Cockpit avionics and their perception by Air Traffic Controllers
Résumé
The perception controllers have pilots' work and working environment is an interesting subject for people working in the field of human factors. Intuitively, it seems that a better understanding of this area may yield interesting results for the improvement of the tools used by both parties to exchange and communicate data, or merely to improve the way they work together. Later applications for the design of new tools could be envisaged, taking these notions into account. This study focused on a specific aspect of the environment, the cockpit avionics. This paper presents the results of a brief survey that was conducted on a sample of 131 French Air Traffic Control Officers (ATCO). Its aim was to try and determine and explicit how cockpit avionics such as FMS or TCAS were perceived and judged or appreciated by ground ATCO. It further tried to explore potential means or ways of enhancing co-operation between controllers and pilots. The underlying expectation was that sharp-end operators, confronted to their task on a daily basis, were likely to have formulated criticisms or remarks on the tools they have to work with, and that this informal but precious and motivated information was seldom passed on to the designer. So the survey was also in part oriented as a call for remarks, suggestions and criticisms on the environment currently in operation. Results show an overall distance and lack of information about these avionics on the ground side. They reveal the potential benefits controllers could draw from having a better knowledge of these tools. The FMS more vividly suffers from this lack of information or training, and data it incorporates are clearly of some interest to controllers. The TCAS seems much better known, and more salient in controllers' perception. Its implementation is clearly felt as the source of added safety, but also an intrusive and sometimes destabilizing intervention, pointing out a problem of lack of clarity as to responsibilities in cases of emergency.
Domaines
Interface homme-machine [cs.HC]
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