3L8 Situational Awareness

Question 1

Situational Awareness

Answer 1

The continuous extraction of environmental information, the integration of this information with previous knowledge to form a coherent mental picture, and the use of that picture in directing further perception and anticipating future events.

Question 2

Situational Awareness includes three processes:

Answer 2

• The perception of what is happening
• The comprehension of what has been perceived
• The projection (or use) of what is understood to think ahead

Question 3

Perception

Answer 3

Perception is defined as the ability to see, hear, or become aware of something through the senses. As it pertains to situational awareness and ATC, this is when we gather data. Some of the ways we gather this information is through scanning, equipment (OIDS, IIDS, CSiT), and CAATS functions.

Question 4

Comprehension

Answer 4

When you take the information you have gathered and
process it together with your individual knowledge to build a mental model of
the traffic situation.

Question 5

Specific ways to maintain situational awareness as an air traffic controller

Answer 5

-Deliver and receive thorough relief briefings
-Integrate scanning into your routine
-Communicate with co-workers and supervisor
-Communicate with pilots
-Be attentive to the working environment around you
-Know your personal limits
-Maintain a good knowledge of systems
-Plan ahead
-Anticipate what-ifs
-Shift tasks away from busy times
-Avoid fixating on a problem

Question 6

Projection

Answer 6

Roughly defined as taking changes in the things that you
perceive and re-inputting them into your mental model to update your future picture. It is when you adjust for changes or new situations that occur.

Question 7

Cues you can use to anticipate changes

Answer 7

• Continue to scan and assess priorities
• Understand what normal situations look like
• Monitor aircraft adherence to proper operating procedures
• Recognize deviations from normal situations
• Give some consideration to the normal interactional cues in your exchanges with the people around you

Question 8

Signs that can indicate a degraded situational awareness

Answer 8

• Unclear decision making
• Focusing on one thing to the exclusion of everything else
• Preoccupation on non-critical tasks
• Unresolved problems – ignoring a traffic situation for other tasks
• Poor communications – wrong call signs, needing to repeat yourself because you are speaking too quickly
• Failing to follow standard procedures
• Falling behind

Question 9

Describe how to recover situational awareness once it’s been lost

Answer 9

• Keep it simple. Revert to the simplest, safest solution
• Follow rules and procedures
• Communicate that you need help – having a second set of eyes can often give you the security to re-establish your situational awareness
• Try to recover the big picture by expanding your focus to avoid fixation and tunnel vision
• Manage stress and distractions
• Take time to think – slow down and ensure you are making a safe decision. Many times you will save yourself time by slowing down