Two-man Crews Research Articles

SPECIAL SOFTWARE FOR PILOT TRAINING

[For the English abstract and full text of the article please see the attached PDF-File (English version follows Russian version)].ABSTRACT The article is devoted to description of methodological problems, occurred during application of special software package intended for training civil aviation personnel within the program «CRM - two-man crew resource management». The authors suggest approaches to solution of main problems in assessment of efficiency of interaction in the aircraft crew, and to realization of suggested solutions. The article continues previously discussed topic (see World of Transport and Transportation Vol. 12, 2014, Iss. 5; Vol. 14, 2016, Iss. 1; Vol. 15, 2017, Iss. 3). Keywords: civil aviation, flight safety, CRM, special software, methodological follow-up.

Skin Diseases Affecting High-Level Competition Sailors: Descriptive Study Carried Out During the 2012 AG2R Transatlantic Boat Race

The primary objective of this study was to identify skin disorders encountered in a population of sport sailors. Unlike merchant mariners and fishermen, there is sparse literature on this maritime population. Secondary objectives were to uncover on-board conditions that may contribute to dermatological problems in this population. We conducted a prospective study during the 2012 AG2R transatlantic race. Sixteen two-man crews participated in this race, all using the same model of sailboat (Bénéteau Figaro 2). Clinical examinations were conducted, photographs taken, and questionnaires containing 34 questions were handed out before departure and on arrival, 22 to 24 days later. Twenty-eight of 32 skippers (88%) participated in departure data collection, and 18 (56%) completed data collection on arrival. The average age of sailors was 34 years (SD = 8). Compared with skin diseases documented on departure, there was an increased amount of folliculitis on the buttocks, fungal infections, and hyperkeratosis of the hands on arrival. Furthermore, several new skin problems were found postrace: skin scaling, skin erosions on the buttocks, dyshidrosis, thermal burns, and sunburns. The use of protective gear and sunscreen was common, but on-board hygiene was poor with infrequent bathing and clothing changes. Skin conditions are nearly universal in this maritime population. Further assessments are needed to know if long-term use of protective gear; improved hygiene; use of barrier creams; and proper on-board care of fungal infections, wounds, and burns could reduce the number and severity of skin problems encountered in sport sailors.

Machine function integration and its effect on the performance of a timber yarding and processing operation

An assessment of the benefits of a fully integrated yarder-processor was made against the alternative of splitting the yarding and processing functions onto two base machines. The effect of productivity rates, specific costs, and crew sizes on the relative performance of each working configuration was investigated. The systems analysis showed that for the integrated yarder machine, a two-man crew was considerably cheaper than a three-man crew at all yarding distances, although the difference became less pronounced with increasing mean tree volumes. The single integrated machine with a 2-man crew was cheaper than the modelled 2-machine system at medium and longer extraction distances, as the processor base machine in the 2-machine systems incurred a considerable cost penalty in waiting idly for the yarder. At shorter distances (75 m) the 2-machine system was cheapest, but became less competitive with increasing mean tree volume. For mid-sized trees (0.38 m3) on a medium corridor length of 150 m, overall system productivity rates ranged from 5.2 m3 per productive system hour (PSH) for the single machine system to 9.4 PSH−1 for the 2-machine system, although the specific net costs were almost identical at 31.5 € m−3. A sensitivity analysis showed that reduced labour costs would promote use of the 2-machine system, suggesting that the optimum system configuration would be country specific. Despite being marginally more costly in small trees at short corridor lengths (75 m), the single fully-integrated machine was considered the working configuration of choice under Norwegian conditions.

Assessment of robotic recon for human exploration of the Moon

Robotic reconnaissance (“recon”) has the potential to significantly improve scientific and technical return from lunar surface exploration. In particular, robotic recon can be used to improve traverse planning, reduce operational risk, and increase crew productivity. To study how robotic recon can benefit human exploration, we recently conducted a field experiment at Black Point Lava Flow (BPLF), Arizona. In our experiment, a simulated ground control team at NASA Ames teleoperated a planetary rover to scout geology traverses at BPLF. The recon data were then used to plan revised traverses. Two-man crews subsequently performed both types of traverses using the NASA “Lunar Electric Rover” (LER) and simulated extra-vehicular activity (EVA) suits. This paper describes the design of our experiment, presents our results, and discusses directions for future research.

Use of the CABS methodology to assess biomechanical stress in commercial crab fishermen

Commercial fishing is a job characterized by long hours in an unpredictable, dynamic natural environment and variable demands placed on the musculoskeletal system, requiring strength, coordination, and endurance. The focus of this project was in the quantification of the biomechanical stresses placed on the lumbar spine during the work activities of commercial crab fishermen. The continuous assessment of back stress (CABS) methodology was used to develop distributions describing the amount of time that each of the crew members on a two- or three-man crabbing crew spend at various levels of low back stress. The results of this analysis, expressed in terms of time-weighted histograms, show significant inter and intra-crewmember variability in the stress measures during regular daily work activities. For the three man crew, the captain has relatively low stress levels throughout the work day, while the mate performs high force (up to 30 kg), dynamic exertions while pulling the crab pots from the water up into the boat and high loads (20–40 kg) during the loading and unloading of the boat in the morning and evening, respectively. The third man of the crew experiences static awkward postures (forward flexed postures held for up to 5 min at a time) as he sorts and packs the crabs. For the two-man crew, the results show a more even distribution of the high stress activities between the crewmembers. The application of the results of this analysis for prioritization of work tasks for ergonomic intervention is discussed.

Supervision: what is more important, quantity or quality?

In their logbooks, most trainees collect information on the quantity of super-vision received by documenting the grade of senior anaesthetist with them in the operating theatre. This system records the number of cases conducted in the presence of another anaesthetist but does little to reflect the quality of supervision, or who had primary clinical responsibility for the patient. Airline pilots maintain logbooks in much the same way as anaesthetists. Perhaps there is something we can learn from this industry. Pilots routinely record their command status for the flight. The terms used are as follows: P1 - pilot in command of the aircraft. P2 - co-pilot (a more senior or equivalent pilot is in command of the aircraft). P/UT - pilot under training (where the individual is either undergoing training to achieve the basic pilot's licence or working towards a more advanced rating). P1/S - pilot under supervision (the pilot is fully trained and in command of the aircraft but is being supervised for the purpose of refresher training or assessment/re-certification). Perhaps we should consider using this method to reflect both the quality and the quantity of supervision of trainee anaesthetists. Some modifications are necessary as most commercial aircraft operate two-man crews, whereas there may frequently be only one anaesthetist. If we adopted two sets of terms to record supervision, the first could include data on ‘assistance’ and the second ‘clinical responsibility’. For assistance we would record either ‘solo’ or the grade of the other anaesthetist in attendance. In the clinical responsibility box we could use a modification of the pilot's system. A1 - anaesthetist responsible for the case; A2 - anaesthetist supporting the anaesthetist with primary responsibility for the case; A/UT - anaesthetist under training. This would encompass basic training or specialties in which the trainee is not yet deemed competent to undertake an unsupervised operating list; A1/DS - anaesthetist under DIRECT supervision/assessment by a more senior anaesthetist where the trainee has primary and full responsibility for the patient; A1/IS - anaesthetist under INDIRECT supervision/assessment by a more senior anaesthetist where the trainee has primary and full responsibility for the patient. The trainer is not actually in the operating theatre but remains available and has overall responsibility for both the trainee and the patient. Thus a typical entry for a trainee anaesthetist in his/her first few weeks of training may read ‘Consultant’ and ‘A/UT’ reflecting an individual undergoing instruction/training by a consultant anaesthetist. This form of data collection allows the cross-tabulated analysis of both the degree of supervision and the extent to which trainees take primary clinical responsibility for the patients they anaesthetise. As departmental logbooks also collect data on the grade of the individual anaesthetist, this information can be used to analyse the working practice of teams of anaesthetists operating in individual operating theatres or within specialties. In the light of recent reports in the popular press concerning the competence and activities of trainees, such objective information may prove to be invaluable by reflecting more accurately the degree, quantity and quality of training/supervision in anaesthesia and invasive procedures.

Use of Part-Time Unmanned Operation at a Large Wastewater Treatment Plant

The use of part-time unmanned operation at the Göteborg Regional Sewage Works, Göteborg, Sweden (average flow 325 000 m3/d) is described. Outside normal working hours, a two-man standby crew is responsible for the operation of the plant. The plant's SCADA system and special equipment used by the standby crews (e.g. pagers, cellular telephones, Notebook PC) inform the crews when an alarm has been generated. The standby crew can then react to the alarm, often by logging into the SCADA system and taking appropriate actions. More serious disturbances require visiting the plant. Use of the standby system has only a marginal effect on effluent quality and has not affected effluent compliance. A cost comparison of the standby system with a traditional full-time manned system indicates annual savings of about 1 350 000 SEK.

Design of a 40-Ft Multihull Sailboat for Offshore Racing

An overview of modern multihull sailboat design is presented, with an emphasis on the factors contributing to speed. In particular, the design of a 40-ft trimaran is reviewed. Evolution of the rig and shape and configuration of hulls and underwater foils are examined. Thinking behind deck and interior layout is discussed. The principal goal of this design was a multihull for offshore racing, normally with a one or two-man crew, and with a victory in the Double Handed Round Australia Race as the initial target. Secondarily, the boat was to fit the Formula 40 rule, possibly loosely, in the hopes of getting some Formula 40 racing started on the U.S. West Coast.

Pilot evaluation of population-minimal ground tracks in the airport community

Advanced cockpit avionics systems now under development at NASA Langley Research Center will provide the means for effectively utilizing microwave landing systems technology to achieve a number of important objectives in the near-terminal airspace. A simulator study has recently been completed at NASA Langley Research Center in which guest pilots from a number of airlines were asked to fly curved ground tracks designed to avoid population centers in four airport communities. Eight two-man crews of commercial line pilots and three NASA crews each evaluated a total of eight departures and eight approaches on the basis of such factors as workload, safety, passenger acceptance, controllability, and piloting skill. Various physical measurements were also made, including cross-track errors, altitude errors, bank angles, and fuel flow rates. Half of the trajectories were curved and designed to be population-minimal, and half were designed to represent conventional ground tracks. The objective of the study was to determine if statistically significant differences could be detected between curved and conventional ground tracks on the basis of these parameters.

Aviator performance in week-long extended flight operations in a helicopter simulator

Psychological, physiological, and biochemical correlates of aviator crew performance, stress, and fatigue were measured in a week-long flight schedule in a helicopter simulator. Three two-man crews of rotary wing aviators performed 14 h of precision instrument flight on each of 4 successive days and 10 h on the 5th day. Missions involved repetitions of 2-h standardized day and night flight profiles that were occasionally interrupted by simulated emergencies. Aviator performance measures included meeting assigned airspeeds, altitudes, headings, turn rates, and navigation requirements. Pilots slept 4 h each night. Baseline data were collected prior to, and recovery data after, the extended flight schedule. Pilots maintained simulator flight parameters to within acceptable tolerances of assigned headings, airspeeds, and altitudes, even into the morning of the 4th day of the schedule. However, cognitive and judgmental errors were made. Even though flight surgeons deemed them unsafe to fly by the 3rd night, pilots continued to fly well to the 5th day.

The Effects of Supervisor Experience and the Presence of a Shift Technical Advisor on the Performance of Two-Man Crews in a Nuclear Power Plant Simulator

This report describes a training simulator experiment to evaluate the effects of the experience level of the Senior Reactor Operator (SRO) and the presence of a Shift Technical Advisor (STA) on the performance of nuclear power plant control room crews. Sixteen two-man crews of licensed operators were employed in a 2 × 2 factorial design. The SROs leading the crews were split into “high” and “low” experience groups on the basis of their years of experience as an SRO. One half of the high- and low-SRO experience groups were assisted by an STA or an SRO acting as an STA. The crews responded to four simulated plant casualties. A five-variable set of content-referenced performance measures was derived from task analyses of the procedurally correct responses to the four casualties. System parameters and control manipulations were recorded by the computer controlling the simulator. Data on communications and procedure use were obtained from analysis of videotapes of the exercises. Questionnaires were used to collect subject biographical information and data on subjective workload during each simulated casualty. For four of the five performance measures, no significant differences were found between groups led by “high” (25–114 months) and “low” (1–17 months as an SRO) experience SROs. However, crews led by “low” experience SROs tended to have significantly shorter task performance times than crews led by “high” experience SROs. The presence of the STA had no significant effect on overall team performance in responding to the four simulated casualties.

Human factors experiments for data link : Interim Report No. 5 May–Aug, 1974. Feb 1975, 168 pp; abstr in Government Reports Announcements (Report No AD-A007 622/4GA)

One and two-man crews of general aviation pilots and two-man crews of FAA/NAFEC test pilots made a series of simulated flights in a GAT-2 simulator to evaluate various complements of I/O equipment for Data Link. In the earlier experiments in this series, uplink messages have been limited to short ATC commands and advisories, and downlink capabilities limited to simple 'Wilco' or 'Unable' responses. In the present experiment, complete uplink capability was provided, including ATIS, clearances and weather reports, and downlink capability was extended to permit generation of requests for a variety of information. Seven different combinations of devices were evaluated, the devices including a 16-character display for Short Message ATC (SMATC), a printer for longer ATC messages, a Voice Synthesizer (Vosyn), and two different Control and Downlink Units (CDU) varying in complexity and in capability for the repertoire of downlink messages which could be generated.

Apollo lunar descent guidance

Apollo Lunar-descent Guidance transfers the Lunar Module from a near-circular orbit to touchdown, traversing 17° central angle and 15 km altitude in 11 min. A group of interactive programs in an onboard computer guide the descent, controlling altitude and the descent propulsion system throttle. A ground-based program precomputes guidance targets. This paper describes the concepts involved. Explicit and implicit guidance are discussed, guidance equations are derived, and the earlier Apollo explicit equation is shown to be an inferior special case of the later implicit equation. The paper describes interactive guidance by which the two-man crew selects a landing site in favorable terrain and directs the trajectory there. Interactive terminal-descent guidance enables the crew to control the essentially vertical descent rate in order to land in minimum time with safe contact speed. The attitude maneuver routine uses concepts that make gimbal lock inherently impossible. The throttle routine yields zero steady-state thrust-acceleration error or avoids operation within a thrust region forbidden because of hardware limitations. The ground-based program precomputes guidance targets which shape the trajectory to produce an efficient descent with adequate visibility and no transients at the final phasic interface.

Capturing Waterfowl in Iowa by Night-Lighting

A night-lighting technique was successful in capturing ducks and other marsh birds on shallow Iowa marshes in July and August. In 164 nights of night-lighting from 196 through 1968, 5,084 ducks of 13 species were captured. An average of 31 ducks per night was captured for a catch rate that varied from 4.0 birds per two-man crew hour to 6.6 birds per crew hour. Local birds made up 55 percent, immatures 27 percent, and adults 18 percent of the birds captured. The cost per bird captured varied from $1.10 per bird in 1, to $1.50 per bird in 1967 and 1968. Waterfowl production, weather, and marsh conditions were the three most important variables that determined capture success. 956 Journal of Wildlife Management, Vol. 33, No. 4, October 1969 ( Anser albifrons ) after individual release. Bird-Banding 36 ( 3 ) :18>191. NASS, R. D. 1964. Sexand age-ratio bias of cannon-netted geese. J. Wildl. Mgmt. 28 ( 3 ): 522 527. RAVING, D. G. 1966. Factors affecting age ratios of samples of Canada geese caught with cannon-nets. J. Wildl. Mgmt. 30 ( 4 ): 682-691. . 1969a. Social cIasses of Canada geese in winter. J. Wildl. Mgmt. 33(2):304-318. . 1969b. Roost sites and flight patterns of Canada geese in winter. J. Wildl. Mgmt. 33 ( 2 ): 319-330. SCHI0LER, E. L. 1924. Om de skandinviske aeunder, deres dragtskifte og traek. Dansk. Om. Tids. Kjbenhaven 18:85-95. SHERWOOD, G. A. 1967. Behavior of family groups of Canada geese. Trans. N. Am. Wildl. and Nat. Resources Gonf. 32: 340L355. VAUGHT, R. W., AND H. BIJRGESS. 1966. The 1966 progress report on goose management at Squaw Creek National Wildlife Refuge, Missouri. 33pp. Mimeo. , AND L. M. KIRSCH. 1966. Canada geese of the Eastern Prairie population, with special reference to the Swan Lake flock. Missouri Dept. Conserv. Tech. Bull. No. 3. 91pp. Received for publication May 5, 1969. This paper describes night-lighting equipment and subsequent captllre results of waterfowl in Iowa. The technique of nightlighting is an old practice. Reeves (1966) and Drewien et al. (1967) sumrnarized the history of night-lighting. Other writers have reported their efforts using this technique on waterfowl (Lindmeier and Jessen 1961, Cummings and Hewitt 1964) Lovrien 1965, Drewien et al. 1967). The reported techniques vary as to equipment, time of year, species of birds capturedn and types of habitat worked, but all authors verify that it is a successful method of captunng water birds and pheasants (Phasianus colchicus). We wish to thank R. Howing, Unit Game Manager of the Iowa Conservation Commission, for his help in improving this operation and for assistance in capturing wa-

The Omnigraph: New Steps Toward Automatic Navigation

The advent of business jets and light jet transports, flown by two-man crews, has greatly increased the need for cockpit workload simplification. This paper describes salient features of the Omnigraph airborne navigation equipment, which has been designed to simplify to the maximum extent possible, the acquisition and presentation of navigational information for the pilot. The airborne installation includes a small digital computer, and a closed-loop pictorial display which forms the digital-to-analogue output element and also serves as a means of feeding geographical waypoint position data into the computer. Equipment checkout and setup, as well as chart and facility selection, are rendered virtually automatic. The paper describes various functions of the computer, including inter-sensor comparison, dead-reckoning backup, and the generation of auto-pilot steering signals.

Deep Well Pump Testing

to test pumping plants have been the subject of many fine articles. The matter is also amply covered in textbooks and in some very excellent bulletins prepared by pump and instrument manufacturers. Hence, this article will be confined to the specific field equipment, methods and practices employed by the Pacific Gas and Electric Co., in testing the pumps of its customers in northern and central California. For the same reasons, formulas will be held to the minimum. Wells, as a separate subject, will be only partly covered. The pump test service was started in 1923 by what was then the San Joaquin Light and Power Co., now a major division of Pacific Gas and Electric. At present nine two-man crews, strategically located from Bakersfield to Marysville, Calif., are equipped with hydraulic and electrical instruments to conduct field tests, all of which are made at the customer's request in the form of a signed application. A total of more than 70,000 tests have been made to date. Each test involves field measurements and notes, a typewritten report to the customer (with any recommendations needed), and personal delivery or a letter of transmittal. The letter usually contains power usage figures, data on the total amount of water pumped and unit cost figures. As the work is seasonal, during the summer farm irrigation season the crews are usually one or two months behind the test applications. The company conducts free tests because a customer