The Memories of Displaced Children: Flight Experience in the Life Stories of Exiled Latvians

This article explores how Latvian children who were displaced during the Second World War came across their displacement and how they compose the narratives of this childhood experience. Their life story interviews have been preserved in the Latvian National Oral History Archive. Recorded testimonies convey the migration experience in an intense way by vividly depicting the psychological, emotional, and material circumstances that children faced and by revealing common themes relevant to them at the time of the displacement.

Energy Efficiency Enhanced Landing Strategy for Manned eVTOLs Using L1 Adaptive Control

A new landing strategy is presented for manned electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) vehicles, using a roll maneuver to obtain a trajectory in the horizontal plane. This strategy rejects the altitude surging in the landing process, which is the fatal drawback of the conventional jumping strategy. The strategy leads to a smoother transition from the wing-borne mode to the thrust-borne mode, and has a higher energy efficiency, meaning a better flight experience and higher economic performance. To employ the strategy, a five-stage maneuver is designed, using the lateral maneuver instead of longitudinal climbing. Additionally, a control system based on L1 adaptive control theory is designed to assist manned driving or execute flight missions independently, consisting of the guidance logic, stability augmentation system and flight management unit. The strategy is verified with the ET120 platform, by Monte Carlo simulation for robustness and safety performance, and an experiment was performed to compare the benefits with conventional landing strategies. The results show that the performance of the control system is robust enough to reduce perturbation by at least 20% in all modeling parameters, and ensures consistent dynamic characteristics between different flight modes. Additionally, the strategy successfully avoids climbing during the landing process with a smooth trajectory, and reduces the energy consumed for landing by 64%.

Examining the Factors Influencing Repurchase Intention in Using Lion Air

The purpose of this study is to determine whether service quality, brand image, brand trust, and flight experience have influence towards repurchase intention in using Lion Air. This study is using quantitative method with 7 Likert-scale, from strongly disagree to strongly agree. The statements are adopted from various prior research. The data was distributed by online and directly to the person. The total sample used in this study is 347 respondents who ever flied with Lion Air at least twice from January 2019 to October 2019. The data was tested by using statistical software for validity and reliability and using Structural Equation Model for model fit and hypothesis testing. The findings indicate the factors that influencing customers repurchase intention in using Lion Air. Out of 6 hypotheses there are 4 hypotheses that are has a significant relationship which are service quality towards brand image, service quality towards brand trust, brand image towards brand trust, and brand trust towards repurchase intention. Meanwhile, the rest 2 hypotheses are found to be not significant, which are flight experience towards brand trust and brand image towards repurchase intention. There are many factors why it is rejected, such as price, needs, influence from others, the choice of routes, and frequent flight frequencies. This study is the first study that combine flight experience factor in determining customer repurchase intention in using Lion Air.

Optimising aircraft taxi speed: Design and evaluation of new means to present information on a head-up display

The objective of this study was to design and evaluate new means of complying to time constraints by presenting aircraft target taxi speeds on a head-up display (HUD). Four different HUD presentations were iteratively developed from paper sketches into digital prototypes. Each HUD presentation reflected different levels of information presentation. A subsequent evaluation included 32 pilots, with varying flight experience, in usability tests. The participants subjectively assessed which information was most useful to comply with time constraints. The assessment was based on six themes including information, workload, situational awareness, stress, support and usability. The evaluation consisted of computer-simulated taxi-runs, self-assessments and statistical analysis. Information provided by a graphical vertical tape descriptive/predictive HUD presentation, including alpha-numerical information redundancy, was rated most useful. Differences between novice and expert pilots can be resolved by incorporating combinations of graphics and alpha-numeric presentations. The findings can be applied for further studies of combining navigational and time-keeping HUD support during taxi.

Impact of Perceived Stress Safety Attitude and Flight Experience on Hazardous Event Involvement of Aviators

The pilots’ attitude and its influence on flying performance have an imperative bearing on flight safety. Recent studies suggest that attitude and stress correlate with flying performance and could be one of the many factors, which contribute to accidents or incidents. The objective of the current research was to study the relationship between aviation safety attitude, flight experience, perceived stress, and hazardous event involvement among aviators. The study also investigated whether aviation safety attitude, perceived stress, and flying experience predict the hazardous event involvement of aviators or not. It was hypothesised that less flying experience, perceived stress, and aviation safety attitude will predict the hazardous event involvement of aviators. The data was collected from 360 aviators by using the aviation safety attitude scale, hazardous event scale, and perceived stress scale. Correlation and regression analysis were used for analysing the obtained data. The findings of the study indicated that flight experience and safety attitude are significantly negatively correlated with hazardous event involvement and perceived stress is significantly positively associated with hazardous event involvement. In addition to this, aviation safety attitude, perceived stress, and flying experience were found to be strong predictors of hazardous event involvement. The findings of the study will help in building effective training programs as accidents can be prevented by improved pilot training involving perceived stress and attitude identification and management.

Do Advanced Spatial Strategies Depend on the Number of Flight Hours? The Case of Military Pilots

Background: Military pilots show advanced visuospatial skills. Previous studies demonstrate that they are better at mentally rotating a target, taking different perspectives, estimating distances and planning travel and have a topographic memory. Here, we compared navigational cognitive styles between military pilots and people without flight experience. Pilots were expected to be more survey-style users than nonpilots, showing more advanced navigational strategies. Method: A total of 106 military jet pilots from the Italian Air Force and 92 nonpilots from the general population matched for education with the pilots were enrolled to investigate group differences in navigational styles. The participants were asked to perform a reduced version of the Spatial Cognitive Style Test (SCST), consisting of six tasks that allow us to distinguish individuals in terms of landmark (people orient themselves by using a figurative memory for environmental objects), route (people use an egocentric representation of the space) and survey (people have a map-like representation of the space) user styles. Results: In line with our hypothesis, military pilots mainly adopt the survey style, whereas nonpilots mainly adopt the route style. In addition, pilots outperformed nonpilots in both the 3D Rotation Task and Map Description Task. Conclusions: Military flight expertise influences some aspects of spatial ability, leading to enhanced human navigation. However, it must be considered that they are a population whose navigational skills were already high at the time of selection at the academy before formal training began.

Cognitive Changes in a Commercial Pilot Secondary to an Olfactory Meningioma

BACKGROUND: Olfactory meningiomas are typically benign, slow-growing intracranial tumors with subtle presentations that result in delayed diagnosis. To date, only a few published reports describe meningiomas in airmen. None specifically mention olfactory meningiomas or detail the associated presence of cognitive impairment.CASE REPORT: This was a 55-yr-old commercial pilot with over 20 yr of flight experience who presented for a fitness-for-duty evaluation due to alarming performance at work and neurocognitive concerns. On examination, the patient had an odd affect and anosmia. Imaging showed a large, frontal, midline intracranial mass consistent with an olfactory meningioma.DISCUSSION: Fitness-for-duty cases are often challenging and even more so when neurocognition is called into question. Symptoms may be subtle and gradual in onset, making recognition and diagnosis difficult. Dementia, alcohol or substance misuse/abuse, and psychiatric diagnoses are often the first conditions considered when evaluating new cognitive impairment in a pilot. This case highlights the importance of keeping a broad differential, including intracranial masses, conducting a thorough neurological examination, and the judicious use of brain imaging.Hong M, Kreykes AJ. Cognitive changes in a commercial pilot secondary to an olfactory meningioma. Aerosp Med Hum Perform. 2020; 91(12):966969.

Honeybee lifespan: the critical role of pre-foraging stage

Assessing the various anthropogenic pressures imposed on honeybees requires characterizing the patterns and drivers of natural mortality. Using automated lifelong individual monitoring devices, we monitored worker bees in different geographical, seasonal and colony contexts creating a broad range of hive conditions. We measured their life-history traits and notably assessed whether lifespan is influenced by pre-foraging flight experience. Our results show that the age at the first flight and onset of foraging are critical factors that determine, to a large extent, lifespan. Most importantly, our results indicate that a large proportion (40%) of the bees die during pre-foraging stage, and for those surviving, the elapsed time and flight experience between the first flight and the onset of foraging is of paramount importance to maximize the number of days spent foraging. Once in the foraging stage, individuals experience a constant mortality risk of 9% and 36% per hour of foraging and per foraging day, respectively. In conclusion, the pre-foraging stage during which bees perform orientation flights is a critical driver of bee lifespan. We believe these data on the natural mortality risks in honeybee workers will help assess the impact of anthropogenic pressures on bees.

Visual Flight into Instrument Meteorological Condition: A Post Accident Analysis

The phenomenon of encountering instrument meteorological conditions (IMCs) while operating an aircraft under visual flight rules (VFRs) remains a primary area of concern. Studies have established that pilots operating under VFRs that continue to operate under IMCs remains a significant cause of accidents in general aviation (GA), resulting in hundreds of fatalities. This research used the Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) database, which contained a total of 196 VFR to IMC occurrences, from 2003 to 2019, with 26 having formal reports. An explanatory design was adopted, commencing with a qualitative study of the 26 occurrences with reports followed by a quantitative study of all 196 occurrences. Factors investigated included the locations and date of the occurrences, involved aircraft (manufacturer, model, type), pilot details (licenses, ratings, h, and medical), number of fatalities, and causal factors. Fisher’s exact tests were used to highlight significant relationships. Results showed occurrences were more likely to end fatally if (1) they involved private operations, (2) pilots only had a night VFR rating, (3) the pilot chose to push on into IMCs, (4) the pilot did not undertake proper preflight planning consulting aviation weather services, and (5) the pilot had more than 500 h of flight experience. Further results showed occurrences were less likely to end fatally if the meteorological condition was clouds without precipitation, if the pilot held a full instrument rating, or the pilot was assisted via radio. Analysis of the data using the Human Factors Analysis and Classification System (HFACS) framework revealed that errors and violations occur with slightly greater frequency for fatal occurrences than non-fatal occurrences. Quantitative analyses demonstrated that the number of VFR to IMC occurrences have not decreased even though initiatives have been implemented in an attempt to address the issue.