Kill Otto

Kill Otto

by Peter King, ATP, MCFI

We flight instructors have been struggling for years to keep pilots from succumbing to the glass panel, and it's particularly challenging with pilots who learned instrument flying on glass. They just can't seem to take their eyes off the screens. The fault lies with “Otto”—Automation—and he is very captivating.

After you see the symptoms in pilot after pilot, they are clear:

• Map Flying: I know I'm at the fix because I see it on the map.
• Authority Inversion: The GPS will tell me where to go.
• Inadequate Preparation: No need to brief; I can look at real-time weather data in the air.

Otto Has a New Gewgaw

Just when I didn't think it could get any worse, along came the iPad with all its flashy, geo-referenced, GPS-tracked, XM-enabled eye-candy. The iPad is the new attractive nuisance in Otto's collection, and pilots are completely enchanted with it. What is suffering? Situational awareness.

I was amazed at the widespread adoption of the iPad at recent Cessna Advanced Aircraft Recurrent Training (CAART) and Cirrus Pilot Proficiency Program (CPPP) weekends. It seemed like every pilot had one. In flight, the impact was unmistakable. Every time I asked pilots to do something, their first response was to look down and start tapping on the iPad. The goal? Figure out how to get the iPad to do what I asked the pilot to do. Who was missing? The pilot-in-command! Who was flying the plane? Otto! Where were we going? Nobody knew! (Well I did, but I'm the instructor.) The pilot kept trying to figure out how to ask Otto where to go; meanwhile, Otto was waiting for instructions from the pilot. Catch-22.

So my pilots and I had a really great time over those two weekends rediscovering what it meant to be pilot-in-command. Step 1: Kill Otto. We deliberately turned off all the automation and flew. It was surprisingly fun, for instructor and pilot alike.

Gesticulate Last

When you incorporate the iPad into your flying, it is critical that you correctly establish its priority of importance. You've all heard the adage: Aviate, Navigate, Communicate. This wisdom of the ages reminds us of the priority in which to do things. Aviate first.

Now, with the iPad, consider extending the adage to: Aviate, Navigate, Commu­ni­cate, Gesticulate. Tap on your iPad (gesticulate) last. The iPad's job is to provide information, not to fly the airplane. That's your job. When you do turn to the iPad for information, you need to make sure Otto doesn't start taking over and making decisions for you.

Start with the Chart

The quickest way to build situational awareness is to start with the chart. Say it with me: start with the chart. For example, let's say I am flying up the eastern shore of Lake Okeechobee in Florida, and I have a passenger who needs a break. If I ask Otto for the nearest airports in the database, he will first tell me to go to Indiantown (X58), which is a grass strip unfriendly to my airplane. Then he will tell me to go to Gwinn (06FA), which would take me through a restricted area to a private military contractor's airport. Both of these are bad choices.

Instead, if you look at the chart, you can easily see that Indiantown is a grass strip, and you can easily see that Gwinn is a private airport with a nearby restricted area. Charts are designed to give you the most relevant and important information as quickly as possible, so start with the chart.

While you are looking at that chart, something else is happening; you are subconsciously building situational awareness. You are building a mental model of the geography and terrain over which you are flying, which significantly enhances your ability to make informed decisions.

In 2005, Dr. Stephen Casner at NASA's Ames Research Center published a study of the ability of pilots to navigate an area after flying a course through it using either pilot­age or GPS. The pilots who had previously flown the area using pilotage were able to return without problem. The pilots who had previously flown through using GPS had significant difficulties. Two of the pilots couldn't even find the area to begin with.

GPS and moving map automation does not improve positional awareness, it supplants it. Pilots who use GPS and moving maps tend to delegate positional awareness to Otto; however, to make effective and informed decisions, pilots need that information in their head, not in a box. They need to maintain their situational awareness, and an effective first step is to start with the chart.

The House of Cards

The most fun I've had recently was watching a pilot recover from the cascading failures triggered by a complete loss of GPS signal in a technically advanced aircraft. It is surprising how integrated the avionics are these days and how dependent all the systems are on GPS.

Can you guess what the first indication of a problem with GPS was? “TAWS Unavailable.” I don't know about you, but that sure doesn't make me think, “Oh, the GPS has failed.” The second indication is that the MFD removes the airplane from the map and reverts to North Up display. That's good for a minute or two of confused fixation and an increase in stomach acid production. Then there are multiple warning messages from the GPS, an INTEG annunciator, and finally, pilots might get around to noticing that their HSI course guidance has disappeared.

It literally took close to five minutes before the pilot flying understood what was going on and started navigating again. That's over 10 nautical miles!

I am by no means advocating a neo-Luddite abandonment of all automation. I am simply pointing out that it is important to remember a few things when flying automated aircraft: (1) You are pilot-in-command; (2) There is a natural tendency to become over-reliant on automation, and that can have an adverse impact on situational awareness; and (3) It can be really fun to go out and fly old-school—even in a technically advanced aircraft.

Kill Otto for a day and have a blast! You'll be a better pilot for it.

Peter King is an ATP/MCFI. He produces courses about instrument flying for Flying Like the Pros, www.flyinglikethepros.com.