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You knew it was only a matter of time...
Article from Forbes.com, 27May13
Would You Fly On An Airliner With Just One Pilot? A big new European research programme has begun to look at the possibility of a single-pilot flight deck for commercial operations. The project is called ACROSS (‘Advanced Cockpit for Reduction of StreSs and workload’). Funded by the European Commission and others to the tune of €30 million, it brings together a consortium of 35 industry and research partners, including heavy hitters like Thales, Airbus and Boeing. It is a response to two apparently contradictory pressures. On the one hand, crew performance is a major limitation in air transport safety. In other words, pilot error causes a lot of crashes. On the other hand, airlines would like to reduce pilot costs. For example, instead of sending four pilots on a long-haul flight, they could send just two; one flying and one ‘in reserve’. The traditional answer to pilot error has been to have two pilots monitoring one another according to agreed standard operating procedures and crew resource management techniques. The ACROSS project is looking to replace the second pilot (at least temporarily) with automated systems. In particular, it will investigate advanced avionics to allow pilots to cope with peak workloads and deal with crew incapacitation. It’s a common joke among pilots that 99% of the time they’re massively overpaid. The job is easy and routine, especially with today’s highly automated cockpits. But 1% of the time, you can’t pay them enough because of an emergency, bad weather or other critical situation. This is where it really helps to have two pilots and so these are the areas where Across needs to deliver. In the first instance, the project is looking at allowing single pilot operation to give crew members a chance to rest or to help a single remaining pilot land the plane in case her co-pilot is incapacitated. Beyond that, the roadmap is clearly towards single-pilot operations. As a private pilot operating non-commercial flights, I fly single-pilot all the time. I’m based near London so busy airspace is the norm for me and I regularly fly into Amsterdam Schiphol, which is a very high workload airport. But I don’t have to do it at night or in bad weather if I don’t want to. And I do it at my own risk. However, when I’m not in the pilot’s seat, my personal preference would be for two very well-trained crew members but I’d also like them to have the latest and best avionics. There’s no doubt that TCAS and TAWS (two recent avionics innovations) have reduced the number of mid-air collisions and avoidable crashes over the last two decades. What if we can achieve the same improve again with better avionics? So I welcome this initiative. But is the travelling public ready for single pilot commercial operations? How would you react if you knew your plane had a super-advanced autopilot and the very latest safety systems but just one pilot? What if the ticket price was cheaper? |
Good questions.
I think that the answer is "not yet" not "never." |
Or how about no pilots ? (Not yet, not never)
Pilotless Flight Trial in UK Shared Airspace Successful ''Pilotless'' Flight Trial |
As a private pilot operating non-commercial flights Typical journo article - this sort of thing is decades away - far too many variables and there is the big issue of whether passengers would be happy with only one pilot up the sharp end. I suppose the only bonus is that the media would still be able to bandy about the term "pilot error" in the event of an accident. |
this sort of thing is decades away Embraer reveals vision for single pilot airliners |
A single pilot airliner doing a circling approach for a runway on an island surrounded by terrain with questionable ATC on a dark and dirty night.....yeah good luck with that.
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Regrettably it is all about statistics. It has long been established that there is an 'acceptable' level of loss of life in the transportation world, and I assume that as long as the systems can produce a level of loss of life below that bar with one or no 'pilots', it will happen some day. When the crash does happen, the outrage of posters on aviation forums and the media will be a torrent, but eventually the flood will subside and it will become 'history'.
Mind you, reading some of the aviation incident/accident reports of late, I wonder if we are actually better off with 'flesh' in the cockpit:sad: |
A great many airlines run successful P2F schemes, utilising the ,up until recently, un-tapped right seat in the flight deck. So apart filling column inches, the journalists seem to be 10 years behind the game.
Infact if I were a P2F airline, I would be asking to increase the number of seats in the flight deck, thus increasing my revenue possibilities with more than one P2F candidate per flight. With FBW and a little joystick, this would be quite easy to achieve technically and lower seat prices for the SLF. :eek: |
When Toyota can build a car that will never need a 'Recall', when BEKO can build a washing Machine that doesn't catch fire, when Microsoft can make a computer that doesn't crash and when Tom-Tom can make a GPS that doesn't send you down non-existent roads....maybe then I'd think about getting on a single crew long-haul airliner. In other words, never.
For goodness' sake, we can't even invent a toaster that can do 2 slices of bread with equal browning on both sides! |
For goodness' sake, we can't even invent a toaster that can do 2 slices of bread with equal browning on both sides! http://objectwiki.sciencemuseum.org....ds_toaster.jpg Worth noting that these were purely electro-mechanical (bi-metallic strip timer ensuring a succession of consistently toasted slices). Not a trace of fly-by-wire, maybe there's a lesson to be learnt there. :O |
Like it or not it has to be said that a large proportion of accidents involve humans making the wrong decision, or no decision at all (Bali anyone?)
Similarly systems make errors (often due to an incorrect set of assumptions) the question is at what point do additional systems reduce the error & risk below that of the current two pilot operation? Given the steady advances in computing power it will definitely happen one day and we will look back on the idea that the 'plane had the OPTION of descending below decision altitude with no runway visible with absolute disbelief I was never a great supporter of the idea of three pilots or two pilots and an FE were absolutely necessary but I certainly was very worried about ETOPS in twins Technology moves the goal posts I'm afraid and we'd better realise it and start planning - |
Single pilot uh?
Can the hi-tech prevent a heart attack? no, so 2 pilots seems to be the minimum...just in case. What about no pilots at all? who´s gonna be blamed in case of an accident.... Keep calm guys....thing will be the same in the future.....oh wait...just lower salaries. |
As I said, the Right Seat of an Airliner is the biggest revenue generator of all the seats onboard. Why would you remove it? youngsters are paying €30,000 to sit in it, therefore it is revenue positive at €33.33 euros an hour. (if 900 hours are flown and there is never ending number of candidates). Rather than a cost to the business if a qualified co-pilot is employed, with taxes and social security costs, only if this was mandatory would there be a requirement to engineer the aeroplane fir single pilot operations.
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The title of the article is a bit misleading. What will happen sooner than later I was told is allowing one pilot to do the cruise,while the other is resting on long haul flights, thus eliminating the need to carry reserve crews .
Once technology is mature to do this, you can guess where that will lead. On the other hand having heard Capt Richard de Crespigny account of the QF A380 emergency dealing in SIN 3 years ago, I am glad they were so many in the cockpit then. |
Two pilots are a good idea for take off and landing
At all other times they are just trying to keep each other from falling asleep and not always successfully. |
The airbus mentality was always that the pilots should let the autopilot 'take the strain' whenever possible. As the computers took all votes from flying surfaces to the pilot input and then democratically (in a French way) allocated the control surfaces, in whatever magical way it did, to what the computers considered best the A/P is considered king.
Now picture a dark :mad: night approach into Berlin. We elected to keep the A/P in for the approach as it would 'aid SA' in good trainers parlance. So, imagine our surprise when the A/P flew through a squall line (no option, the line was over 150 miles long), rolled to 65 degrees AOB and automatically activated the A/P disconnect as we rapidly passed various limits! Luckily we were already in the process of overriding the A/P as it rapidly rolled past 45 degrees so the disconnect was inevitable. Now take away the second pair of eyes or even the first pair of eyes and allow the software engineers to dictate what is or isn't acceptable. Frightening. Remember, with protections Airbus shouldn't exceed 30 AOB. I'm approaching the end of my flying career and I don't envy those who take what was once a profession forward as a 'job'. Personally I won't be getting on an aircraft with <2 pilots (even if the child of the magenta line in the RHS has paid more for their seat than I have for mine! :E:{) |
I thought single pilot ops into Schiphol were not allowed. I have done it myself back in the 80's and after the fact with a review of the rules and regs seemed to remember either I shouldn't have or would not be able to in the future.
It was some time ago so the above might be :mad:. |
And thats why you always need 2!
God, on I night LCA I'm lucky if I can stay awake in the descent, let alone the cruise. A single pilot would need one of those bits of kit that sense if you are nodding of in your car, except connect to 240v. I'm sure this idea will appeal to certain segments of the LoCo management:mad: |
quote :
I thought single pilot ops into Schiphol were not allowed. maybe things changed recently, but looking at their AIP on line , I see VFR are still allowed and no mention of single pilots ops, not even in IFR. check here : EHAM |
Three's a crowd?
Heathrow Harry, "Quote:- "I was never a great supporter of the idea of three pilots or two pilots and an FE were absolutely necessary ...."
Absolutely correct, one Pilot and one Flight Engineer was sufficient. ;) Standing by! |
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