H2F BITESIZE #50

I bring you a weekly bite-sized chunk of the science behind helicopter human factors and CRM in practice, simplifying the complex and distilling a helicopter related study into a summary of less than 500 words.

TITLE:

Essential attributes for successful military student pilots: A focus group study.

WHAT?

Study exploring which attributes are essential for success in military student pilot (MSP) training, whether these have changed over the past decade, and which are viewed as innate versus trainable. The study aimed to inform future military pilot selection and training frameworks.  

WHERE?

Conducted by the Royal Netherlands Air and Space Force using operational pilots, behavioural experts, and military student pilots from fixed-wing, rotary-wing, RPAS, and training platforms.  

WHEN?

Focus groups conducted between August 2024 and January 2025, and paper published May 2026.  

WHY?

Military aviation is becoming increasingly cognitively demanding due to:

• Increased automation.
• Information saturation.
• Increasingly complex operational environments.
• Geopolitical pressures requiring increased pilot throughput.

At the same time, military organisations face shrinking applicant pools. The study sought to identify pilot attributes that could improve both selection validity and training efficiency.  

HOW?

Research based on nine face-to-face focus groups involving 56 participants made up of:

• 30 experienced pilot subject matter experts (SME)
• 14 behavioural SMEs
• 12 MSPs (including both successful and unsuccessful trainees)

Discussions explored three questions:

1. Which attributes predict military student pilot success?

2. Which have changed over the last decade?

3. Which are innate and which trainable?

FINDINGS:

Seven major attribute categories emerged:

The strongest reported shift over the past decade was the increasing importance of information processing ability due to automation and battlespace complexity.  

Participants generally viewed:

• Cognition, motivation/effort, and aspects of trainability as relatively innate
• Adaptiveness, cooperation, and some coping skills as more trainable through targeted instruction and operational exposure.  

Interestingly, behaviours such as proactive decision-making, assertiveness, and controlled aggression, emerged as uniquely important attributes for military aviation.

SO WHAT?

The paper reinforces the ongoing shift from traditional “stick-and-rudder” pilot skills toward operators who are cognitively adaptive and capable of managing high information loads in dynamic environments.

The following elements stand out:

• Military pilot selection may need greater emphasis on cognitive processing, adaptability, and learning agility rather than purely psychomotor performance.
• Competencies traditionally seen as ‘CRM skills’, such as cooperation, feedback acceptance, and introspection are becoming more operationally critical than ever.
• Some of the attributes valued may be difficult to train later, supporting earlier identification during selection.
• Increasing automation does not reduce pilot demands but instead it shifts workload toward cognition, prioritisation, and decision-making.

The study also highlights the significance of resilience and stress tolerance in military aviation despite advances in automation. Overall, it supports a more integrated model of pilot potential that combines cognitive, behavioural, motivational, and social dimensions rather than relying solely on traditional aptitude testing.

REFERENCE: 

van der Horst, D., Beenhakker, L. L., Bogaers, R. I., Rademaker, A. R., Geuze, E., & de Weijer, A. D. (2026). Essential attributes for successful military student pilots: A focus group study. Aviation Psychology and Applied Human Factors. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1027/2192-0923/a000312