Helicopters

H2F BITESIZE #49

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. This week: The effects of Crew Resource Management on Flight Safety Culture: Corporate Crew Resource Management (CRM 7.0)

H2F BITESIZE #48

H2F BITESIZE #47

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. This week: Principles for intelligent assistant systems in future flight deck design: autonomous action integration to reduce pilot workload

H2F BITESIZE #46

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. This week: Understanding pilots’ perceptions of AI-mediated mental health support in aviation: a socio-technical framework.

H2F BITESIZE #45

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. This week: Safety at high altitude: The importance of emotional dysregulation on pilots’ risk attitudes during flight.

H2F BITESIZE #44

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. This week: On error classification from physiological signals in an airborne environment.

H2F BITESIZE #43

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. This week: Organizational pressure and pilot decision-making in adverse weather: A naturalistic decision-making analysis of helicopter accidents.

H2F BITESIZE #42

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. This week: Effects of unexpected event urgency and flight scenario familiarity on pilot trainees’ performance and stress responses.

H2F BITESIZE #41

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. This week: Integrating digital competency into aviation training: an auditable Inputs–Processes–Outcomes framework

H2F BITESIZE #40

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. This week: Machine learning methods for cognitive load analysis and classification in aviation.

H2F BITESIZE #39

H2F BITESIZE #38

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. This week: The first fatal Helicopter Emergency Medical Services crash in Turkey: Weather, human factors, and lessons learned.

H2F BITESIZE #37

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. This week: Wellbeing of Helicopter Emergency Medical Services Personnel in a Challenging Work Context: A Qualitative Study

H2F BITESIZE #36

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. This week: Effectiveness of a new basic course incorporating a medical trainer simulator for HEMS education in Japan: A pre–post intervention study.

H2F BITESIZE #35

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. This week: Using SHERPA to predict human error on the maritime SAR helicopter hoist task.

H2F BITESIZE #33

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. This week: The potential of flight simulation to support pilot training for mountain helicopter emergency medical services.

H2F BITESIZE #32

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. This week: Quantifying the impact of spatial disorientation on pilot mental workload and attentional focus.

H2F BITESIZE #31

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. This week: Helicopter pilots encountering fog: an analysis of 109 accidents from 1992 to 2016.

H2F BITESIZE #30

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. This week: Incidence and challenges of helicopter emergency medical service (HEMS) rescue missions with helicopter hoist operations: analysis of 11,228 daytime and nighttime missions in Switzerland.

H2F BITESIZE #29

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. This week: Effects of acute stress on aircrew performance: Literature review and analysis of operational aspects´

H2F BITESIZE #28

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. This week: Workload in helicopter rescue operations – A comparison of two different rescue methods in a randomised cross-over design.

H2F BITESIZE #27

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. This week: Crew Resource Management: What aviation can learn from the application of CRM in other domains

H2F BITESIZE #26

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. This week: Pilot see, pilot do: Examining the predictors of pilots’ risk management behaviour

H2F BITESIZE #25

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. This week: Emotions-based training: Enhancing aviation performance through self-awareness and mental preparation, coping with stress and emotions.

H2F BITESIZE #24

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. This week: Hero or Hazard: A systematic review of individual differences linked with reduced accident involvement and influencing success during emergencies.

H2F BITESIZE #23

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. This week: Exploring the role of pilot attributes and skills in response to in-flight emergencies.

H2F BITESIZE #22

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. This week: The Virtual Landing Pad: Facilitating rotary-wing landing operations in Degraded Visual Environments (DVE).

H2F BITESIZE #21

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. This week: Safety in high-risk helicopter operations: The role of additional crew in accident prevention.

H2F BITESIZE #20

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. This week: Resilience and brittleness in the offshore helicopter transportation system

H2F BITESIZE #19

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. This week: The potential of technologies to mitigate helicopter accident factors

H2F BITESIZE #18

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. This week: Impact of adverse weather on commercial helicopter pilot decision-making and standard operating procedures.

H2F BITESIZE #17

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. This week: The role of native English speakers in safe, efficient radiotelephony

H2F BITESIZE #16

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. This week: Distributed Cognition in Search and Rescue: Loosely coupled tasks and tightly coupled roles.

H2F BITESIZE #15

Landing blind: from battlefield brownout to the civil cockpit

Technology may one day give us perfect vision through dust and snow. Until then, or as long as helicopters land on unprepared surfaces, brownout will remain a hazard in rotary-wing operations. Civil pilots cannot avoid it entirely, but they can manage it intelligently: Why discipline, teamwork, and training still trump technology in brownout

H2F BITESIZE #14

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. This week: The role of shared mental models in team coordination CRM skills of mutual performance monitoring and backup behaviors.

H2F BITESIZE #13

H2F BITESIZE #12

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. This week: Differences in physical workload between military helicopter pilots and cabin (technical) crew.

H2F BITESIZE #11

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. This week: Investigating Offshore Helicopter Pilots’ Cognitive Load and Physiological Responses during Simulated In-Flight Emergencies

H2F BITESIZE #10

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. This week: Factors affecting safety during night visual approach segments for offshore helicopters.

H2F BITESIZE #9

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. This week: Is It All about the Mission? Comparing Non-technical Skills across Offshore Transport and Search and Rescue Helicopter Pilots.

H2F BITESIZE #8

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. This week: Helicopter pilot performance and workload in a following task in a degraded visual environment

Creativity in the cockpit.

Can creative thinking help to mitigate the effects of operational unpredictability? Helicopter operations involve a high degree of unpredictability. A survey of helicopter crew has showed that a high proportion recognise the role that creativity plays in successfully managing uncertainty in flight operations.

How do you know when cognitive workload is affecting your performance?

Cognitive workload is an important variable with which to understand pilot performance, particularly when under pressure, but measuring it is notoriously difficult. A recent study by Brazilian test pilots and academics investigated new methods of measuring it during helicopter emergencies. In a world in which we are adding advanced cockpit systems at an ever increasing pace a better understanding of how and when pilots are impacted by cognitive capacity will allow us to design better for management and mitigation of workload breakdowns in critical flight scenarios.

Military vs Civil: Does training background affect safety in helicopter pilots?

Which system produces the better pilot – military or civil? Does it matter? According to a recent study of helicopter pilots from the University of Aberdeen with the title “Does training background affect safety in helicopter pilots?” (Kaminska et al., 2023), maybe we are right to be asking these questions. The answers suggest that we need to pay more attention to how the military-civil divide impacts CRM behaviours amongst mixed crews. What do the cultural differences embedded in the different ways these pilots have been trained mean to competency, operational effectiveness, and – ultimately – safety?

A Bad Week

It’s been a been a tough week for helicopter aviation. In Western Europe, three accidents in six days. Six lives lost. More seriously injured. In the rest of the world, another five accidents and over twenty lives. In six days. So many accidents in such a short period of time delivers a strong reminder to us about the kind of tasks that we as a society ask of our helicopters and their crews: They are often difficult, and sometimes dangerous, even for the very best of them.

A very normal accident

It was early evening on the 24th September 2022 when an offshore AW139 helicopter inbound to Houma-Terrebonne Airport in Louisiana, USA, declared a mayday. A lot had already happened in the cockpit by the time the co-pilot hit the press to transmit…

We take a look at Normal Accident theory in the light of a recent accident: Technology is both a risk control and a hazard itself. The act of adding technology is at best risk neutral. Continually adding more technology in the belief that we are adding more layers of defence in a system is flawed because we are in fact adding more combinations of possible failure modes. In other words, there is a direct trade- off between increasing safety by adding in more controls, and decreasing safety by adding complexity.

Helicopter human factors in focus

“For no other vehicle is the need for human factors research more critical, or more difficult.” Sandra G. Hart.

That’s a bold assertion that I had never heard anyone make before and consequently had never given much consideration to whether or not it might be the case. So let’s unpack that proposition a little by looking at the arguments that the author offers to back it up…

The need for speed? How slowness has a value all of its own.

Human exploits in aviation have always been closely linked to our fascination for speed. We admire speed in its many guises and it remains a marker of achievement in almost any field you care to think of. In aviation, just as in many other walks of life, we often assume the faster the better. We associate speed with competence. But what if we could disassociate the idea of slowness with incompetence? What if instructors were made to teach the opposite? What if we came to associate a slow response with higher skill levels and greater professionalism?

Developing resilience to startle and surprise in helicopter operations

Also published in AirMed&Rescue April 2022 edition. https://www.airmedandrescue.com/latest/long-read/developing-resilience-helicopter-operations

What should startle and surprise training mean in an applied sense and how should we be approaching it? Do the differences between airline transport flight profiles and helicopter operations mean that we should be looking critically at how to approach the startle and surprise from a rotary wing perspective? Is it as significant a hazard in the low level, high workload, high obstacle environment in which helicopter crews spend much of their time?