The stereotype of the steely-eyed cockpit veteran is being challenged by a European study. It turns out nervous people make nervous pilots regardless of their flight experience, according to the data published in the journal Aviation Psychology and Applied Human Factors. Jiayu Chen, a researcher at the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, led the investigation into whether accumulated experience made a difference in the outcomes of four different flight emergencies sprung on 89 airline pilots in a simulator. The study was reported by PsyPost. The results indicated that baseline anxiety levels trumped flight hours in determining how a pilot performed when things suddenly went very wrong. “Pilots with higher scores in trait anxiety reported feeling higher levels of stress during the simulated emergencies,” the journal reported. “This suggests that a baseline disposition toward anxiety makes an individual more sensitive to the pressure of an unexpected crisis.”
The researchers said before they went in the sim, each pilot was put through psychological tests to determine how much anxiety they normally dealt with. The more anxious ones were more stressed by the emergencies than the more generally chill pilots, and it didn’t matter how much time they had. “The data showed that the number of hours a pilot had flown did not possess a statistically significant correlation with their reported levels of startle, surprise, or stress,” the report said. “A veteran captain was just as likely to feel overwhelmed by a sudden malfunction as a pilot with much less time in the cockpit.”
Hmmm. How was “overwhelmed” operationalized? What isn’t indicated is what fraction of the more stressed pilots still managed to bring the simulation to a safe outcome and whether their degree of training impacted this result. Also, hours and training are not the same. Pilots can spend a lot of time reinforcing bad training. I realize the focus was whether stress can be “trained out”, but I’m not sure about the utility of the findings.
Experience may not change how a person reacts when they are truly surprised, but this is rather moot. More importantly, experience changes the threshold for what level of anomoly generates those physiological responses. The steely eyes are the ones who have seen worse before. Having a plan before the emergency keeps us out of that red zone.
The study didn’t seem to address issues that required an immediate rote response such as 3 seconds to live would. Training develops rote responses and that development used to be the goal of initial and recurring flight training. If execution of the immediate action elements of the quick response checklist becomes rote, there’s little room for stress to arise. More than once I’ve heard from a senior flyer “scared? Nope, I was too busy trying to save my ass”. Experience (hours) reinforce rote learning – which can be bad and good. Training and retraining hopefully reinforces the good.
Was this a proper study or poor wording in its release news?
Startle is besr knocked down by accurate pattern matching- “upset, recover”, “engine fire” or “smoke” type triggers.
Even degrading systems then degrading airport opfions can pattern match OR miss.
Heck, a newby with quick hands or good attention might down a scenario and not even know how badly the thought of it developing further might add grey to my hair…
Guess I’ll read it.
I won’t read it.
REPORTED level of trait anxiety correlated with REPORTED level of anxiety in the simulator. Spot the problem? Anyone?
“A veteran captain was just as likely to feel overwhelmed by a sudden malfunction as a pilot with much less time in the cockpit.” Overwhelmed is a big word. People going beyond the data just —-s me to tears.
Having made two off field landings in the 1980s, I have never been nervous in the cockpit and take exception to what is written in this article because nervousness is trained out of pilots. Focusing on what needs to be done in every situation is part of training. Or, for pilots, nerves have nothing to do with flying. Thinking, always when in the cockpit is essential to coming up with the appropriate and safe next action. Newbies, including myself were and are certainly nervous. But training gets rid of nervousness. Every pilot I know is proof of this. Airline pilots spend how many hours in simulators simulating every possible emergency; and multiple times until it is near routine or routine. Airline pilots know what to do for any emergency. You can take that to the bank! And the most experienced pilots are the pilots in command; pilots over age 50; having done more simulator time and have experienced more anomalies than anyone else! And know what to do, immediately. The airlines will tell you this! I am certain I am parroting what the airlines will tell you! Insufficient review by the people who wrote the story to come up with erroneous conclusions; not knowing the state of professional pilots and more importantly how well pilots are trained. Even the most basic flight school places safety first and foremost. Just ask them! Sign offs do not happen with anyone that is nervous! Propaganda in this article! To scare the public! It takes horrendous weather and wind shear to challenge any professional pilot and only when near the ground on a landing approach. Take off accidents usually only occur on aircraft where maintenance is not current. The FAA regularly audits all airline maintenance and why airlines are the safest form of travel; having the third party FAA looking at everything on an airliner; regularly and consistently. Commercial Pilot, instrument rated, A&P, Professional Engineer and how I know!