From Flying to Monitoring in the Future Flight Deck: The Differences in Pilot’s Perceived Mental Workload

Shan Gao; Yuanyuan Xian; Yu Bai; Lei Wang

doi:10.65351/hsi24.014

Abstract

The perceived mental workload of Single Pilot Operations (SPO), as an emerging trend in commercial aviation, has received significant attention. The objective of this study is to investigate the differences in pilots’ perceived mental workload between different role assignments and crew configurations. A total of 57 pilots with commercial pilot licenses participated in this study, undertaking three low-visibility approaches as pilot flying (PF) within a crew setting, pilot monitoring (PM) within a crew setting, and PM within a single-pilot setting, respectively. Their perceived mental workloads were evaluated using the National Aeronautics and Space Administration-Task Load Index (NASA-TLX). The results indicated that pilots experienced higher mental workload when performing as PF within the crew setting compared to their role as PM in both the crew and single-pilot settings. As PMs, compared to the crew setting, pilots reported lower levels of effort in the single-pilot setting while perceiving a higher level of physical demand. The significance of this study lies in providing empirical evidence from the perspective of perceived mental workload regarding the feasibility of normal SPO scenarios.

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Citation

BibTeX citation:

@inproceedings{gao2024,
  author = {Gao, Shan and Xian, Yuanyuan and Bai, Yu and Wang, Lei},
  editor = {Masson, Dimitri},
  publisher = {INCOSE},
  title = {From {Flying} to {Monitoring} in the {Future} {Flight}
    {Deck:} {The} {Differences} in {Pilot’s} {Perceived} {Mental}
    {Workload}},
  booktitle = {Proceedings International Conference on Human Systems
    Integration},
  volume = {3},
  date = {2024-08-29},
  url = {https://hsi-wg.github.io/conferences/HSI2024/proceedings/from-flying-to-monitoring-in-the-future-flight-deck-the-differences-in-pilots-perceived-mental-workload.html},
  doi = {10.65351/hsi24.014},
  langid = {en},
  abstract = {The perceived mental workload of Single Pilot Operations
    (SPO), as an emerging trend in commercial aviation, has received
    significant attention. The objective of this study is to investigate
    the differences in pilots’ perceived mental workload between
    different role assignments and crew configurations. A total of 57
    pilots with commercial pilot licenses participated in this study,
    undertaking three low-visibility approaches as pilot flying (PF)
    within a crew setting, pilot monitoring (PM) within a crew setting,
    and PM within a single-pilot setting, respectively. Their perceived
    mental workloads were evaluated using the National Aeronautics and
    Space Administration-Task Load Index (NASA-TLX). The results
    indicated that pilots experienced higher mental workload when
    performing as PF within the crew setting compared to their role as
    PM in both the crew and single-pilot settings. As PMs, compared to
    the crew setting, pilots reported lower levels of effort in the
    single-pilot setting while perceiving a higher level of physical
    demand. The significance of this study lies in providing empirical
    evidence from the perspective of perceived mental workload regarding
    the feasibility of normal SPO scenarios.}
}

For attribution, please cite this work as:

Gao, Shan, Yuanyuan Xian, Yu Bai, and Lei Wang. 2024. “From Flying to Monitoring in the Future Flight Deck: The Differences in Pilot’s Perceived Mental Workload.” In Proceedings International Conference on Human Systems Integration, edited by Dimitri Masson. Vol. 3. INCOSE. https://doi.org/10.65351/hsi24.014.