The Federal Aviation Administration, FAA, submitted a proposal to modify the pilot training process in order to avoid “over-reliance on the use of automation”. In the document, which has not yet become law, the regulator states that flight crews should “focus on flight path management”.
The FAA notice, addressed to airlines and training centers, describes “acceptable ways to incorporate flight path management principles into both pilot training programs and operators’ Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) manuals”.
The document in question is a draft advisory circular. While not yet binding, this is the first step in a series of instances that generally culminate in some form of regulation. The text, titled “AC 120-FPM, Flight Path Management” imposes a duty on aircrews to “constantly monitor the aircraft’s energy and flight path in order to intervene if necessary.”
The project is being launched nearly a decade after the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) recommended aircrew training in energy and flight path management. This recommendation was included in the final report of the investigation into the July 2013 crash of Asiana Airlines Flight 214.
The first fatal accident on the 777
The accident, the first fatal one for the 777, occurred as a result of a series of errors in energy management and a lack of knowledge on the operation of the aircraft’s flight modes by the crew. Following the impact with a breakwater located just meters before the 28L runway threshold at San Francisco International Airport, three people lost their lives.
Also contributing to the push for the project were some requirements mandated by Congress after the Boeing 737 MAX crashes. A report released in September noted that investigations of the accidents “raised questions about the increasing use of automated flight control systems and flight crew interactions with those systems.” It also cited “concerns about human performance and assumptions used during the certification process regarding pilot reaction to abnormal situations.”
The FAA said, according to Reuters, that the notice “will help pilots develop and maintain manual flight skills and avoid over-reliance on automation.”
FAA notice central points
Flight plan management
Flight plan management, or FPM, consists of planning, executing, and ensuring the guidance and trajectory of the aircraft. This can be done whether in flight or on the ground. According to the FAA, “ensuring that the aircraft is on the correct flight path should be the flight crew’s highest priority.” To ensure this, the crew must have full situational awareness of the aircraft’s current status in order to compare it to the status required by the current and upcoming phase of flight.
According to the regulator, the way to achieve this is through uniformity between training and flight operations manuals. In the words of the FAA: “train as you fly and fly as you train”. Therefore, airline SOPs, as they pertain to the FPM, should clearly reflect what is established for the pilot training process, and training processes should feed on airline flight manuals.
The FAA notes that airline training and procedures should state that FPM is “the responsibility of the entire flight crew and the highest priority for all flight crew members,” and that each pilot should “be fully and absolutely aware of the current flight path and its contrast to the desired flight path, and fully capable of flying manually to achieve it.”
Knowledge and handling of automation
The use of automated systems in normal and non-normal operations requires the pilot to understand how they work. Therefore how to monitor them, and how to respond in the event of system failure or abnormal behavior.
For effective use of automated systems, operators should establish standardized procedures. Those should provide guidance on the use and combination of systems, as well as the circumstances that prohibit their use. On the other hand, airlines are required to set out actions to be taken by the flight crew in the event that an automated system “fails to respond or behave as designed”.
The objective of this section is to ensure that pilots “internalize the operation of the automatic systems, their integration with other parts of the aircraft. Also, ensure they are aware of the possible ramifications of the failure of the automation in the FPM”.
Aircraft energy status management
Energy management is defined as the planning and control of factors that influence the energy state (combination of the potential and kinetic energy of the aircraft, where speed, altitude, thrust, and aerodynamic drag are taken into account) to achieve the speed, lateral and vertical trajectory targets appropriate for operational objectives.
Different types of energy can be exchanged during flight. Always at the cost of lower efficiency and at the risk of destabilizing the current energy state. For example, if an aircraft is descending at too high a speed, the pilot can level the trajectory in order to lose speed. However, this will cause the aircraft to stop losing altitude. And this comes with the consequent risk of losing the glide path or exceeding the height restrictions of the airspace through which it is flying.
According to the FAA, “some operational data from airlines and aircraft manufacturers indicate that pilots have certain vulnerabilities in the recognition and management of energy state in multiple phases of flight”. “This is a factor that can potentially contribute to deviations and serious incidents and accidents”. Therefore, it becomes critical for flight crews to understand and master energy management.
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