Pilot Workload: A Survey of Operational Problems

Five hundred and seventy three USAF pilots responded to a survey which had as its objective the identification of operational, crew station design related causes of high pilot workloads. The survey consisted of mailed survey forms and personal interviews structured to conform with the 'critical incident technique' of collecting user-provided data. The survey canvased over 50 USAF organizations in collecting data for more than 30 currently flown USAF aircraft types. The role control/display design, crew station design, and equipment malfunctions play in contributing to cockpit workload is unique to each aircraft. Other factors, such as weather, flight schedules, and mission phase appear to contribute to cockpit workloads in most all the aircraft surveyed. Further, the reported situations, or 'critical incidents', indicate that high workloads result from the simultaneous occurrence or existence of several causes. For example, a high workload situation reported for the FB-111 consisted of an equipment failure while flying the low-level penetration portion of a mission at night. All data collected has been catalogued for the establishment of an information base, and available for future use in conjunction with aircraft development programs or modernization/retrofit programs. (Author)