed Systems and Equipment for Use by the Flight Crew” on page 446,
AMC 1309 “System Design and Analysis” page 481,
AC11 “Electronic Display Systems” page 583.

[Pugilistic Animus]

Also remember, the test pilot becomes the 'average' pilot when he's surprised

that's why during V1 cut testing they add one second for stopping action to be completed---the TP knows that the engine will fail and when--so he ready with the stopping actions---surprise is the element that turn all pilots average as well ---surprise maybe the factor that also turns the 'average' pilots into aces [UA 232 with Al Haynes and D. Fitch] or the air Transat A330, or the B 767 Gimli glider, or the recent BA038 777 crash--

so, we are all average at times and we can all be aces it all depends on the state endocrine/nervous system :} --

[john_tullamarine]

Interestingly, though, the majority of TPs with whom I have flown have been

(a) well above average in manipulative skills

(b) apparently less subject to the startle factor than mere mortals, such as me .. perhaps a consequence of aspects of a full length formal TP course and/or typical TP military background ?

For instance, I can recall one set of trials on a Type with which I was quite familiar .. mate Bloggs, TP, jumps in to do the formal assessment work .. on a dreadful day .. for his first flight on Type ... and flies better than I could ever do on a good day. Then, again, perhaps that was just a reflection of my comparatively lower manipulative skillset ?

.. and, I guess for me, the quintessential startle control response was Jack Swigert's "Okay, Houston, we've had a problem here ..." .. talk about Joe Cool.

Now, can I suggest that, somehow, we get Milt all laid back, relaxed, and talkative ... judging from his technical entertainment value over dinner .. he can relate a number of quite "interesting" stories from his long TP career ... in that very quiet and unassuming style that is characteristic of many such folk ...

[error_401]

Hmm - and what about the average First Officer?

;)

Maybe the average lies with flight experience and hours?
Simply take 500 pilots with the average hours (might be around 7'500 for captains and 3'000 for F/O. How about that?

Then let the statisticians do their magic figuring how many need to be taken and from which places to give the right mix.

It's about the same as coming up with the right blend of coffee...

...ending up with the fact that in the end of the day everybody thinks he is special. So the question might never work.?

:E

And maybe a constructive idea: Take an ab-initio pilot from Europe (around 200 hours total time) put him into a "good" type rating and go flying with him. Then you might see if the ideas developed work.