Fear of Flying a whole new meaning in the cockpit
 

For a long time now, there have been numerous Pprune discussions on the subject of automation dependency or automation addiction and its effect on hand flying skills. There is no shortage of research material that indicates in todays automated aircraft, degraded instrument hand flying skills is a top agenda with flight safety authorities,. So much so, the FAA last year issued a Safety Alert for Operators (SAFO) - the purpose of which was to encourage operators to promote manual flight operations when appropriate.

Further study of Pprune reader's responses to the subject of hand flying practice, whether in flight or in a simulator, has opened up a whole new scare (for want of a more descriptive word) that the perceived increase in work-load suffered by the non-flying pilot or PM, when the other pilot is hand flying, is so great as to be counter productive.

In other words, the ability or otherwise for the PNF to be able to watch what is going on (situational awareness is the buzz-word I believe) while the other pilot flies by hand, becomes the deciding criteria whether hand flying places the conduct of the flight at risk. I wonder if this is a generational thing where in the past 20 years there has been a very significant increase in human factors (CRM, TEM etc) accent in the airline industry. In particular the ever increasing sophistication and reliability of automation.

Are we jumping at shadows when a pilot who decides to keep his hand in with manual flying at an appropriate time in the flight, has to first weigh up the perceived risk of his PNF reaching a dangerous level of "over-loading" caused by having to watch that the other pilot doesn't stuff up in the eyes of the PNF, while practicing hand flying.

Is one of the more unexpected consequences of automation dependency a syndrome where the PNF is out of his automation comfort zone and anything that is out of the ordinary (the other chap actually hand flying) increases his heart rate (:E) to the extent he is unable to differentiate between normal professional skills once expected of a crew and a fear of "work-overload"

We see on Pprune, frequent complaints that the so called work load of the PNF increases so significantly if the other pilot disengages the automatics - be it the autopilot or merely a flight director, that the PNF feels unable to adequately cope. It is sometimes claimed that watching the pilot hand fly results in a reduction of situational awareness by the PNF. He is so worried about the pilot hand flying, that he (the PNF) is in danger of losing track of what is happening around him. Yet the EFIS MAP mode is supposed to lead to increased situational awareness and the PNF will have that in front of him.

We all have a personal views based largely on our experience in hand flying. Some enjoy hand flying while others avoid it. With the proliferation of cadets brought up largely on full use of automation at all times, it seems to me these pilots are exposed to so much automation that the very thought of having to hand fly fills them with apprehension. Is it any wonder that, if the other crew member switches off the automatics to get hand flying practice, the PNF gets the cold sweats at having not only to "monitor" the hand flying pilot but even turn the occasional MCP knob at pilot request and then complains of being overloaded. Maybe airline pilots have been brain-washed with so much so called Human Factor subjects that they see threats coming from all directions to the ridiculous degree where the PF has to think twice before going Click - Click, lest his PNF becomes too rattled. It then becomes less trouble to forget hand flying practice and keep the automatics engaged.

There is a saying that airline flying is an incredibly boring job, punctuated by moments of intense fear. That being so, I feel for the PNF when the other guy goes Click-Click.:E
The term "Fear of Flying" then takes on a whole new meaning...:ok:

See my post in the other thread you started. In short, if your PNF is overloaded when the AP is off, he shouldn't be in a cockpit.

.............but he/she is and will be. Lesson to be learnt.

Not directly related to your question perhaps Centaurus, but thought the respected John Goglia has an interesting take.

AIN Blog: Torqued: Asiana Accident at SFO Highlights Importance of GA Flying | Aviation International News

I'm in RHS, my experience of fear of flying is the captain's that are reluctant to come anywhere near the company envelope limits, OFDM triggers, fuel leagues, mandatory report events. Some of them are excellent chaps outside the cockpit, but can be quite annoying to fly with. They call out every little deviation with no regard to how natural it may be. Their need to be in control takes over and I can sometimes feel like a third autopilot. Now I won't judge too quickly, because the weight of final responsibility doesn't lie with me.

The above translates into manual flying as well. I've seen some pretty awkward performance and yes, coincidently it's been by the same guys who are discouraging manual flying. I know which captains are confident with me hand flying, and which ones are not. It's a big factor when (if) I decide to click-click, click-click. Again, I don't judge their ability. But I know which ones I rather be with on a dark stormy night. The ones that are confident in me, I find more confidence in as well. We work better together.

I sympathise with 172D. I know exactly what it's like to hen pecked by an under confident git. When flying with those people, I used to let them fly. But I hope I'm not like that. I try to create an environment whereby my colleagues feel that they can hand fly whenever they wish. And after they have experienced my gash flying, they'll give it a shot just to prove they can fly better than me.

But I think one the problems with hand flying is the baggage that goes with it. Compare the serenity of a visual approach in Scandinavia with one performed at LHR. In the former, you dump the automatics, turn the Directors off and fly the plane and admire the view. At LHR, you are micro-managed in every aspect and just keeping up with the SOP calls and mouth music puts you in the 'dark green' zone. It's hard work. But the solution, not surprisingly is practice. The more you do it, the better you get. And it's the job of us line pilots to maintain ours and our colleagues' proficiency through practice.

PM

Some of us take the heretical view that monitoring a competent handflying pilot in a situation of reasonably varying workload might be easier than monitoring his/her management of the automatics ?

Points to note -

(a) handflying I can compare what's going on to what I might be doing were I PF. Deviations are fairly obvious and, where warranted, can generate a between pilots query to resolve.

(b) with the automatics, I have to keep up with what buttons are being pressed and tie the sequence into a flight management strategy. Furthermore I have to keep up to speed with what the various annunciator indications are to satisfy myself that the button pressing has been accepted by the box... as well as doing all the other PNF stuff which might be useful.

(c) doesn't matter whether handflown or automatics .. if the workload gets silly, bug out and try again.

(d) it is a lemma that a competent pilot has to be competent at both modes of operation ..

A little background: I have 7000 hours, mostly as PIC in small, old freighters in the US. Never flown glass, (mostly didn't even have an A/P) but I have jump-seated in several glass cockpits. Never flown in Europe, but I have been into many of America's primary international airports. My company offered PFT, so I have flown with many very green FOs. The end result of that experience is that I can hand-fly very easily, and still deal with all the normal (and abnormal) events common to the job.

My take on the fear factor is that anyone is going to be a bit scared of something new. (except the guy who is too dumb or over-confident to be scared) The solution to the problem is practice and experience. If the FO is nervous hand-flying, or watching the Captain hand-fly, that's OK; keep doing it, and he'll get good at it. The fact of the matter is that everyone has to start somewhere; all FOs have that first day on the job, of course they're going to be nervous. That's not to say there aren't some issues with the industry's hiring practices, but that's something for a different thread. Now if the Captain is nervous, that's a much bigger problem, but the cure is the same. Although I've never flown glass, I fully agree with the comment that both hand-flying and the monitoring there-of is usually easier. Tell your scared FO that, and watch his jaw drop. :ok:

In a perfect world, we would all have 10,000 hours and 1000 hand-flown instrument approaches before carrying pax for hire, but since we don't live that long, and many countries simply don't have enough GA or military pilots, we have to make do. That leads to, essentially, training during revenue flights. Assuming the newbie gets some quality sim training, and the captain is reasonably proficient, and they all know enough to use the automatics when things get dicey, then the FO can learn to fly on the job with a fair degree of safety. When one of those assumptions fails, then you have Lion Air. :eek:

On the plus side, at least Lion Air is apparently encouraging hand flying! :}