Human Factors Flashcards
What are the exercise guidlines?
30 min 3x per week
What is a Class 1 medical applicable to and what is it’s validity?
- Required for CPL, ATPL, flight navigators and engineers
- 1 year validity (6 months over 65)
What is a full class 2 medical applicable for and what is it’s validity?
- Flight instructing, CPL operations below 8618kg with no pax, RPL, PPL
- 4 years, 2 years above 40
What is a basic class 2 medical applicable to and how long is it valid for?
- GP issuable
- Private day VFR below 10,000ft, max 5 pax, piston engine below 8618kg, no use of ratings or endorsements
- valid up to 5 years below 40, 2 years above 40, 1 year above 70
What is a class 3 medical applicable to and how long is it valid for?
- Mainly to ATC
- Valid 2 years
What is a class 5 medical applicable to and how long is it valid for?
- Recreational and private pilots self assess without formal medical exam
- Day VFR below 10,000ft, max 2 pax, below 2000kg
- Valid 5 years until 40, 2 years 40-74 or 16-74 with conditional drivers license, 1 year 75+
What is a RAMPC medical applicable to and how long is it valid?
- Based on modified unconditional drivers license medical
- Single engine, day VFR, below 10,000ft, max 1 pax
- Valid 2 years below 65, max 12 months above 65
What is angina?
- Symptom of underlying heart disease
- reduced blood supply to heart as a result of arteries thickening or blocking
- Enormous stress on heart
- Chest pain, high risk of heart attack
What are the causes of angina?
Smoking, high cholesterol, obesity, alcohol
What height does air density halve?
18,000ft
What is a URTI?
- Upper Respiratory Tract Infection
- involves sinus, throat, ears
- usually blocked and have issues equalising
- colds, flus, hayfever, congestion, sinus infections
How does partial pressure work?
Total pressure made up of partial pressures equal to the portion that the individual gas makes up.
E.g Oxygen makes up 21% of the atmosphere and therefore has a partial pressure of 21%
How much oxygen does the body require to breathe normally?
74hPa
What is hypoxic hypoxia?
- lack of partial pressure of oxygen
- high altitude
What is anaemic hypoxia?
- oxygen carrying capacity of haemoglobin reduced
- smoking, anemia, CO poisoning
What is stagnant hypoxia?
- blood circulation poor
- heart attacks, low blood pressure, Gs, excessive blood loss
What is histoxic hypoxia?
- brain rejects oxygen due to some form of intoxication
What are the symptoms of hypoxia?
- feeling of euphoria
- vision impairment
- mental confusion
- cyanosis
- poor motor skills
- hyperventilation
- apprehension
- nausea, dizziness
- numbness and tingling
- blue fingertips
- eventually loss of consciousness and death
What increases hypoxia?
- Smoking
- Drinking
- Extreme temps
- Physically unfit
- Increased demand for oxygen
What is the time of useful consciousness at 20,000 ft?
Pilot - 10 min
Passenger - 20 min
What is the time of useful consciousness at 25,000 ft?
Pilot - 3min
Passenger - 5min
What is the time of useful consciousness at 30,000 ft?
Pilot - 1min
Passenger - 3min
What is the time of useful consciousness above 30,000 ft?
Pilot - <1min
Passenger - <3min
What are the symptoms of food poisoning?
- Nausea/stomach cramps
- Vomiting and diarrhoea
- Fever and headaches
What are the common causes of food poisoning?
- Cross contamination of cooked and uncooked food
- improper temp control
- toxins in food and water
- dairy products/seafood
How long do migraines usually last?
4 hours to 3 days
What are the symptoms of migraines?
- Pulsating and throbbing pain
- Nausea
- Vomiting
- Sensitivity to light
What are the CASA pregnancy requirements?
- Can’t fly after 30 weeks, as little as 6 weeks after
What is the retirement age?
65
If PIC over 60, co-pilot must be under 60.
How long after blood donation can you fly?
24 hours
What is the BAC limit?
0%, however can read 0.02%
What is hyperventilation?
Washout of CO2 from the body causing lightheadness, dizziness, weakness, tingling fingertips
What are the redout, greyout, blackout and GLOC G’s?
- Redout: -2.0G
- Greyout: +3.5G
- Blackout: +5.0G
- G-LOC +5.0G sustained or >5.0G
What are the diving guidlines?
- dive w/ no compression stops: 4 hours rest
- dive <4 hours w/ compression stops: 12 hours rest
- dive >4 hours w/ compressions stops: 48 hours rest
What are the symptoms of CO poisoning?
- dizziness
- blurred vision and disorientation
- nausea and vomiting
- rapid heart rate
- loss of hearing
- loss of consiousness
- possible seizures, respiratory failure and cardiac arrest
How long does short term memory last?
15 seconds
What is the difference between semantic and episodic long term memory?
- Semantic: memory of meaning, understanding and other concepts based on knowledge
- Episodic: memory of autobiographical events (times, places, and associated emotions)
What are the symptoms of stress?
- fatigue and memory problems
- moodiness and irratability
- withdrawn personality
- alcohol and drug abuse
- lack of sleep
- kidney and liver problems
What are some stress management techniques?
- relaxation therapy
- finding an outlet or mode of exercise
- medication
- cognitive behavioural therapy
What is the outer ear made up of?
Ear Auricle, Canal, Drum
What is the middle ear made up of?
3 bones (hammer, anvil, stirrup)
Eustachian tube used to equalise pressure
What is the inner ear made up of?
- Otoliths (utricle and saccule), semicircular canal for balance
- Cochlea sends signals to auditory nerve
How does the ear work?
- auricle catches vibrations from outside
- vibrations sent down canal to drum
- drum vibrates and sends vibrations to ossicles
- ossicles amplify them and send to cochlea
- cochlea converts to nerve impulses for brain to use
- nerve impulses go to brain through auditory nerve
What are the 3 types of hearing loss?
- Conductive: defect of ossicles or ear drum
- Sensorineural: failure of auditory nerve
- Presbycusis: old age
What sound levels cause hearing loss and pain?
85dB causes permanent hearing loss
120dB causes ear discomfort
140dB causes physical pain
What do rods and cones do?
Cells in retina
Rods pick up shape, movement
Cones pick up colour
How much focussing do the cornea and lens do?
Cornea - 70-75%
Leans - 25-30%
When do rods and cones work best?
Rods - low light
Cones - Lots of light
How long does it take to adapt to light and darkeness?
Light - 5 minutes
Darkness - 20-30 minutes
What is empty field myopia?
- When nothing to focus on in visual field, eyes focus 1-2 meters ahead
- Muscles relax and you get blurred vision without realising it and can miss objects in the distance
What is Myopia?
- Short sightedness
- cornea elongated on horizontal plane causing light to be refracted short of the retina
- requires concave lenses
- struggle to see traffic
What is Hyperopia?
- long sightedness
- cornea elongated on vertical plane causing light to be refracted long of retina
- Requires convex lens
What is an astigmatism?
- cornea uneven in shape
- eye focusses light short and beyond the retina
- images appear blurred
- correction cylindrical lens
What is presbyopia?
- with age, eye progressively diminishes ability to focus on near objects
- lens harden
What is flicker vertigo?
- caused by flickering light
- causes disorientation, vertigo and nausea
- if severe, loss of motor response and seizure
How do you avoid disorientation?
- fly with visual reference
- avoid staring at any lights stationary or flickering
- allow time for eyes to adapt
- avoid fatigue
Which part of the ear picks up linear acceleration?
Otolithic organ of the Utricle
Which part of the ear picks up angular acceleration?
Semi-circular canal
When does the semi circular canal not pick up movement?
Roll below 2° per second
What is the Somatogravic Illusion?
Acceleration feels like pitching up, deceleration feels like pitching down
What is the Somoatogyral (Leans) Illusion?
Pilot doesn’t recognise slow roll below 2° per second and when corrected, feels like you are rolling the other way. Can enter graveyard spiral
What is the auto-kinetic illusion?
When you stare at a staionary light and it looks like it starts moving
What is the Coriolis illusion?
If you turn your head suddenly while in a turn, it feels like the aircraft is tumbling and you become disorientated
What aggravates motion sickness?
- Featureless sky
- Darkness
- Lack of visual references
- Inner ear infections
What alleviates motion sickness?
- open air vents
- loosen clothing
- supplemental oxygen
- maintain visual reference with horizon
- avoid unnecessary head movements
What is the wider runway illusion?
Appears closer and lower. Tendency to overshoot
What is the slimmer runway illusion?
Appears further and higher. Tendency to undershoot
How do stripes show width?
- 60ft 4 stripes
- 75ft 6 stripes
- 100ft 8 stripes
- 150ft 12 stripes
- 200ft 16 stripes
What is the illusion with a runway sloping up?
- You feel high, pilot descends creating shallow approach and possible undershoot.
What is the illusion with a runway sloping down?
- You feel low, pilot adds power and has tendency for overshoot or steeper descent
What is the visibility illusion when landing?
- When vis abnormally clear, runway feels closer and you feel lower
- When vis poor, feels further and you feel high on approach
- Black hole effect at night is when a dark surface makes you feel too high
What is the motion parallax illusion?
- Objects further away appear to move slower
- Objects viewed by pilot moving at great speed are ‘apparently closer’
Which direction makes jet lag worse?
Travelling East
How much does the body clock need to speed up with jet lag to the east?
Approx 1.5 hours per dayW
When is the worst time to work efficiently?
- Early morning and early afternoon
What are the hazardous attitude types?
- Anti-Authority
- Deference
- Impulsiveness
- Invulnerable
- Macho
- Resignation
- Pride
- Peer Pressure
- Employer Pressure
What are the decision influences?
- Conformity (not odd one out)
- Compliance
- Status/Obedience
- Risk Shifting
What can cause an incorrect decision?
- False Hypothesis: high expectancy, distractions, relaxing during cruies, seeking reassurance, not monitoring (auto pilot)
- Environmental Capture: do something right every time and don’t check you did it right anymore.
What are the differences between cockpit gradiants?
- Too steep: captain dictatorship, FO left out, crew reluctant to speak up
- Too shallow: captain and FO share equally in emergency, no one in charge
- Good: Captain in charge with input from FO
What is push and pull communication?
- Push: giving commands, making statements, giving diagnosis
- Pull: asking questions, making proposal, reading back
What are open and closed questions?
- Open: prompting for elaboration
- Closed: Yes/No, one word answers
What is the PILOT model?
- Probe the facts - assess situation
- Identify the problem - analyse
- Look for solutions - pros vs cons
- Operate - do a solution
- Take stock - assess
What is a threat?
Something that could potentially negatively affect flight safety
What are the three types of threats with examples?
- Expected: e.g weather, traffic, terrain, CTA
- Unexpected: e.g weather, fires, animals, system malfunctions
- Latent: Fatigue, stress, lack of experience and knowledge
What are the examples of internal and external threats?
- Internal (PIC only): stress, fatigue, lack of experience, sickness/injury, hypoxia
- External Environmental (around aircraft): weather, terrain, traffic
- Organisational (incorrect info from publication): WNB, charts, SOP, MR
What is an error?
Pilot action or inaction
What are handling errors?
- Pilot input to aircraft e.g rudder, hard landing, wrong height, power setting, radio freq.
What are procedural errors?
- Failure to follow procedure e.g not following checklist, pre-flight, radio, gear up landing, transponder
What are communication errors?
- Poor communication e.g bad radio calls, read backs, phraseology
What are random errors?
- Usually inexperienced pilots.
- Error different time, no rhyme or reason
What are systematic errors?
- Trend to errors
- Easier to fix, corrections can be made
What are sporadic errors?
- usually experienced pilots
- everything done right, but occasionally error manifests
- pilot can not explain why they made error
What are ground navigation undesired aircraft states?
- RWY excursions
- Wrong holding point
- Taxi Speed
What are Handling State Undesired Aircraft States?
- Stall/spin
- Wrong IAS
- Wrong altitude
- CTA/SUA
- Lost
What are configuration undesired aircraft states?
- wrong frequency
- wrong transponder
- flap
- landing gear
- trim
- RPM
What is a planning countermeasure?
- Usually prior to flight reducing risk of unexpected latent threat
- e.g flight plan, alternates, holding fuel, NOTAM, training emergencies, pre-flight, pax brief
What is an execution countermeasure?
- Conducted in flight
- e.g checklist, CTAF, lookout, check instruments, monitor fuel
What is a review countermeasure?
- Remedy after seeing set of circumstances
- e.g 1:60, diversions, PS+L, return to base, go-around
What is a systematic countermeasure?
- in-built in aircraft and does not require pilot monitoring
- e.g stall horn, annunciator panels/warning lights, warning sounds, collision avoidance
Where should you pinch yourself when doing the ‘pinch test’?
Above the hip
For an average weight, at what rate does the body metabolise alcohol?
1 standard drink per hour
What is the path of bloody through the body?
Heart-lungs-heart-body systems-hear
The maximum distance at which an eye can see an object one meter in diameter is around:
D
What is the chemical in the eye that reacts to light?
Rhodopsin
What refractive error would you suffer if the refractive power from your eye lens was too weak?
Hypermetropia
For maximum comfort, what temp and humidity should the cabin be?
low to mid 20s with 40-60% humidity
What is hypertension?
High blood pressure
How much do earplugs reduce sound by?
20dB
How much does a headset reduce noise by?
40dB
Which part of the ear suffers damage as a result of long term noise exposure?
Hair follicles within the cochlea
When should a pilot use pain killers without speaking to a DAME?
Short term relief only
What height does night vision begin to degrade?
4,000ft
The captain has a decision to fly into bad weather or divert. What should he do?
Listen to the crew’s opinion first, then give his opinion and make a decision
What is a checklist used for?
Manage and prevent errors
One measure of the effectiveness of actions taken by crew to manage threats is?
Whether the threat was detected in time for the crew to act appropriately
