Good Situational Awareness
 

What makes good situational awareness and what are your different ways to use it whilst flying? Is CRM useful for pilots that fly light aircraft and how can you ensure your situational awareness is top level before you fly?

:ok:

Wow Mr.C, I'm impressed with just how many questions you got into a one sentence post there!

Let's start at the end - preparing for good SA. I think that flight preparation is where much SA starts - a good OFP, well marked up chart, anything you may need in flight put immediately to hand, whether that's a protractor, sunglasses, approach plates...

Next is always thinking ahead of the aeroplane, or to put it another way, having a good picture all the time of where you are in your plan. Work to always be routinely cross-checking that you are where you think you are, and make the adjustments to get you back on your plan small and early.

Having done all that, lookout and cockpit checks are fairly obvious and fundamental. Slightly less so is getting any radio calls in as early as possible, and at the same time, monitoring everybody else's so that you are adding that into your mental picture of what everybody else is doing about you.

And a lot of this is good CRM, but so is for-example using your passengers to help with lookout, helping pass you things - or when flying solo, having a good well ordered cockpit with everything to hand, making use of ATC to reduce your workload (perhaps upgrading to a traffic service when flying through congested airspace or marginal visibility). So is making sure you are fit and up to the flight, considering your own fitness, did you get enough sleep last night? make sure you didn't drink much last night also? Have you recently reviewed the charts and POH to keep anything from catching you unawares? This is all CRM, and just as applicable to a solo flight as a big crew.

G

Genghis mentions thinking ahead of the aircraft. Absolutely right.

I would take it a step further. If you are thinking ahead of the aircraft, you then develop the capacity to think outside the aircraft. To me, SA is about understanding the overarching environment, of which you and your aircraft are a small part. SA encompasses the ability to accurately and rapidly assess or even predict the outcome of your actions and those of others. It come with practice, experience, natural aptitude, attitude and mental capacity.

Situational awareness is nothing more than knowing where you are, what you're doing, and what you can do. It's being aware of your relationship to terrain, the closest runway, your fuel status (how much fuel you've got left, or specifically, how much time you've got left), where your charts are, your health, the weather, other traffic and any other aspect that touches on, might impact, or relates to your flight.

One flies into a box canyon. One has plenty of fuel, good airspeed, a load of charts, and one is rested. One feels comfortable. One impacts the hillside. One is not situationally aware.

One overflies a viable runway enroute to a destination, but runs out of fuel before reaching the destination. Situational awareness would have been cognizant of the need to use that runway, of an impending low fuel situation, and of the implications of going too far.

One is going through a divorce, facing termination at work, eating nothing but candy bars and coffee, and working a second job. One undertakes a flight on the weekend at a busy field, in order to relax. Good situational awareness is taking stock of one's personal situation and knowing that with that much stress, the decks are already stacked before ever getting in the airplane. One is staring down a loaded gun. Don't do that.

Being situationally aware is looking at everything around you with a critical eye, and an honest one. Are you up for this flight? It's okay to say no, you're not. If you are, is the airplane? It's okay to find a problem that grounds it. Are your passengers nervous flyers? Do you really want to be looking for traffic while your passenger vomits all over the instrument panel because you elected to fly in the heat of the day, rather than in the morning? Situational awareness.

I hear three other airplanes on the radio. I see one on final. I see one joining the pattern, and there's another one just taking off. That's three. How do I know they're the same ones I hear on the radio, and more importantly, how do I know if there's other traffic operating around me that's not talking, or that I haven't heard? I don't. To maintain situational awareness of that traffic, I'm going to keep track of what I do see, look for what I don't like my life depends on it (it does), and keep scanning like a rubber-neck maniac. Situational awareness is an ongoing process.

If you're situationally aware, you become a part of your environment, rather than simply an observer of it.

Use it from the time you wake up and get ready to fly, to the time you tie the airplane down and walk away.

Not long ago an incident occurred during a landing in which an airplane I flew had a high temperature occur in the engine. In a turbine engine, that can be bad, so we went to the hotel for a few hours while a maintenance crew examined the engine from the inside, using special viewers called boroscopes. After determining that the engine appeared fine, we prepared for a takeoff the next morning, to go to a maintenance facility where a more thorough inspection could be performed.

Knowing that we had the high temp the previous day, we briefed and planned the takeoff with a failure of that engine, and possibly one other, in mind. That is, we had four engines, and we always plan on at least on at least one failure as a normal part of every takeoff briefing, but we discussed the potential for an engine failure, and then that engine, too. We had no problems on the takeoff, but situational awareness is being aware of what's going on and what could go on, given the information you have at hand, and planning accordingly. Situational Awareness, or SA, is taking into account all the information available to you in order to make the most informed decisions. Sometimes, the correct decision is simply to say no, we're not doing it.

SA can be as simple as knowing you have an early flight, and ensuring that you get a good night's rest in preparation for the flight. More can be done for safety in good preparation than can be done on the fly. In other words, it's far better to arrive in a situation prepared, than to hope you're good enough to handle whatever may arise. Some argue that it's better to be lucky than good or visa versa, but it's better to be prepared, than either one.

If you're approaching to land and have your aiming point squarely in your windscreen, not moving, looking steady a rock, then you're aware that you'l arrive at the aiming point if nothing changes. If you find the aiming point rising in your windscreen, you don't need to wait for the VASI or PAPI to change colors to let you know you're going low. You can add a little power, perhaps pitch up a little, and get your sight picture back where you wanted it. This is situational awareness. You're not waiting for a light to blink or change colors or a horn to go off to tell you something; you're monitoring what's happening closely, and correcting for it as you go. You're aware of the situation.

Yes, it is. Very much so.

A recent thread addressed this topic in detail.

http://www.pprune.org/private-flying...pilot-crm.html

A good policy is to be thorough in your preparations and your organization. There's nothing like taking off and realizing that the pitot tube cover is still on the pitot tube, or that your charts are in the back of the airplane, or that you didn't take on enough fuel.

I worked at a remote location where we had to hand-pump our fuel out of barrels. I flew a night mission, and during that mission used the fuel in my tip-tanks. I returned the airplane to the fuel pumps, per standard procedure, and was preparing to fuel, when my more experienced crew-mate suggested we head to the dining hall before it closed. Standard procedure, he said.

When I got back from eating, my airplane was gone. I found this suspicious, because I was responsible for it until it went back under cover, and no more flights were scheduled that night. Plus, all my gear was inside. I found the airplane, not where I left it, and a relatively disgruntled individual nearby who had taken it. He was in a big hurry to do a public relations thing at a nearby base. He departed in the other airplane, but had a problem after takeoff, and returned. Now in even more of a hurry, he grabbed my airplane and departed. Once in the air, he discovered that I hadn't fueled, and I'd flown a 6 hour mission. He tried to use the auxilliary fuel, but found it was gone. Frustrated, he returned and waited for me to get back, to have a go at me.

Can you count the number of errors in situational awareness that the other pilot displayed? A big part of situational awareness (and resource management) is knowing your options in advance, and planning for them. He didn't do a very through preflight of his own aircraft, and certainly didn't check mine before he left. He didn't try to leave earlier, which left him racing to catch up. When he did have a problem, about the only smart thing he did all evening was turn around and land. He took my airplane without checking the fuel. He didn't check the fuel in the main tanks, or the aux tanks. My gear was on the seat, and the airplane was chocked at the fuel farm, a clear indication that it wasn't mission-ready. It was still assigned to me. Lots of warning flags there, but he didn't use any situational awareness.

As it turned out, the last smart act of the day was recognizing his failure to be situationally aware and returning to land the second time. Trying to blame me after the fact only compounded his lack of awareness, and ultimately was one of several acts which lead to damaging his career.

I point this out not to poke at the individual in question, but as an illustration of what not to do; specifically,of someone who wasn't being situationally aware. You don't need to look far to find scores of mishap reports detailing failures to maintain SA. They're everywhere.

Show up rested and ready. Show up in the right frame of mind. You asked about being in top form, and you can't do that if you're preoccupied with other things.

A great mind who mentored me a long time ago once told me that the airplane must be more important to me than my politics, my family, my church, or anything else I might hold dear. At the time I took offense, and said that nothing came before my family and my beliefs. Then he put it in perspective by noting that if I didn't take the flight more seriously than all else, I might not survive to return to all else. If I get myself killed on a flight, I can't do much for my family. I can't go to church. I can't pay taxes. I can't feed the dog. I can't do anything, because I'm dead. Therefore, the flight becomes the most important thing in the world until the airplane is chocked and put away. I don't think about marriage, about bills, about anything else, when I'm engaged in a flight operation. It mandates all my focus.

How to be in top form to be situationally aware on any given day? Devote all your energies to the flight, and make it a priority. Mental preparedness is one of the single most important parts to staying ahead of the game. Emotional preparedness, too. Physical preparedness, in terms of your health, your rest, your diet (not a good time to get hypoglycemic on a flight, because you haven't been eating, for example). Physical preparedness in terms of your charts, your weight and balance, your performance calculations, your flight plan, your fuel order, your preflight, and so on. Informational preparedness in terms of weather, alternates (think about them even on a good, VFR day. Always have options). It's much easier to maintain good SA when you come prepared.

Fly safe.

By far the best tool for situational awareness is a GPS with a big screen (not 4") running the real VFR chart (not some Garmin/Jepp representation).

Listen to ATC and build up a picture of where other traffic is in relation to you and whether it will be a factor, especially in the circuit, there have been a lot of mid-airs over the years in circuit patterns and at least one aircraft landing on top of another (Cranfield late '80's?) where one pilot strictly followed procedures and found another aircraft just where they didn't expect it.

And having re-read SNS3's post, there is an awful lot of good advice in there. I would add, fly defensively, expect the weather to be wrong and have a back up, expect someone to burst his tyres on the runway you are going to and have another in your plan, expect everyone else to not be thinking as you do so allow for them making the mistakes that your awareness will stop you from making.

SND

Moving maps are useful tools, but still a crutch. The best tool by far for situational awareness is between one's ears.

Situational awareness is not just about navigation.
Nor is it just about a traffic picture.
Nor is it just about weather.

It is about all those, and much more, including (but not limited to) the aircraft type and condition, and its abilities.
The pilots' condition and abilities on the day, in the aircraft concerned.
The airspace and terrain along and nearby the proposed flight area.
And even the state of mind/emotions of the other occupants of the aircraft.

With experience comes a sort of "what if?" thinking, which forms a background - but not obsessive - notional thinking that strongly suggests to the pilot (or controller, in my own case) that a plan "b" should be readily to hand for any given situation that is likely, or reasonably possible. For the likely ones, you should be able to cobble together a workable plan "c" at short notice, too. Which requires a certain awareness or perception about things that might not be so evident.

SNS3Guppy,

Your post (your first reply on this thread) is one of the best posts I've read on PPRuNe for a while. I might print it out to show to students if you don't mind!

FFF
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Quote:
By far the best tool for situational awareness is a GPS with a big screen (not 4") running the real VFR chart (not some Garmin/Jepp representation).

I would slightly amend this statement by changing, "by far the best tool" to "an extremely useful tool". As SNSG states, "the best tool is between one's ears".

Lots of other good stuff from Ghengis, Cows, Tarq etc.

BJ

No problem, but bear in mind that it's just one guy's observations.

SNS3;

They may be one person's observations, but they basically add up to the much derided single pilot CRM in one posting.

Well Done

SND:D

Black Jake - I think you will find that anybody getting as far as starting up a web browser has already got a brain :)

Situational awareness, in flying, mostly means knowing where one is.

It is no use posting that one needs a brain also; that is just a waste or bandwidth.

And the best way to know where one is, laterally, is a moving map GPS.

The reason I bang on about this is because large chunks of the GA community still have not got that far and are fumbling and stumbling with their stopwatches and not doing what they originally learnt to fly for which is to enjoy flying.

There is a substantial body of individuals in GA who just keep banging on about how hard everything should be, how one should be tense, how one should expect the plane to blow up any second, etc. It's a good job they are not writing the regs. I wish this was Usenet because then I could stick them into a killfile and be done with them.

IO540, I think you're missing a bit of the point.

I'm not quite sure if IO540 misses the point entirely.

As almost everybody here said, SA is being aware of all the factors in the environment around you, and in the plane, and have an awareness on how they're going to affect your flight.

Aviate, Navigate, Communicate is only the start in summing up what's involved.

Our brains unfortunately have limited processing power, get distracted easily, are not good at prioritizing under stress and so forth. And anytime we overload our brain, situational awareness suffers.

So if you can offload certain functions to something, or somebody else, the chances of brain overload become smaller and smaller, leaving you more time and capacity to deal with, for instance, interpreting radio calls of other aircraft. Or to think ahead about fuel status vs. alternates. Or do the 1000s of other little things that a flight requires.

Out of the Aviate, Navigate, Communicate mantra, navigation is the task that is arguably the most involved, and the task that is hardest to do on the mental autopilot. I mean, monitoring airspeed, bank angle and altitude, and listening to the radio until somebody calls out your callsign are things we can eventually do subconsciously, not? But looking for a specific landmark, timing a leg, fiddling with the knobs to tune a navaid and so forth is not something you can do subconsciously.

So by reducing the effort that navigation takes, your mental capacity to deal with other factors in the environment will increase. And that may greatly enhance your situational awareness. (Unless you apply that mental capacity to something else of course - making a phonecall, listening to music, conversing with passengers, taking pictures or even playing with the GPS.)

So, yes, in that respect a big and advanced GPS, with terrain alerts, weather radar and other bells and whistles can indeed greatly increase SA.

Nav kit plays a part - and the modern moving map GPS is a useful tool to help with that, but it does little to assist with knowing what everybody is doing, what the weather's doing (in the UK anyhow, some models will do that for you in the USA), how the aeroplane is chugging along, how the other people in the aeroplane are behaving, what the next altimeter pressure setting or radio frequency needs to be...

I use a moving map GPS for certain tasks (particularly flight testing where I want to free up a lot of mental capacity for other jobs, another is reliably finding small grass strips I've not been to before, a further is allowing me to manoeuvre around the edge of danger areas with small and thus timesaving margins) and it's very useful in assisting my SA. But as others have said it is just one of multiple inputs into the pilots trained brain (an untrained brain is of little use - doubt this?, try asking a passenger who hasn't flown before, 20 minutes into a flight, where you are and where any other aeroplane is). And it is in danger of encouraging over-reliance on a single data source, which is seldom healthy.


Anyhow, we couldn't have a thread with any navigational content on Private Flying without IO540 banging on about the superiority of GPS, and the utter redundancy of all other navigational methods - we'd all get suspicious and lonely without it.

G

SA starts before you get in the damn airplane. Yet another set of cowlings & assorted panels blown off the racks & scattered in the hangar by a throttleknob jockey starting-up just outside the hangar testifies to that.

He has received the bill.

which is true

where did I say that?

What gets me is pontificating about what is basically (in CAA-speak) basic good airmanship or (in my speak) being a basically smart pilot.

"Single pilot CRM" :yuk:

Calling the getting of tafs and metars "situational awareness" or "single pilot CRM" is just perverse.

Situational awareness for light aircraft starts by looking out the window. Sounds facile but it is not, because to keep a good look out so you always know what attitude the aircraft is in, have the traffic spotted and know the land features you are seeing....you have to the aircraft in trim, navigation sorted and efficient engine management/checklist use.

When doing checkouts I find the overall competence of the pilot is heavily correlated to the head in vs head out time. Si if you are flying along and realize that it has been a while since you paid attention to what was happening in the windscreen that is a clue that you need to reestablish your SA right away.

SA
 

I used to fly with a guy, brand new $750k, glass cockpit, full Avidyne, full the lot. Zero ability, zero SA. It was a truly remarkable experience 'flying'with him. Analysis showed that he was actually scared, not only of the machine, but the superb avionics, the experience.The aircraft is 3 years old, and has TT of 90 hrs.

He was obsessed with where he was, his 'situational awareness',as he used to preach to me, and used to sit with the maps on his knee, with more information in front of him than the average 747-400 driver.

He never knew where he was, despite the moving maps, the information overload. He also used to argue with me,in flight, that I paid little attention to where I was, never realising that at every momentt, every second, I knew exactly where I was, and of his limitations. We do not fly together anymore, after he panicked in heavy IMC, gave the craft to me, and I flew it on instruments, from the right seat, with all the 'glass dials'on his side. A sobering moment. Never happened again.

My point, even with the highest levels of GPS moving maps, autopilots, glass cockpits et al, UNLESS, as previously posted, excellently, in some cases, SN3GUPPY, SA, is all surrounding, all consuming. Every aspect of he flight.