Senior Pilots Research Articles

British Defence in a Changing World

Before looking to the future of British Defence, it is useful to recall some important lessons from the recent past. On the night of 20 March 2003, Lieutenant Commander Finn, a senior pilot on 845 ...

West Virginia Senior and Disabled Assessment Pilot Project State Innovations: The Role of Technology in State Long-Term Care Reform

The West Virginia Health Care Authority is in the process of implementing a pilot project in several West Virginia counties to evaluate the appropriateness of a unique, computerized, and comprehensive assessment tool for West Virginia’s seniors and disabled populations. The pilot project objectives stem from West Virginia’s need to embrace a uniform assessment tool for entry into the long-term care system. The pilot includes four users from three home care service types, home health agencies, case management agencies, and county senior programs. The goal of the pilot is to expand the application of this innovative tool across the spectrum of services to build the necessary bridges between the acute and long-term care system. The results and recommendations that come from this cutting-edge project will provide efficient communication of confidential information across providers and enhanced clinical decision making to improve the quality of care delivered to each and every individual.

The Math Club for Girls and Other Problem Solvers

You have just entered ‘My Plane,’” reported Captain Karen Lee, pilot at the United Parcel Service hub at the Louisville (Kentucky) International Airport. A group of girls from Meyzeek Middle School listened intently to Captain Lee's every word as they tried out the few passenger seats, sat in the pilot's cockpit, tried on her cap and blazer, and even tinkered with the dials and switches. Captain Lee works at one of the largest employers in our area, UPS, where the Math Club for Girls and Other Problem Solvers was touring the facilities of this package-delivery giant. Our interest in this senior pilot's career was the incentive for the group's visit, yet the club also observed the center's activities. At the most hectic point of the visit, fifty planes were being packed with cargo.

Footloose and Fancy Free — Residential Choices of SFO- and LAX-Based Airline Pilots

Footloose and Fancy Free Residential Choices of SFO- and LAX-Based Airline Pilots JAMES J. PARSONS" MOST OF THE world's population lives where they do as a result of chance rather than choice. Historical accident and inertia on the one hand, and economic opportunity, job, and family ties on the other, largely determine our places of residence. Even in the United States, the wealthiest and most mobile of nations, this is true. But where would we live if we were completely free to choose, if we were not bound to place by cultural or economic ties or social impediments, if we were to select the most attractive, most congenial environment we could find in which to spend our lives? The choice would be highly subjective. Public opinion polls on residential preference show that most Americans are relatively satisfied with where they live, without strong desires to move elsewhere. The principal alternative preference these polls have demonstrated is for the small town or rural areas, preferably not too far from the bright lights of the city. A nostalgia for the simpler ways and the simpler life of the past increasingly pervades our residential fantasies. But despite such expressed preferences, the nation's population can hardly be said to be decentralizing very rapidly. Job° James J. Parsons is Professor, Department of Geography, University of California, Berkeley. 81 82ASSOCIATION OF PACIFIC COAST GEOGRAPHERS opportunities in small towns are simply not as numerous, diverse, or attractive as in larger places. In many cases, information influences the decision of where to live as much as economics. We are most confident and comfortable about places familiar to us and accessible to us — places where we know our neighbors. Choices tend to be made accordingly. Study Group— Methodology In looking for an optimal index group, freed from both financial and informational limitations, a group that has moved about and for whom the inertia born of long residence in one or a few places would be minimal, I thought first of retired military personnel. Cosmopolitan, they have generally seen the world and have the income to support themselves pretty much wherever they may choose to live. Such people do tend to pile up in a few attractive locations. Thus, there are said to be more than 250 retired admirals in Coronado, some 200 retired generals in San Antonio, and so on. Long Beach, Monterey, Honolulu , Florida, and the Denver area are similar poles of attraction . But there is a fatal flaw in this line of reasoning. Such retired military officers are almost always found within easy access of a government commissary (PX) for discount purchases and near an Army or Navy hospital. Their choice of retirement residence is strongly influenced by government subsidies relating to food and to health services that are available only in certain places. Another major factor in the clustering of retired officers of flag rank is the fraternal tie. They are graduates of only two "universities" who have worked together rather closely for up to thirty or more years. The group that comes closest to fitting my bill, I believe, may be the country's 36,000 male commercial airline pilots. They are extremely well paid, generally have seen a great deal of the world, and are generally well educated and curious. Further, they tend to have long "breaks" (time off) between periods of actual employment (flight assignments), so they have more time to spend at home than most working Americans. YEARBOOK · VOLUME 41 · 197983 Vacations are generous; pilots with less than 12 years service get 23 to 30 days per year, others more senior up to six weeks. Labor agreements negotiated over the past 15 years have given flight personnel increasing control over their own lives. Senior pilots for Pan Am, for example, can schedule their flying time each month so as to complete it within 10-12 days, requiring only one such period per month away from home. With that kind of time on their hands and the 'travel bug' pretty well suppressed by the nature of their work, pilots find a place in the country (with plenty of space for projects to keep them busy) to be very appealing. Also...

Survey of cockpit visual problems of senior pilots : Welsh, K.W., Vaughan, J.A. and Rasmussen, P.G. Dec 1976, 11 pp; abstr in Government Reports Announcements (Report No AD-A037 587/3GA)

Abstract : Fifty general aviation pilots (average age 49; range 40-73) completed a questionnaire concerning cockpit visual problems. The results of the questionnaire indicated that proper interpretation of the airspeed indicator and the altimeter required the best visual acuity (48 and 39 percent of the respondents respectively). However, 33 percent reported the attitude indicator, an instrument with relatively few numerals or markings, required optimum visual acuity. Thirty-seven percent of the pilots reported that the engine instruments, usually smaller scale, are difficult to read. Light reflected from instrument cover plates caused visual problems for 32 percent of the pilots, with most difficulty occurring during daylight hours. Forty-eight percent of the pilots reported a delay in focusing from outside the cockpit to the charts and instruments, while 6 percent reported a delay of focusing from inside to outside the cockpit. More instrument readability problems were evident while flying at night than during dusk or daylight. The effects of decreasing focusing power, altered dark adaptation, and need for more lighting are discussed with respect to the older pilot. Recommendations are made to investigate the effects of instrument lighting, vision standards, and instrument design and location with respect to the limitations of the aging visual system. (Author)

II—Results of the Study

Recruitment and assessment of the sample. Recruiting and interviewing began in December 1974. Over 220 hours were spent interviewing the sample, which comprised 68 men. Senior officers were preferred because more informed criticism was expected from them. The watchkeeping record of well over two-thirds of the sample amounted to more than ten years' experience; these were masters, chief officers, second officers, uncertificated third officers, senior pilots and, in addition, two lecturers. Many nationalities were represented and the majority held masters' certificates or were attending the college studying for them. The recruitment of serving officers had a rather poor response, numbers being made up by officers on leave. These men came in for a day, a morning or an afternoon, and thus were not exposed to all the systems since such high exposure in a short time might have caused saturation. There was therefore a proportion of the sample which saw only part of the systems though the majority did see it all. There were men who saw just one system, possibly volunteers who did not particularly want to continue, or others who were snatched away from the college by commercial pressures. The approach to these men was important. The sample was exposed to a two-hour lecture period, usually on modern radio aids, and each group was shown the teaching exercises and an explanation of the research objectives as well as the systems.

Flying insects as potential targets: initial feasibility studies with airborne Doppler equipment in East Africa

Flying locust swarms have already been found to provide particularly efficient three-dimensional targets for ultra-low-volume aircraft spraying. An exceptionally large proportion of the total insecticide applied can be picked up on the insects themselves, and kills exceeding one tonne of locusts per litre of insecticide have been assessed in the course of such operations. There is reason to believe that it was by aircraft spraying of swarms, often in flight, in Morocco during 1960, that locust control operations may for the first time have had a significant impact on the overall Desert Locust situation. Similar operations during 1968, in Ethiopia (with an outstanding Ethiopian senior pilot, Ato Abebe Wordofa) and again in Morocco, appear to have played a considerable part in suppressing the unusually short-lived recent upsurge of the Desert Locust, Schistocerca gregaria Forskal.