Upping the Instructional Design Game

The afternoon sessions of the WATS 2021 pilot conference made for interesting listening. Marty Kauchak was there.

Session 7: Technology Enablers

Lori Brown, Professor in the College of Aviation at Western Michigan University, delivered an update of her continued journey to insert advanced technology in her programs of instruction. During the presentation, the community veteran specifically presented overarching lessons learned for moving to collaborative virtual platforms and selecting underpinning technologies. The WMU faculty member is, in essence, allowing her students to advance beyond Zoom-enabled learning and similar instructional strategies, and receive more engaging and higher fidelity learning experiences. Of significance, Brown’s recent efforts led to selecting a collaborative virtual platform to host lessons in start-up engine procedures.

The subject matter expert noted collaborative platforms can be accessed by way of VR head-sets (Oculus Quest 2 in this case), iPhones and personal computers. Five of the many collaborative platforms examined in this effort, included offerings by Spatial (her favorite, which was free), Microsoft Mesh, ENGAGE, Virbela and Frames. Beyond the platform, she suggested, “And you should also get a 3D mouse to support your work.”

Brown also called to attention to the head-set and related hardware to enable the virtual learning experience. Three of the many products in this market which caught her attention included Oculus Quest 2 (preferred), Microsoft HoloLens 2 and NREAL. The university professor added, NREAL is popular in Europe, is lightweight and is on my watch list.”

To further encourage community training professionals to pursue technology-enabled instruction, when practical, she noted virtual cockpit models can be bought through TurboSquid and other sources.

The collaborative nature of the virtual platform refined by Brown, in this case, has the potential to prompt further interaction among sector learning audiences – flight attendants, maintainers and others – and tailor the lesson’s participants to include an instructor and student, only pilots or other groups, and myriad other participant combinations.

Improving Monitoring Performance

Seeing Machines’ competencies in human-machine interaction, include the use of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies which enable machines to see, understand and assist the people who are using them. In this case, the Australian-based company is working with Alaska Airlines on advanced gaze tracking technology to understand how pilots scan and monitor instruments during complex maneuvering and instrument procedures, and with good reasons – Alaska’s Pacific Northwest routes include some of the most challenging weather and terrain in commercial aviation – for starters. Of interest, this is yet another instance of “cross pollination” across safety critical enterprises, with Seeing Machines bringing to bear its successes in head and eye tracking, from the road and adjacent high-risk training sectors, into commercial aviation.

Pasha Saleh, Director of Flight Operations Strategy at Alaska and Rama Meyers, Vice President of Aviation at Seeing Machines, built the business case to further develop and train to, eye tracking and overarching monitoring skills on the flight deck. The presenters pointed out the human factors limitations in effective monitoring are numerous and include: interruptions and distractions; high workload and stress; and others. Indeed, the presentation offered that in one research effort, 22% of crews were evaluated as poor or marginal in monitoring. Few tools exist to allow instructors to assess and train monitoring skills. CAT looks forward to following the progress being made by the Alaska-Seeing Machines team in this technology space.

Session 8: Hottest Training Topics

A group of community subject matter experts and advocates for improvements across the commercial aviation training enterprise closed WATS 2021 with an excellent wrap-up of topics addressed during this conference. More significantly, they further opened the door to topics which demand additional attention by this community.

To the person, the panel members agreed civil aviation’s emergence from the pandemic is uneven – with the US market recovering at a steady, persistent pace ahead of Europe, parts of Asia and other regions. They noted the imperative for training enterprises (airlines, S&T industry, regulators and others) in all regions to help all carriers resume operations safely and with minimal operational disruptions. One imperative cited to encourage this collaboration, was the anecdotal evidence of increases in “hard landings” and other incidents as the tempo of flight operations increases. Opportunities for a “one team approach” to moving beyond the Covid-19 epoch, include sharing and distributing, lessons learned as airlines in one region “restart their engines” ahead of air carriers in other areas.

Evey Cormican, Co-founder and CEO of VTR, and a community pilot, noted her recent return to flying after a two-year absence, and reflected her training to resume duties was “excellent”. Yet, she cautioned there is no “one size fit all” checklist to allow flight deck crews to migrate from months of pandemic-induced inactivity, to normal duties and operations. Cormican then issued a call for more tailored, individualized, competency-based training. Randy Hamilton, Advisory Council, Professional Aviation Board of Certification, noted this strategy is not practical, as “the horse has left the barn,” and the industry is embarking on “cheap, fast training” to put aircraft back in the sky. The panel later returned to this topic.

Paul Preidecker, recently retired from Air Wisconsin Airlines, where he held the positions of Chief Flight Instructor and captain, moved the panel discussion beyond the evidence of aircrews’ “rusty skills” and asked the panel to consider “rusty instructors” in training enterprises. Hamilton voiced concern about this situation, noting it is valid, and offered “you lose it, you also decay. It takes time to get instructor skills back.”

With little surprise or prompting, the open forum soon shifted course back to the “brain drain” of senior personnel across the enterprise during the pandemic, and quickly embraced the topic of recruiting the next generation of community pilots. To be certain, the aviation industry is sharpening its focus to recruit quality individuals from across the spectrum of society and to ensure the safe operation of airlines well into this century. Indeed, this conference gained several insights on the efforts to United Airlines, ALPA and other stakeholders to attract the best and brightest from the nation to future aviation careers. For his part, Scott Glaser, PhD, Senior Vice President of Operations, Flight Research, Inc., further noted the efforts of other organizations to gain the interest of youth in aviation careers. His short list included the Free Young Eagles as well as traditional STEM initiatives.

Cormican broadened the discussion to include barriers to entry. Building the case that awareness of aviation careers should begin during childhood – as early five years old – she told delegates at this final session, that she did not become aware of flying opportunities until age 13 – and only then, resulting from an ironic turn of events. Cormican noted she was given a class assignment to write an article on what job she could not do. “I was mistaken to believe only men, and in particular those with military backgrounds, could fly” she recalled, and noted after further contact with community experts, she was hooked on a flying career. She certainly gained the attention of many when she opined “college is too late” to consider a career in aviation.

On cue, the discussion of barriers went beyond recruitment, to careers. Cormican offered impediments to women joining the community often involve other barriers, including many females, as well as some men, not wanting to make three-to-four day “trips”, and threw out for further consideration that “bases” are obsolete, given the lifestyles of today’s youth – Generation Zers, and perhaps their older siblings. Without missing a beat, Captain Philip Adrian, CEO of Multi Pilot Simulations, asked panel members to consider there is “flying” versus an aviation “career.” He observed there are many Gen Zers who do not want to leave home, and want to become an “influencer” or take other evolving and emerging career paths, as opposed to traditional job paths still prevalent in society. The industry veteran then pondered, “What should we do to make a career in aviation better for the next 40 years?”, and noted his short list for improving careers in aviation include addressing seniority lists, “which are killing innovation.”

Scott Nutter, Principal, Touch & Go Solutions, has helped shepherd AQP to this year’s 30th anniversary. Of significance, this iteration of WATS was again the site for AQP subject matter experts to meet and chart the construct’s course, and consider program improvements. So, it was an attention-getter when the thirty five-year veteran of the aviation industry, first reminded delegates there is AQP and EBT, and urged them, “Stop with the letters!”, adding, “It is useful to use data at the individual level and have individualized training versus ‘cookie cutter’ training.” Further noting there is an approximate 85% overlap between AQP and EBT, he suggested one way forward for the training community may be to take “10 or so core, common things and focus on what’s been successful” – which may be a segue way to individualized training. “It’s a goal, we’re not there, yet,” he concluded on this topic.

When the panel made random closing comments and observations about some of the technologies discussed during WATS presentations and showcased in the conference hall, Nutter linked technology back to the earlier discussion about instructors. He noted during his recently concluded career at Delta, “a good instructor or program leader should have able to operate all devices in the enterprise.” This was a focal point of the Delta Instructor Development Course.