Aircrew Performance and Safety While Using Protective Masks in Response to Coronavirus Disease

2021 ◽  
Vol 92 (4) ◽  
pp. 274-280
Author(s):  
Kara M. Cave ◽  
Amanda M. Kelley ◽  
Kathryn A. Feltman ◽  
Jason A. Gerstner ◽  
Justin L. Stewart ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Traffic Control ◽  
Speech Intelligibility ◽  
Air Traffic ◽  
Respiratory Protection ◽  
Radio Communications ◽  
The Face ◽  
Commercial Off The Shelf ◽  
And Performance ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Modified Rhyme Test

INTRODUCTION: In response to the urgent need for safe aircrew respiratory protection due to the COVID-19 pandemic, three small descriptive evaluations were conducted with aircrew and air traffic controllers (ATC) that assessed the impact of mask use on safety and performance onboard rotary wing aircraft.METHODS: A series of evaluations assessed aircrew performance using the 3MTM Model 1860 N95 respiratory protection mask, two aviation-specific cloth mask prototypes, and a commercial off-the-shelf aviation-specific cloth mask. The series of evaluations included different sets of subjects consisting of up to five Black Hawk helicopter aircrew members, air traffic control (ATC), and 12 CH-47 aircrew members. The Modified Rhyme Test was used to measure speech intelligibility and was administered in the UH-60 among crewmembers of the same aircraft, between pilots of different aircraft, and between the pilots and ATC. Measures of workload, usability, comfort, and pulse oximetry were also administered.RESULTS: Results from the Modified Rhyme Test indicated that all subjects scored greater than 80% accuracy given the proper microphone positioning relative to the mask. With respect to workload, NASA-TLX total scores for the perform radio communications task was 50.83.DISCUSSION: Despite an elevated perceived degree of workload on the communications flight task, results from the speech intelligibility test indicated that performance was maintained within the acceptable range as defined by MIL-STD-1474E, Design Criteria Standard Noise Limit. This abbreviated evaluation suggests that the face masks tested are safe for use by helicopter aircrew under the conditions tested.Cave KM, Kelley AM, Feltman KA, Gerstner JA, Stewart JL, Crowley JS. Aircrew performance and safety while using protective masks in response to coronavirus disease. Aerosp Med Hum Perform. 2021; 92(4):274280.

Stress Management and Air Traffic Control Trainees: Development and Evaluation of a New Training Course

2020 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
pp. 1155-1159
Author(s):  
Jamie D. Barrett ◽  
Brett Torrence ◽  
Michelle Bryant ◽  
Linda Pierce ◽  
Julia Buck
Keyword(s):  
Stress Management ◽  
Traffic Control ◽  
Management Training ◽  
Federal Aviation Administration ◽  
Air Traffic ◽  
Medical Institute ◽  
Stress Management Training ◽  
Air Traffic Controllers ◽  
Aerospace Medical ◽  
And Performance

The primary mission of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is to maintain the safety of the National Airspace System (NAS). As part of this mission, the FAA is tasked with ensuring that future air traffic controllers are adequately trained to perform the high-risk job of directing air traffic. The FAA Academy curriculum for newly hired controllers involves 3-4 months of intensive lessons and performance assessments. It has been suggested that this training program is quite stressful, and successful trainees tend to be those who can better manage stress. To support ATC trainees, researchers at the Civil Aerospace Medical Institute (CAMI) have conducted operational research to develop and evaluate a stress management training to help trainees manage their stress during training at the FAA Academy.

Preserving Integrity in the Face of Performance Threat

2012 ◽  
Vol 23 (12) ◽  
pp. 1455-1460 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lisa Legault ◽  
Timour Al-Khindi ◽  
Michael Inzlicht
Keyword(s):  
Error Detection ◽  
Error Monitoring ◽  
Error Related Negativity ◽  
Threatening Information ◽  
Electrophysiological Responses ◽  
The Face ◽  
And Performance ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Brain

Self-affirmation produces large effects: Even a simple reminder of one’s core values reduces defensiveness against threatening information. But how, exactly, does self-affirmation work? We explored this question by examining the impact of self-affirmation on neurophysiological responses to threatening events. We hypothesized that because self-affirmation increases openness to threat and enhances approachability of unfavorable feedback, it should augment attention and emotional receptivity to performance errors. We further hypothesized that this augmentation could be assessed directly, at the level of the brain. We measured self-affirmed and nonaffirmed participants’ electrophysiological responses to making errors on a task. As we anticipated, self-affirmation elicited greater error responsiveness than did nonaffirmation, as indexed by the error-related negativity, a neural signal of error monitoring. Self-affirmed participants also performed better on the task than did nonaffirmed participants. We offer novel brain evidence that self-affirmation increases openness to threat and discuss the role of error detection in the link between self-affirmation and performance.

scholarly journals Trial Results on Bistatic Passive Radar Using Non-Cooperative Pulse Radar as Illuminator of Opportunity

2012 ◽  
Vol 58 (2) ◽  
pp. 171-176 ◽  
Author(s):  
Piotr Samczyński ◽  
Michał Wilkowski ◽  
Krzysztof Kulpa
Keyword(s):  
Traffic Control ◽  
Air Traffic Control ◽  
Ground Truth ◽  
Air Traffic ◽  
Passive Radar ◽  
Measurement Campaign ◽  
Pulse Radar ◽  
University Of Technology ◽  
Commercial Off The Shelf

Trial Results on Bistatic Passive Radar Using Non-Cooperative Pulse Radar as Illuminator of Opportunity The paper presents the concept of passive radar exploiting the active Air Traffic Control (ATC) radar as the source of illumination, and the primary results of the measurement campaign carried out at the DSP Laboratory of the Warsaw University of Technology. The system, built using commercial off the shelf components, was able to detect and track airliners landing at Warsaw airport. To verify the system accuracy the IFF mode S messages were recorded, providing ground truth of the observed planes.

Design of a conflict-detection air traffic control tool for the implementation of continuous climb operations: A case study at Palma TMA

2019 ◽  
Vol 233 (13) ◽  
pp. 4839-4852 ◽  
Author(s):  
Javier A Pérez-Castán ◽  
Fernando Gómez Comendador ◽  
Álvaro Rodríguez-Sanz ◽  
Rocío Barragán ◽  
Rosa M Arnaldo-Valdés
Keyword(s):  
Traffic Control ◽  
Air Traffic Control ◽  
Conflict Detection ◽  
Air Traffic ◽  
Traffic Flows ◽  
Control Intervention ◽  
Static Approach ◽  
Operational Concept ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Control Tool

Continuous climb operation is an operational concept that allows airlines to perform an optimal departing trajectory avoiding air traffic control segregation requirements. This concept implies the design and integration of air traffic flows for the sake of safety performance. This paper designs a new conflict-detection air traffic control tool based on the blocking-area concept, characterises the conflict probability between air traffic flows and assesses the impact of continuous climb operation integration in a terminal manoeuvring area. In this paper, a conflict is set out by the infringement of vertical and longitudinal separation minima and coincides with the probability of air traffic control tool usage. Moreover, this research discusses two different approaches for the conflict-detection air traffic control tool: a static approach considering nominal continuous climb operations and landing trajectories, and a dynamic approach that assesses 105 continuous climb operations and landing trajectories. Finally, the air traffic control tool is implemented using Palma TMA data and proves that out of 11 intersections (between departing and landing routes), solely 4 generate vertical separation infringements. The conflict probability between continuous climb operations and arrivals is less than 10−5. Except for one intersection, that is roughly 10−2, similar to current air traffic control intervention designed levels. Therefore, results conclude the viability of the conflict-detection air traffic control tool and continuous climb operations integration.

Simple Models for Airport Delays During Transition to a Trajectory-Based Air Traffic System

2009 ◽  
Vol 62 (4) ◽  
pp. 555-570 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Brooker
Keyword(s):  
Traffic Control ◽  
Traffic Management ◽  
Queuing Theory ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Transition Process ◽  
Air Traffic ◽  
Paradigm Shifts ◽  
New Paradigm ◽  
Operational Feature ◽  
The Impact

It is now widely recognised that a paradigm shift in air traffic control concepts is needed. This requires state-of-the-art innovative technologies, making much better use of the information in the air traffic management (ATM) system. These paradigm shifts go under the names of NextGen in the USA and SESAR in Europe, which inter alia will make dramatic changes to the nature of airport operations. A vital part of moving from an existing system to a new paradigm is the operational implications of the transition process. There would be business incentives for early aircraft fitment, it is generally safer to introduce new technologies gradually, and researchers are already proposing potential transition steps to the new system. Simple queuing theory models are used to establish rough quantitative estimates of the impact of the transition to a more efficient time-based – four-dimensional (4D) – navigational and ATM system. Such models are approximate, but they do offer insight into the broad implications of system change and its significant features. 4D-equipped aircraft in essence have a contract with the airport runway – they would be required to turn up at a very precise time – and, in return, they would get priority over any other aircraft waiting for use of the runway. The main operational feature examined here is the queuing delays affecting non-4D-equipped arrivals. These get a reasonable service if the proportion of 4D-equipped aircraft is low, but this can deteriorate markedly for high proportions, and be economically unviable. Preventative measures would be to limit the additional growth of 4D-equipped flights and/or to modify their contracts to provide sufficient space for the non-4D-equipped flights to operate without excessive delays. There is a potential for non-Poisson models, for which there is little in the literature, and for more complex models, e.g. grouping a succession of 4D-equipped aircraft as a batch.

scholarly journals Predicting Attrition and Performance in Navy and Marine Corps Air Traffic Control School

2019 ◽  
Vol 63 (1) ◽  
pp. 863-867
Author(s):  
Noelle L. Brown ◽  
Cyrus K. Foroughi ◽  
Joseph T. Coyne ◽  
Ciara Sibley ◽  
Tatana Olson ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Academic Success ◽  
Traffic Control ◽  
Cognitive Abilities ◽  
Air Traffic Control ◽  
Air Traffic ◽  
Control School ◽  
Attrition Rates ◽  
Training Performance ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Armed Services

Attrition rates due to poor academic performance are particularly high for the Navy’s air traffic control training program. The school relies on scores from the Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB) for its selection criteria which do not seem to be sufficient by themselves in predicting who will succeed in training. We hypothesized that including cognitive assessments designed to assess skills specific to air traffic control would improve the ability to predict training performance. The model results showed that cognitive abilities were related to training performance beyond ASVAB scores, however, they were more successful at classifying academic success ( M = .92) than academic attrition ( M = .23). Importantly, the results highlight the importance of additional screening materials that can be used to help reduce attrition and the cost of training

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