ATPL Human Performance - Resume
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THE
PILOT
Human
performance
& Limitations
ATPL
STUDENT
pilot
resume
all info you need to pass atpl exams
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Basics:
Latent threat: Cockpit design error
Conceptual aspects of systems mismatch: Liveware – software
James reason: Gathering information from accidents & investigations is informed
Atmosphere:
Heart muscles: Blood supply from coronary arteries
Blood: Is lacking in oxygen & rich on CO 2
Pressoreceptors: Located in carotid & aortic arterial vessels
Angina: Symptom of reduced oxygen to heart muscle, caused by narrowing/obstruction of coronary artery
Circulation: O 2 & CO 2 transportation
Gas exchange: Partial pressure of CO 2 in the alveoli is lower than in the blood
Respiratory system: Oral nasal passage, pharynx, larynx, trachea, bronchi & alveoli
Anaemia: Not enough functioning haemoglobin
Hypoxia:
- Histotoxic hypoxia: Alcohol increases physiological altitude, 1 ounce 2000ft
- Hypoxic hypoxia: Short term memory impairment starts at 12000ft
- Hypaemic hypoxia: Smoking
- Stagnant hypoxia: Excessive G-forces
- Can be experienced at 6000ft
- Night vision reduced at compensatory stage
- Dalton’s death
Hyperventilation:
- Causes CO 2 to be removed from the blood
- Lack/shortage of CO 2 in the blood
- Blood circulation to brain slowed down
- Jogging does NOT cause hyperventilation
- Running is voluntary hyperventilation
Decompression sickness:
- Primary symptom: The bends
- Nitrogen gas bubbles released
- Wait 12 hours before next flight
- Henry’s hole
Rate of depth of breathing:
- Controlled by pressure of CO 2 in the blood
- Increased rate = high level of waste CO 2 in the lungs
- Increased CO 2 causes shortness of breath
- Controlled by receptor cells in the brain
Respiratory control centre: Sensitive to carbon dioxide
Hypertension: Physiological condition involving increased pressure on the arterial walls
Hypothermia: Demand for oxygen initially increased
Low blood pressure:
- Arterioles constrict, cardiac output increase, heart rate rises
- Increased risk of low blood pressure when donating blood due to loss of blood volume
General gas law: Volume of a gas multiplied by pressure divide by its absolute temperature is constant
Law of diffusion:
- Transfer of CO 2 to the alveoli
- Adjacent gases of different concentration mix until concentration is balanced
Charles’ law: Volume of gas at constant pressure is proportional to absolute temperature
Boyle’s law: Volume of a gas is inversely proportional to its pressure with temperature constant
Henry’s law: Quantity of gas dissolved in a liquid is proportional to the partial pressure of the gas
Dalton’s law:
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- Partial pressure of gas is proportional to its fractional concentration in a gas mixture
- Total pressure = sum of partial pressures of the gas in the mixture
G-forces:
- Factors: Low blood sugar, obesity & hypoxia
- +Gz: Blood flow to brain decrease
Heart attack:
- Common for people above 40
- Total blockage of a coronary artery leading to the death of a piece of heart muscle
Random knowledge:
Alpha radiation: Absorbed by thin sheet of paper or 0.2cm of water
Cosmic radiation: Increases at higher latitudes
Temperature increase RH decrease
Ozone absorbs UVB better than UVA
Man environment & sensory systems
Eye:
Iris: Control the size/diameter of pupils
Pupil: Controls amount of light that strikes the eye
Accommodation:
- Controlled by cilliary muscle around the lens
- Ability of the lens to change its shape
Optic system: Cornea, lens, vitreous humour
3 coats of the eye: Sclera, uvea, retina
Crystalline lens: Enables a clear image to be obtained
Cornea: Part of the eye that bends the light the most
Cornea & crystalline lens: Causes the convergence of light rays onto the retina
Central vision: Enables details & colours to be seen, represents a zone where 150 000 cones/mm are located to give high
resolution capacity
Fovea: Area of best day vision & no night vision at all
Foveal area is the only area where resolution is good enough to see clearly
Retina: Rods in peripheral zone
Central zone: Cones
Optic nerve: Has no rods & cones
Vibrations cause blurred vision due to resonance of eyeballs
When focusing shape of lens gets more spherical
Glaucoma: Increase in pressure of the liquid within eye
Eyes move in short jerky movements called saccades; smooth vision is achieved in visual cortex
Reading alphanumeric information limited to foveal area of the retina
Refractive power: Variable from 16 – 30D
Monocular depth cue: Linear perspective
Sunglasses: Can have disadvantages
Visual acuity: 1 minute of arc
Visual acuity affected by: hypoxia, age & angular distance from the fovea
Presbyopia:
- Far sightedness due to age
- Common over the age of 50
- Decrease of accommodation
Short or near sightedness/myopia:
- Defective vision in the form of optical image in front of the retina
- Person will start experiencing problems at a later age with presbyopia than usual
Astigmatism: Misshaped cornea
Accelerations:
- Forward linear acceleration: Somatogravic/oculogravic
- Forward acceleration: Illusion of backward tilt it results in backward displacement of the otolithic membranes
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Sound:
Threshold for pain: 140db
Presbyacusis: Gradual loss of hearing with age
13% of knowledge acquired through hearing
Conductive hearing loss: Not caused by damage of auditory nerve
Sound waves transferred from outer ear to inner ear by ossicles
NIHL: Governed by intensity & duration of noise in excess of 90db
Cochlea: Responsible for sound
Vibrations:
Cochlea: Transfers vibrations to nerve impulses in the ear
Vibrations upset the vestibular apparatus
Nervous systems:
Connection between neurons: Synapse
Neuronal signals travel electrically along the axon & chemically along synaptic gap
Reflex centre for co-ordination of equilibrium: Cerebellum
Neurons: Conducting elements of the nervous system cell
Seat of the pants:
- Muscles, tendons & joints sensitive to the position & movement of body parts
- Proprioceptors inform of relative motion & relative position of his body parts
Spatial orientation:
- Measuring linear & radial accelerations in inner ear
- Sacculus & utriculus: Gravity & linear acceleration
- Semi-circular canals: Angular accelerations, during a roll, hair in canals senses fluid motion by roll, vestibular nerve is
simulated & nerve impulses transmitted to brain. (Roll, pitch & yaw)
Illusions:
- Dangerous: Somatogravic, somatogyral, neurological & colour illusion
- Somatogyral/leans caused by reducing bank following a prolonged turn
- Coriolis effect: Simultaneous stimulation of several semi-circular canals
- Graveyard spin: Pilot on recovery tends to re-enter spin due to somatogyral illusion
- Bottom up: Flying over tall trees then suddenly seeing short trees
- Top - down: Smaller objects perceived as further away than larger objects
- Top – down: Reduced visibility such as dust/haze objects of equal size & distance may be perceived as larger/smaller
Fog/mist: Objects appear further away, lead to steep approaches & long landings
Runways:
Upsloping: Believes/feels to be high, approaches steeper, landing short
Downsloping: Approach higher than normal, may result in long landing
Narrow:
- Believes to be high, tendency to land short
- Flatter than normal approach with tendency to undershoot
- Low approach with undershoot
- Initiate flare too late
Larger/wider:
- Believes to be low, you think you are low
- high approach with overshoot
- Early or high “round-out” flare
Approaches at night with no landing aids: Pilot thinks he is higher than actual & risks landing short
Black hole effect:
- Flying over water at night on the approach to an airfield creating an illusion that the aircraft is at a higher altitude than
it is, leading to a low approach being flown
- Being too high & too far away, dropping low & landing short
Motion sickness:
- Systems involved: Vestibular, vision, proprioceptive & gastro-intestinal
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Health & hygiene
Sleep:
- Orthodox – Deep sleep, physical recovery, refreshes body
- Paradox (REM) – Increases during night, regenerate mental functions (4-5 cycles)
- Time zone adjustment: 3-4 zones with 24 hour layover – keep in swing/rhythm of departure country as long as possible,
maintain regular living patterns
- Duration depends on the point within your circadian rhythm at which you try to sleep
Barotrauma:
- Reduction of hearing ability & feeling of increased pressure
- Affects facial sinuses, middle ear & dental cavities
- Pressure differentials between gases in hollow cavities of the body & the ambient pressure
- Causes pressure pains & flatulence
Dysbarism:
- Refers to various medical problems caused by gas expansion induced by decreased barometric pressure
Aerodontalgia/barodontalgia:
- Doesn’t occur at desert
- Arises especially with irritation of the sensitive tissues close to the root of a tooth
Smoking:
- Lifts smoker physiological altitude
- Flying at 10000ft, oxygen content in blood equal to altitude above 10000ft
- Causes hypaemic hypoxia
Alcohol:
- No alcohol should be consumed 8 hours prior for flight duty period or period of standby
- Does not promote barotrauma
- Degrades paradoxical sleep
Hypoglycaemia/low blood pressure:
- Headache & lack of concentration
Eustachian tube:
- Blocked = equalization of pressure is limited
Cold:
- Pain & damage can occur to ear drum, particularly during fast descents
- Increased risk of barotrauma during climbs & descents
Metabolic cell waste:
- Water & carbon dioxide
Diabetes:
- Type 2: Caused by genetics & obesity (Low physical activity?)
Hyperthermia:
- Adjustment to hot country takes 14 days
Tetanus:
- Bacteria in the form of spores via punctures
Others:
Rasmussen’s model:
- Errors in rule-based control mode are errors of technical knowledge
- Skill, rule & knowledge based models are associated with problem solving
Anderson model:
- Cognitive, associative & automatic
Rule allows situation to be resolved: Actions return to automatic mode
Attention:
- Detecting relevant information which is not presented in an actively monitored input channel = Attention
- Depends on level of automation of behaviour, salience of information, expectations
st
1 stage of information process = sensory stimulation
Long term memory:
- Affected by expectation & suggestion, where motor programs are kept
- It is helpful to mentally rehearse information before it is needed
Short term memory: 20 seconds
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Mental training, rehearsal & cognitive pre- training is most important to acquire complex motor skills
Working memory: 5 – 9 items without rehearsing (About 7 maximum)
Experience & repetition may be beneficial & negative
Environmental capture:
Tendency of a skill to be executed in an environment in which it is frequently exercised
Tendency for a skill acquired in another aircraft executed in a new aircraft type even if it is inappropriate
Errors:
- Error tolerance: Error tolerance means minimizing the effects of errors by making a system as tolerant as possible
towards errors
- Error results in cognitive sequence which makes it possible to modify behaviour with a view to adaptation
- Humans are fallible & system & procedures should be designed to minimize human error
- Error of commission: Taxiing to wrong runway
Decision making:
- Assertiveness makes crew decision making most effective
- Amount of time available has a large influence on analysis of the situation
- Pilot should take as much time as he needs & is available to make up his mind
- Intention of being integrated, to be recognized as leader or avoid conflicts: Attempt to agree on decisions made by
other crew members
Time constraints: Preparation of the action & the prioritisation of tasks
Confirmation bias:
- Tendency to look for information that confirms the validity of the decision
- To avoid: Search for information that will falsify hypothesis
Groupthink: More or less unconscious support of a solution from group members
Professional language:
- Uses limited vocabulary & context provides meaning
- Quick comprehension & simplified grammar
Communications:
- Relies heavily on the sender
- TO make effective: Send information in line with receivers decoding abilities
- Loss of words & packaging more important as: Body language is lost
Information: Intended to reduce uncertainty, measured in bits
Coordination: Allows synergy between pilot & co-pilot, in this mode has the function of synchronizing actions & distributing
responsibilities
Very high ambition & need for achievement disturbs climate of co-operation
Paralanguage: Pilots speak to a person which is outside aircraft
Democratic & co-operative style: Trying to clarify reasons & causes of the conflict with all persons involved
Co-action: Working parallel to achieve one common objective
CRM: Improves quality of crew performance
Invulnerability:
- Accidents can only happen to others
- “It will not happen to me”
“Personality”: Refers to unique psychological characteristics
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Stress:
- Non-specific response of the body to every demand placed on a person
- Increases vigilance but may focus attention inappropriately
- Psychosomatic: Mental in nature (Not physical)
- Physical stress: Strains on HOMEOSTATIC mechanisms on the body
- Stressor: External/internal stimulus which is interpreted by an individual as being stressful
- Acute stress: Mobilization of resources required to cope with the stressor
- Chronic stress: Address the physical causes of stress
Acute fatigue: Does NOT has psychological roots
Stress reactions:
- Alarm phase: Increased arousal, release of glucose, decrease in stress resistance
- Resistance phase: Allows fats to be converted into sugars prolonging the mobilization of energy in the body,
appearance of psychosomatic disorders when lasting over a prolonged period
High levels of arousal narrows span of attention
Automation errors: Capture of a poor subprogram, an action mode error
Complacency: Unjustified self confidence
Reliability & good detectability: Sum of automatic monitoring, detection & warning facilities, alerting capabilities of the man-
machine interface
Automation: Attention of cockpit crew will become reduced with the consequence of being out of the loop
Figures:
Human factors causes 70 – 80% of accidents
Rate of accidents: 1 accident per million airport moveme9nts
Healthy adult:
- Pulse: 60 – 80 beats/min
- Breathing rate: 10 -15 breaths/min
- Breathing rate: 16 cycles/min
- Breathing rate at rest: 12 – 20 cycles/min
- Arterial blood pressure: 120/80 mmHg
- Cardiac output (Blood quantity /min): 5 litres/min
Proportion of atmosphere constant up to 100km (Oxygen 21%, Nitrogen 78% ...)
18000ft – ½
27000ft – 1/3
34000ft – ¼
45000ft – 1/8
Oxygen breathing:
- Percentage of oxygen breathing at 25000ft: 62%
- 100% at 33700ft: Equivalent to SEA LEVEL
- 100% at 38000ft: Equivalent to 8000ft
- 100% at 40000ft: Equivalent to 10000ft
100% oxygen physiological altitude: 40000ft
Exhaled air contains: 15% oxygen & 4% carbon dioxide
Barometric pressure difference (decrease of pressure) greatest at 0ft – 5000ft
Cardiac output = Volume pumped x beats per minute
Blood: Contains 45% blood cells & 55% plasma
Blood oxygen saturation affects pilot >10000ft
Above 10000ft partial pressure is below critical value of 55mmHg
Partial pressure in alveoli: 40 CO 2 , 47 H 2 O, 100 O 2 (mmHg pp )
Carbon monoxide affinity to haemoglobin: 210 – 250 times
Breathing cycle volume (Tidal volume): 500ml of air
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Inspiratory volume: 3300ml
Expiratory volume: 1000ml
Residual volume: 1200ml
TUC:
- 25000ft: 3 – 5 minutes
- 30000ft: 45 seconds to 1 min 30 seconds
- 35000ft: 30 – 60 seconds (45 seconds)
- 43000ft: 30 – 45 seconds
Reaction threshold/compensatory reactions: 7000ft (Human organism starts remarkable measures)
Disturbance threshold: 10000 – 12000ft
Critical threshold: 22000ft (Non-pressurized 20000ft)
Hypoxia:
- Does not occur below 3000m
- Occurs at 38000 – 40000ft 100% oxygen without pressure
- Affects night vision at approximately 5000ft
Records of radiation kept above 29000ft
After scuba diving wait 24 hours
Sight:
70 - 75% of knowledge from sight, 13% hearing
Night vision: Degradation of night vision occurs from 1500m (5000ft)
Visual acuity: Best within 2-3 degrees of the fovea & reduces rapidly towards periphery vision
Hearing:
Frequencies: 20 – 20000Hz
Hear/listen to 500 & speak 125
Alcohol:
Slight lack of coordination starts at 0.05% blood alcohol
No alcohol 8 hours before
EASA blood/alcohol limit: 20 mg per 100mm of blood
Rate of metabolism or digestion of alcohol: 0.01 – 0.015g/100g per hour (15mg/100ml/hour)
Smoking:
One pack of cigarettes gives away 5 – 8% of total oxygen transportation
Time zone:
Resynchronization time at a rate of 1 – 1.5 hours a day
Sleep:
5 stages of sleep
REM sleep 4-5 bouts in 8 hours,
Free running circadian rhythms: 25 hours
Credit/debit system: 12 hours
Normal sleep cycle every 90 minutes
Human adults require 8 hours of sleep per night
BMI:
2
- Mass ÷ Height
- Normal 18 to 25 (Females just -1)
- Obese >30/29
Breakfast = 25%
Caffeine in excess of 250mg/day is a problem
Errors:
Simple repetitive tasks occur about 1 in 100 times
Good & realistic error rates: 1 in 1000 times
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Communications:
80% of communications is metacommunications
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