Saturday, November 19, 2011

AUTOMATION -- Automation in the Cockpit

Srinivas Rao | 12:45 PM | | | | | | | Best Blogger Tips


Is Automation in cockpit a boon or bane???

Increased automation in cockpits has changed radically how our cockpits look and work is carried on.
Either the automation is either too complex for human operators to comprehend, or is the information in the manuals inadequate, or is it the automation integration that seems to be the problem, or is it the lack of enough emphasis on the use of automation in the training curriculum the problem, or is it the complacency that sets in with overuse of automation and skills degeneration with overuse of automation the problem, or is the problem with operating procedures not adequately  addressing the use of automation in cockpits???

Send in your views

3 comments:

  1. Automation is a boon, as it reduces the crew workload, and crew can concentrate more on the safety aspects. Automation complexities can be addressed at the initial and refresher trainings.

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  2. Automation is a boon in day's highly complex cockpit environment. This has reduced the pilot workload and gave rise to the two man crew concept. However, it is not without its pitfalls. Too much automation has a detrimental effect on piloting skills. While the cockpit crew have transitioned to flight deck managers , pure piloting skills will alone get one out of a tricky situation when automation degrades due system failures.

    While reliability has indeed increased many folds over the past several decades, we have not yet achieved the confidence levels to launch commercial passenger flights reliant on full automation . Are we easy for unmanned cockpits ? Has technology matured to a stage where we can truly be confident about unmanned cockpits for commercial flights ?

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  3. Skills have definitely degraded with increased reliance on automation.
    Training should address or include more importance to raw data handling and manual flight.

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