Neis, Stefan Manuel (2020)
Evaluation of Pilot Vigilance during Cruise towards the Implementation of Reduced Crew Operations.
Technische Universität Darmstadt
doi: 10.25534/tuprints-00011376
Dissertation, Erstveröffentlichung

Kurzbeschreibung (Abstract)

Airlines operate in a highly competitive economic environment and hence seek to reduce cost. This thesis examines effects of a proposed reduction of flight crew to one pilot during cruise flight. It is hypothesized that the barrier to implementing Single Pilot Operations is the failure to consider the socio-technical system. Research to date focuses on high workload phases. A literature research reveals that no concept exists that addresses flight phases of low workload and their related challenges, such as reduced vigilance. A task analysis was conducted to identify those tasks that pilots execute during the cruise phase. It was assessed that under normal operations, workload is minimal, and pilots keep themselves engaged and thus vigilant through operations-unrelated tasks. An experiment was then designed to estimate vigilance levels during a simulated cruise flight in a realistic, non-laboratory environment. 10 engineering students acted as pilots and executed a 4 hour cruise flight under realistic conditions including communication and check tasks. For comparison, both Single and Dual Pilot Operation conditions were simulated. Subject’s vigilance was estimated through Psychomotor Vigilance Tasks, subjective assessments, and changes in physiological parameters over time. These include Engagement Indices obtained through Electroencephalogram, concentration of oxygenated hemoglobin and heart rate through near infrared spectroscopy, and eye blink frequencies and durations. Results were inconsistent, as vigilance is very dependent on personal characteristics. Nevertheless, based on 3 physiological parameters, the experiment confirmed that vigilance decreased significantly when no critical events occurred. An objective performance decrement was not detected. With the onset of a simulated critical event, vigilance increased significantly. No significant differences were found in the vigilance decrement between operating regime conditions. It was concluded that not the crew complement is the underlying cause of the vigilance decrement, but the nature of the cruise phase and lacking opportunities for meaningful engagement. To close the research gap, a new human centric single pilot concept of operations was developed. An on-board mission manager is assigned mission management tasks. Mission planning and airline operations support functions keep the mission manager engaged and vigilant during the flight. Following this thesis, the new concept of operations should be implemented and validated with regards to vigilance levels.

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