Guidelines for Mitigating Pilot Errors in Use of Flight Deck Automation to Perform NextGen Airspace Procedures

Numerous accidents and incidents have occurred over the past decade where a contributing factor was lack of support, or even an incompatibility, between cockpit system design and the flight procedures which needed to be flown in the current airspace. Several reports reveal pilot errors where they were trying to get the automation to perform a particular procedure. Examples range from errors due to in-flight re-programming of the flight management system (FMS) to fly a complex approach or to change a runway, to the lack of automation support for performing calculations to determine whether an Air Traffic Control (ATC) clearance can be met, to difficulties in creating a user-defined waypoint due to an unusual clearance, to subtle lateral deviations in flight path caused by the discrepancy in the way the FMS performs a turn at a waypoint versus the way ATC expects the turn to be executed. With the advent of the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) and associated increasingly complex flight procedures, the risk of such pilot errors may increase. Accordingly, the goal of this effort was to develop design guidelines to mitigate anticipated pilot errors in using advanced flight deck (FD) automation to fly new, complex air navigation procedures under NextGen. The work achieved three main objectives: 1. Analysis and classification of current cockpit design and operational procedure safety data, and extrapolating those data to NextGen operations; 2. Identification and description of NextGen air space procedures that are most likely to lead to potential FD use issues; and 3. Development of design guidelines and recommendations to mitigate these issues.

  • Record URL:
  • Corporate Authors:

    Honeywell, Incorporated

    Aerospace Advanced Technology
    21111 North 19th Avenue, M/S 2J35A5
    Phoenix, AZ  United States  85027

    Federal Aviation Administration

    Office of NextGen
    800 Independence Avenue, SW
    Washington, DC  United States  20591
  • Authors:
    • Rodgers, Bill
  • Publication Date: 2011-6

Language

  • English

Media Info

  • Media Type: Digital/other
  • Edition: Final Report
  • Features: Appendices; Figures; References; Tables;
  • Pagination: 61p

Subject/Index Terms

Filing Info

  • Accession Number: 01849045
  • Record Type: Publication
  • Contract Numbers: DTFAWA-10-A-80031
  • Files: NTL, TRIS, ATRI, USDOT
  • Created Date: Jun 21 2022 4:16PM