Man and Machine — Page 288, Lesson 469

I want to walk you through a section that gets into the real-world pitfalls of checklists and then opens up the big topic of automation in the cockpit. Let's start with the checklist side. A major source of error when using routine checklists is that pilots can respond to them automatically rather than diligently. In other words, you go through the motions without really thinking. It's tempting to think that rattling through checklist items quickly shows how skilled and familiar you are with the aircraft. But here's the trap: if you deal with checklists in that automatic way, it becomes very easy to see what you expect to see rather than what is actually there. You might glance at a switch position and your brain tells you it's correct because that's what you're used to seeing, even if it's wrong. As a professional pilot, you must be aware of this tendency and devote particular care to every single checklist action. Two other common problems are listed. First, the progress of the checklist can be interrupted by an external event — a radio call, for example. When that happens, items may be omitted because you get distracted and lose your place. Second, something as simple as using your thumb as a marker on the checklist can cause problems. If you adjust your grip on the paper or card, your thumb shifts, and items may be missed. Now we move into a new area: hardware and automation. The introduction here gives us a stark statistic: about 70% of all accidents in aviation are attributed to human error. Because of that, it's understandable that companies are looking for ways to eliminate the human element as far as it is safely possible. So automation is on the march — it's a fact of life. But with automation comes a number of new problems that we need to understand. Before computers entered civil aviation, cockpits were inevitably complex. Every sensor in the aircraft was connected to its own dedicated display on the flight deck, and the value of that parameter was displayed constantly. So you'd have a separate gauge for each piece of information, all the time. The major changes that automation has allowed are two key things. First, the computer can receive information from many sources and integrate all that data into a single comprehensive display. Instead of having separate instruments for each sensor, the computer combines them. Second, the computer can be selective about the amount and type of information that is displayed at any one time. It doesn't have to show everything all the time — it can show you what you need when you need it. The best example of this integration of information is the navigation display, or horizontal situation display, found in advanced flight decks. Information from ground radio aids, the aircraft's inertial platform, weather radar, and ground mapping radar is all integrated to present the pilot with a picture of the aircraft's situation in the horizontal plane. This overall picture not only releases the pilot from the requirement to integrate that information himself or herself, but it also frees the pilot from other tasks like calculating estimated times of arrival or finding wind velocities. Before we look at the advantages and disadvantages of automation, we need to understand some basic concepts. The key idea is that automation is designed to assist rather than replace the pilot. It leaves the pilot free to make higher-level decisions. But the pilot must at all times remain in control of the automation and be aware of what it is doing. You never hand over authority completely — you supervise and command.