Tag: flying machines

The Power of Curated Flight Simulator Experiences

~ cjois

What’s different about Av8rAero’s flight simulation experiences? (www.Av8rAero.com).

Most people think a flight simulator is simply a machine that lets you “fly an airplane.” While that can certainly be exciting, it barely scratches the surface of what a thoughtfully designed simulator experience can offer.

The true power of a flight simulator lies not in the hardware, but in the experience that surrounds it.

A curated flight simulator experience is intentionally designed around a specific objective. Whether the goal is education, leadership development, family entertainment, aviation awareness, or personal growth, every element of the session is planned to create meaningful engagement. Rather than simply placing someone in the captain’s seat and letting them experiment, the experience becomes a carefully crafted journey.

Beyond Entertainment

Flying an airliner from takeoff to landing is memorable. Flying it while solving realistic challenges, making decisions under pressure, and understanding why professional pilots think the way they do is transformative.

A curated experience introduces participants to the art of decision-making. Weather changes unexpectedly. An instrument begins to fail. Air traffic becomes congested. A crosswind develops during landing. Every scenario becomes an opportunity to think, adapt, communicate, and learn.

Participants leave with much more than great photos—they leave with stories, insights, and a deeper appreciation for aviation and human performance.

Every Audience Deserves a Different Experience

No two participants walk into a simulator with the same interests or expectations.

A ten-year-old fascinated by airplanes should experience something very different from a corporate executive exploring leadership or a retired airline enthusiast reliving decades of aviation memories.

That is why curated experiences matter.

A STEM-focused session might introduce the science of lift, navigation, and weather. A family session emphasizes teamwork and shared excitement. A business workshop may focus on communication, situational awareness, workload management, and decision-making. Aviation enthusiasts might explore advanced instrument flying or historical aircraft operations.

The simulator is the same.

The experience is completely different.

Learning Through Experience

People rarely remember long lectures.

They remember experiences.

When participants are actively making decisions, observing outcomes, and discussing what happened, learning becomes memorable. Flight simulation creates an environment where mistakes become valuable teaching moments without real-world consequences.

This is one of aviation’s greatest strengths.

Pilots have long used simulation because it allows them to experience rare events, practice difficult procedures, and develop confidence before facing similar situations in the real world.

The same principle applies outside aviation. Leaders, students, engineers, healthcare professionals, and families all benefit from experiential learning that encourages observation, critical thinking, communication, and reflection.

The Human Element

The best simulator sessions are never about the airplane alone.

They’re about people.

How do people respond to uncertainty?

How do they divide attention between competing priorities?

What information do they notice—and what do they miss?

How does confidence influence decision-making?

How do teams communicate under pressure?

These are universal questions that extend far beyond aviation.

Every simulator session becomes an opportunity to better understand ourselves.

Memories That Last

Many attractions provide excitement for an hour.

A carefully curated simulator experience creates memories that last for years.

Participants remember the first smooth landing. The unexpected storm. The teamwork that solved a challenging situation. The moment they finally understood how pilots navigate through clouds or why cockpit communication matters so much.

These experiences often spark lifelong interests in aviation, engineering, science, leadership, or simply the joy of learning something entirely new.

More Than Flying

At Av8rAero, we believe that every simulator session should have a purpose.

Whether that purpose is inspiring the next generation of aviators, strengthening executive decision-making, celebrating a birthday, introducing families to aviation, or simply creating an unforgettable experience, our goal is the same: to design experiences that are engaging, educational, and memorable.

A flight simulator is an incredible piece of technology.

A curated flight simulator experience transforms that technology into inspiration.

And sometimes, inspiration is the most valuable destination of all.

CP Jois

Air Traffic Management – what the does future hold?

~ cjois

It is clear that air traffic management (ATM) across the globe is changing and changing rapidly. For the past several decades ATM has remained fairly constant and while changes have occurred they have been evolutionary. However, changes that are on the anvil are revolutionary and transformational.
Regardless of whether its NextGen in the US, or SESAR in Europe or CARATS in Japan, air traffic management is about to change permanently. Each of these programs has multiple tracks and while each of these programs gives these tracks different labels, there are many similarities in their goals. Efficient flight routing, fuels savings, noise abatement, balancing separation and safety, minimizing weather impact, shifting the dependence on voice communications are examples of the goals of these initiatives.
Its evident that with such a vast slew of changes, there will be impacts from a human factors perspective. A wide variety of tests are in progress to determine the totality of these impacts. The role of the human within the operation will change. Whether its providing clearances or issuing instructions through voice communications, the role of the individual is up for change. Air traffic is increasing rapidly. Passenger volumes are on the rise. ATM is in dire need of change. The dependence on the individual is here to stay for a long time, however, the system can be designed to help rather than burden the individual. One observation that can be drawn from the videos is that ATM may be at risk of experiencing the same type of issues that aircrafts went through when large scale transformations were introduced. One of those examples is flight deck automation. While the autopilot and FMS were valuable additions to the flight deck, they brought along with them several new risks. Some of those risks continue to materialize several years after those innovations were introduced.
It is not difficult to envision these types of risks when ADS-B, ERAM, Digital Voice, Performance-based Navigation or any of the other tracks in NextGen bring major changes to ATM. All of these change programs will bring relief to roles within ATM while also bringing on new challenges.
References:
Federal Aviation Administration. (2016, May 3). FAA TV: NextGen: See, Navigate & Communicate. Retrieved from www.faa.gov: https://www.faa.gov/tv/?mediaId=1332
JAXA | 宇宙航空研究開発機構]. (2014, March 6). Next generation air-traffic management system “DREAMS”. Retrieved from
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8WvVfDqVKes (Links to an external site.)
[SESAR]. (2014, February 12). SESAR Solutions explained. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7shT5W_rI1Q

Aviation Human Factors and Prospective Memory

~ cjois

Prospective memory is an emerging area of research within the field of Cognitive Psychology and Human Factors. Remembering to perform intended actions can be critical, especially in safety-related occupations like Air Traffic Control.

Failures in prospective memory (PM) are the reason why we fail to perform intended or required actions. There is increasing interest in the topic of prospective memory and the reasons for failures of such memory. While this subject is still under intense debate, according to one school of thought, prospective memory recall is driven by the process of monitoring. Another view is that it occurs as part of spontaneous retrieval. In either case, the intention for the planned task is retrieved which then allows for action. Distractions are one source of why action is forgotten.

Interruptions of any kind can be a cause (Shorrock, 2005; Sternberg & Sternberg, 2016). A telephone call or request for information can be sufficient cause to not return back to the ongoing task. The variety of peripheral tasks that controllers need to perform often conflict with the primary task of maintaining separation. Such tasks could include scanning displays, accepting aircraft, gathering and relaying weather advisories and responding to pilot requests.

Prospective memory recall is predicated on cues. A cue or trigger is necessary for prospective memory to work. As described earlier, to recall the intent, the human mind constantly polls for such items. When polling is not invested in, such as when we are preoccupied with other task(s), then the intent is not recalled and action is termed as ‘forgotten’. Under another school of thought, spontaneous retrieval occurs on account of a system within our brain that causes automatic retrieval of items at the appropriate times. Once again, when tasks preoccupy, spontaneity drops and we tend to forget the intent. Proximity, recency and task regularity could all affect prospective memory (Vortac, Edwards & Manning, 1995).

In the context of ATC, prospective memory failures can prove to be catastrophic. The incident at San Francisco of a controller positioning an aircraft on the runway for takeoff, forgetting about it, and further clearing an aircraft to land on the same runway is a case in point (Loft, 2014). They can affect controller actions such as separation, scope monitoring or performing other tasks such as flight strip updates, aircraft transfer, peer collaboration and shift transitions. Inaccurate recall of information on a strip, failing to observe conflicts and failure to annotate strips correctly are all examples of PM failures. Controllers may intend correctly but then fail to follow through on that thinking because they simply “forgot to do so”. In the realm of ATC, cues are either based on time or based on events (Loft, 2014; McDaniel & Einstein, 2007). However, monitoring takes a cost in the form of “brain cycles” and therefore impacts performance. Such impacts could come in the form of slowing down a certain action in order to devote time to monitoring.

External cues are an effective way to mitigate the risks of prospective memory failure (Vortac & Edwards, 1995). Memory aids are useful and can be any tool, prop or other aid that could serve as a reminder (FAA Video, 2015). They need to be incorporated into the routine though and not be ad-hoc. Mnemonics and placards are one way to avoid prospective memory errors (Loft, 2014; Stein, 1991). Using free text to jot down notes is another option. Memory aids must be effective. A good example from the video is that of holding a strip in hand as a reminder when there is a vehicle inspecting the runway. There is a growing interest in having the system alert and warn if an action is overdue. The sophistication available today makes it possible to code rules into the system and have it warn the controller. However, this may lead to the same type of over dependence on automation and sense of complacency that we find occur in pilots.

References
Federal Aviation Administration. (2015, September 02). Retrieved April 25, 2017, from https://www.faa.gov/tv/?mediaId=1151 (Links to an external site.)
Federal Aviation Administration. (2015, September 02). Retrieved April 25, 2017, from https://www.faa.gov/tv/?mediaId=1152 (Links to an external site.)
Loft, S. (2014). Applying psychological science to examine prospective memory in simulated air traffic control. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 23(5), 326-331.
McDaniel, M. A.. & Einstein G. (2007). Prospective Memory. Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications. Retrieved from https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/erau/detail.action?docID=996509
Shorrock, S. T. (2005). Errors of memory in air traffic control. Safety science, 43(8), 571-588.
Stein, E. S., & Federal Aviation Administration Technical Center (U.S.). (1991). Air traffic controller memory: A field survey. (). Springfield, Va;Atlantic City International Airport, N.J;: Federal Aviation Administration Technical Center.
Sternberg, R. J., & Sternberg, K. (2016). Cognitive psychology. Nelson Education.
Vortac, O. U., Edwards, M. B., & Manning, C. A. (1995). Functions of external cues in prospective memory. Memory, 3(2), 201-219.

Simulator Benefits

~ cjois

There is little doubt that simulators have redefined the realm of initial and recurrent training in both Military and Commercial aviation. Cost benefits have been a primary consideration. Lowering the risk of training has been the other major benefit. Achieving balance between simulator and real-aircraft training time has been a subject of much debate and research. Leaning too much to either format has impact. On one side, cost impacts could be significant. On the other, the trainee has little feel for what it is like to be performing this tasks in a real aircraft.

There is also truth to the fact that some areas of training are better handled in a sim while others absolutely need an aircraft. In my opinion, simulators have evolved to a point where they are close to ‘as real as it gets’. Transfer of training has proven to be effective. Aircrafts have become more technically advanced and a lot of training is focused on procedure and automation – an area where sims lend themselves to really well.

Replication of real-world weather, comms, terrain, flight dynamics have become possible. There isn’t a lot of loss in ambient factors in a simulator today.

In fact the term ‘supplement’ almost implies that sims are secondary. That has changed with time. In many areas, simulators end up being primary channels for training while aircraft-based training come in at an equal percentage or less.

Again, the one major risk of doing too much time in a sim is that it may lead to a situation where the trainee has little or no feel for what the real world circumstances will be like. This too, then comes down to how well real world factors are modeled into a simulation ecosystem – aka fidelity.