Paper Info
Title
The Role of Situation Assessment and Flight Experience in Pilots' Decisions to Continue Visual Flight Rules Flight into Adverse Weather
Abstract
Visual flight rules (VFR) flight into instrument meteorological conditions (IMC) is a major safety hazard in general aviation. In this study we examined pilots' decisions to continue or divert from a VFR flight into IMC during a dynamic simulation of a cross-country flight. Pilots encountered IMC either early or later into the flight, and the amount of time and distance pilots flew into the adverse weather prior to diverting was recorded. Results revealed that pilots who encountered the deteriorating weather earlier in the flight flew longer into the weather prior to diverting and had more optimistic estimates of weather conditions than did pilots who encountered the deteriorating weather later in the flight. Both the time and distance traveled into the weather prior to diverting were negatively correlated with pilots' previous flight experience. These findings suggest that VFR flight into IMC may be attributable, at least in part, to poor situation assessment and experience rather than to motivational judgment that induces risk-taking behavior as more time and effort are invested in a flight. Actual or potential applications of this research include the design of interventions that focus on improving weather evaluation skills in addition to addressing risk-taking attitudes.
Year
DOI
Venue
2002
10.1518/0018720024497871
HUMAN FACTORS
Field
DocType
Volume
Instrument meteorological conditions,Visual flight,Simulation,Aviation,Situation analysis,Flight simulator,General aviation,Engineering,Risk taking,Visual flight rules
Journal
44
Issue
ISSN
Citations 
2
0018-7208
9
PageRank 
References 
Authors
3.50
0
3
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Douglas A. Wiegmann113017.92
Juliana Goh25712.03
David O'Hare35111.86