Week 2- Human Performance Limitations

Afternoon Readers,

So this week I have been learning about human performance and the limitations is poses to commercial aviation. Human performance limitations (HPL) is, at its core, a topic to try and help us improve the safety of air travel in various ways. As technology has increased in its capabilities over the years, it has come to light that humans are becoming the cause of more and more accidents as opposed to the technology in which they control- around 70%-80% of all accidents are now down to human error. That's not to say that technology doesn't have a part to play in an accident however generally accidents occur because of a failure in the interaction between the pilots and the aircraft or the procedures they abide by. It has now become more important than ever to teach not only pilots but also other aviation personnel:

1. How to recognise safety factors and limits (which they shouldn't push)
2. How to recognise illusions
3. How to interact professionally and synergistically with your crew members when on duty
4. How to recognise the signs of various illnesses such as hypoxia, decompression sickness and various barotraumas. 

Aviation is still the safest type of air 
travel despite public perception

This topic is very science and PE based. It involves learning in a fair amount of detail how they eyes, ears, cardiovascular system, respiratory system and nervous system works. The reasoning for this is that if we know how these systems work then we can better combat any failure of these in flight by recognising the symptoms earlier. 

It has been interesting but still hard work. What has been good this week is that as part of this topic, it makes sense to look at various air crash investigation videos where human error has been a reason for an aircraft accident. We have learnt about Helios flight 522 where as a result of the pilots not realising the aircraft pressurisation switch was turned to manual, everyone on board succumbed to hypoxia and eventually the plane ran out of fuel and crashed. We have also learnt about Air France flight 447 which crashed into the Atlantic as a result of the pilots on board not trusting or understanding the information the plane was telling them. Finally, we looked at the Tenerife disaster which is still considered the biggest aviation crash in history. Two Boeing 747 aircraft crashed into each other on the runway in Tenerife as a result of a misunderstanding on the radio; 583 people were killed.

On top of this I am still revising Mass and Balance so that I don't forget it all for the exams in a few weeks time!

This weekend I managed to pop home which was really nice. I was able to catch up with some old work colleagues for a BBQ and various friends and family for a picnic in the park on Sunday. Of course, there is only so much socialising you can do when you have revision and work to get on with but it was a nice (if not brief) change of scenery!

What a nice afternoon for a picnic!

That's all for now. Next week I will be finishing off HPL before starting Principles of Flight; a very physics and maths based topic!