Human Performance on the Flight Deck

Taking an integrated, systems approach to dealing exclusively with the human performance issues encountered on the flight deck of the modern airliner, this book describes the inter-relationships between the various application areas of human factors, recognising that the human contribution to the operation of an airliner does not fall into neat pigeonholes. The relationship between areas such as pilot selection, training, flight deck design and safety management is continually emphasised within the book. It also affirms the upside of human factors in aviation - the positive contribution that it can make to the industry - and avoids placing undue emphasis on when the human component fails. The book is divided into four main parts. Part one describes the underpinning science base, with chapters on human information processing, workload, situation awareness, decision making, error and individual differences. Part two of the book looks at the human in the system, containing chapters on pilot selection, simulation and training, stress, fatigue and alcohol, and environmental stressors. Part three takes a closer look at the machine (the aircraft), beginning with an examination of flight deck display design, followed by chapters on aircraft control, flight deck automation, and HCI on the flight deck. Part four completes the volume with a consideration of safety management issues, both on the flight deck and across the airline; the final chapter in this section looks at human factors for incident and accident investigation. The book is written for professionals within the aviation industry, both on the flight deck and elsewhere, for post-graduate students and for researchers working in the area.

Contents: Preface; A systems approach to human factors in aviation; Part 1 The Science Base: Human information processing; Workload; Situation awareness; Decision making; Error; Individual differences. Part 2 The (Hu)Man: Pilot selection; Training and simulation; Stress, fatigue and alcohol; Environmental stressors. Part 3 The Machine: Display design; Aircraft control; Automation; Human-computer interaction (HCI) on the flight deck. Part 4 The Management: Flight deck safety management: crew resource management and line operations safety audits; Airline safety management; Incident and accident investigation; Concluding thoughts: human factors in aviation as a route to increased operational efficiency; References; Index.

Don Harris is Managing Director of HFI Solutions Ltd and Visiting Professor in the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China. Prior to founding the HFI Solutions Don was Professor of Aerospace Human Factors at Cranfield University. He has been involved in the design and certification of flight deck interfaces; worked in the safety assessment of helicopter operations for North Sea oil exploration and exploitation and was an accident investigator on call to the British Army Division of Army Aviation. Don is a Fellow of the Institute of Ergonomics and Human Factors and a Chartered Psychologist. He is also a member of the UK Human Factors National Technical Committee for Aerospace and Defence. In 2006 Don received the Royal Aeronautical Society Bronze award for work leading to advances in aerospace and in 2008 was part of the Human Factors Integration Defence Technology Centre team that received the UK Ergonomics Society President's Medal 'for significant contributions to original research, the development of methodology and the application of knowledge within the field of ergonomics'. Don is author or editor of several other Ashgate volumes, including 'Human Factors for Civil Flight Deck Design', 'Contemporary Issues in Human Factors and Aviation Safety' (with Helen Muir) and 'Modelling Command and Control' (with Neville Stanton and Chris Baber).