This is the last in a series of posts that began over a year ago; it’s the last leg of an improvement strategy that has covered the entire family of 9 Automation Airmanship® principles. If you have not been able to follow the entire series from the beginning, the last 12 month’s posts are available …
This is the third in a series of posts on the rapid and ongoing adoption of NextGen procedures and processes, and what that means for 21st-century flight crews. Perhaps after last month’s post you have had the chance to browse the FAA’s NextGen Website; chances are you were surprised to see how quickly and widely …
This is the second in a series of posts on the rapid and ongoing adoption of NextGen procedures and processes, including RNP approaches, and what that means for 21st-century flight crews. Several weeks ago we posted an introduction to a series of posts on NextGen. As an illustration of how fast and easy it is …
This is the first in a series of posts on the rapid and ongoing adoption of RNAV (RNP) and RNP AR approaches, and what that means for 21st-century flight crews. This past month, as part of my own training, I flew my first RNAV (RNP) AR approach with an RF Leg. It was done in …
One of the most interesting aspects of my professional life in aviation is following developments in technology across our industry (and others related to it), and tracking the most promising advances into widespread operational use. I consider myself to be among the lucky few in our industry who not only help in adapting technology into …
I recently had the opportunity to drive one of the automobile industry’s most up to date vehicle offerings—complete with systems that gently apply force to the steering wheel to keep the car in the lane it’s established in, to maintain the car at a set distance from the vehicle in front of it, and to …
For over a decade we have been advocating a systematic yet simplified approach to the automated flight deck environment. When we first introduced Automation Airmanship in 2004, we were focused on providing aviation professionals with a sound, disciplined and repeatable methodology to apply to encounters with flight deck technology, from the most rudimentary to the …
There are many “models” which have been offered up to flight crews over the past several decades that seek to explain the role of automation on the flight deck. Some have proven remarkably durable and easy to adopt, others have persisted in spite of the fact that they only obscure the essential knowledge that we …
As a pilot, part-time researcher, and full-time technology advocate, I am occasionally privileged to witness the latest cockpit technology up close, thanks to our contacts within the aviation industry. Not only that, I spend upwards of 8 hours a week reading trade journals from not just aviation, but across contemporary business and industry. One result …
Sixty-three years ago this week one of the earliest commercially available computers was delivered to the US Government by the Remington Rand Corporation, UNIVAC-1. The joke that circulated for years afterward goes like this: A bunch of scientists created a huge machine capable of complex calculations and called it UNIVAC. Eager to test their invention, …