Situational Awareness
This article discusses Situational Awareness - or SA. It covers what Situational Awareness is, why it’s important, why it breaks down and what we can do to maintain it when flying.
What is Situational Awareness?
There are many definitions of Situational Awareness. Put simply it is: ‘being aware of and knowing what is going on around us, which then enables us to work out what is likely to happen next’.
Relating this to flying, Situational Awareness is:
· How we perceive data or information presented to us in the cockpit, for example: aircraft height, speed, or flight path.
· How we perceive what is going on outside the cockpit, for example: Air Traffic Control communications, weather, or other aircraft.
· Understanding that information by comparing it with real life experiences and knowledge contained in our memory. For example, my final approach looks steeper than normal (based on previous experience).
· Using this information to think ahead to anticipate what will happen next. For example, if I do not correct my final approach, it is likely to result in a heavier landing.
Why is Situational Awareness important?
If we can maintain Situational Awareness, we will not only have capacity to undertake our current workload i.e. flying the aircraft, but using our current situation we will also be able to think ahead and plan sufficiently to cater for unexpected situations.
Maintaining Situational Awareness will allow us to think about additional aspects of our flight before they occur, for example, actions to take if the weather deteriorates. Conversely, a loss of Situational Awareness could result an undesirable outcome, such as inadvertently flying into IMC or Controlled Flight into Terrain.
We can lose our Situational Awareness due to a multitude of factors, such as:
Distractions
Task saturation
Incorrect interpretation or understanding of our position or location
Information processing and Mental Models
If we don’t have sufficient data or information, or we find ourselves in a tricky scenario where we are busy and fail to see or monitor relevant information, we could end up rapidly losing our Situational Awareness. We are then likely to spend a considerable amount of time trying to work out what’s happening around us at that precise moment, which reduces our capacity and limits our ability to think ahead.
Conversely, if we perceive the information presented to us correctly (for example, aircraft in left hand turn) but don’t have the correct mental model (I need to roll right to get back to straight and level flight), we can find it challenging to take the appropriate next steps. The same is true if we don’t have the experience or muscle memory to relate to a situation we have never been in before.
Even worse, we could use an incorrect mental model resulting in a decision to take an incorrect course of action. For example, I am steep on final approach so I will shallow off the approach [which will actually make the approach even steeper!].
Why does Situational Awareness break down?
To understand why Situational Awareness breaks down, we need to be aware of the threats that can degrade or reduce our Situational Awareness and then look at techniques for combating these.
It’s helpful at this stage to have a look at the way our brain processes information. The conscious part of our brain has limited processing power and can only perform one action at a time. For example, when landing an aircraft, move the left arm to move the throttle, then move the right arm to correct the flightpath, then move the right leg to adjust the rudder for drift, etc.
Over time, repetitive actions will result in detailed subroutines being written into our subconscious mind, which allows complex actions – such as landing an aircraft – to be performed without requiring us to think through every action. This then generates capacity in the conscious mind, with which new or unexpected situations can be considered whilst carrying out a routine, learned task.
An example of this could be a crosswind landing. When learning to fly, pilots perhaps have less mental capacity and muscle memory than more experienced pilots and therefore crosswind landings reduce their Situational Awareness because it takes all of the conscious mind to focus on the task at hand. If something unexpected happens, there is no spare metal capacity to deal with it. More experienced pilots who have most likely executed many crosswind landings have the experience and mental models stored as subroutines, which therefore makes it easier to maintain Situational Awareness.
As fantastic and amazing as the conscious mind is, it does have imperfections. Actions that we perform many times can become almost entirely automated (using the subconscious mind) and will require minimal if any input from the conscious mind. However, the conscious mind demands almost constant stimulation and when the outside world is not providing it for us, the unconscious mind steps in to help which may then have a negative effect on our performance or actions.
For example, whilst driving a car on a long motorway journey, have you ever experienced a situation where you don’t remember the last five minutes of the journey as you were thinking about something else only to be jolted back to reality by a car that you didn’t see pulling out in front of you? In effect, your conscious mind has not been sufficiently stimulated and your subconscious mind has stepped in resulting in you driving on ‘autopilot’. The car pulling out in front of you jolted your conscious mind into life, causing you to react.
Now we have an awareness of the limitations of the human brain on perception and mental processing, we can identify when issues may occur and look at potential techniques to help combat the threats to our Situational Awareness.
Being tired, distracted, stressed, or becoming task saturated may result in us only being able to focus on one task at a time as our brain’s prioritise what we are doing, whilst disregarding what it considers to be extra, non-important tasks. For example, one of the first things to go when we are task saturated is our hearing, which can then cause us to miss a crucial communication from Air Traffic Control which then ultimately degrades our Situational Awareness as our mental model is now flawed due to the missed ATC call and we are now unaware of approaching traffic.
So, what can I do to recover Situational Awareness?
Recognising that we have lost Situational Awareness is crucial before we can do anything about it. If we need to ask Air Traffic Control to repeat a clearance, are fixated on a task for too long, or find ourselves questioning information that appears to be ambiguous, then it is highly likely that our Situational Awareness has degraded. There will be many more examples, and you can probably think of a few straight away, but the main thing is to be aware of it, recognise it and act promptly.
When we have recognised that our Situational Awareness is breaking down, we should firstly, stop or pause. That is, stop or pause what we are doing now and take time to reflect on the situation and what we were doing. Whilst airborne, it may be challenging to take a pause or stop what we are doing, particularly if you are experiencing an unexpected event such as an aircraft emergency. However, depending on our flight profile, if, as a priority, we can get ourselves back to a known set of conditions, e.g. straight and level, then that will allow us the spare mental capacity to consider what was going on and thus rebuild our Situational Awareness. Our subconscious mind will allow us to fly the aircraft in known parameters, leaving our conscious mind to think about the emergency and what to do about it.
It may sound counter-intuitive but in order to assess why Situational Awareness has broken down we will need to slow down, even if that is to take an extra 5 or 10 seconds (or longer) to reflect on our current situation.
If necessary, go back three steps or to the beginning of the checklist when we were interrupted. Prioritise and focus on the basics. We are all aware of ‘Aviate, Navigate, communicate’; this phrase covers a multitude of activities, but it succinctly captures the importance of prioritisation and keeping things simple, and if followed, will allow us to build back our Situational Awareness.
Another thing to help maintain our Situational Awareness is to finish our tasks completely. It may be tempting to jump ahead in a checklist or to try and deal straight away with an unexpected event. But we may have been doing a more important task when we got distracted and going back and completing that task may be a higher priority.
How can I maintain my Situational Awareness?
There are several things we can do to help maintain our Situational Awareness. Firstly, be aware of the limitations on perception and mental processing of the human brain. If we are aware of them then our senses will be heightened to look for any threats that may cause us to be task saturated, overloaded, distracted, stressed, etc.
Plan Prepare...and practice! Automated and unconscious subroutines are developed through significant repetition (and practice), which ultimately equals experience. If we have seen or thought through a certain situation a number of times before, then we will know how to deal with it and will therefore not become task saturated should it arise.
Think through contingencies or ‘what if’ scenarios. Identifying potential threats and how to combat them before going flying will ‘protect’ our Situational Awareness whilst airborne. Planning and Preparation can help us manage our human limitations in processing information. Planning helps provide sufficient time to undertake tasks, helps to reduce workload and therefore improves our decision-making ability. It also helps to reduce our exposure to risks, ultimately allowing us to maintain Situational Awareness and prevent it from breaking down.
Manage our attention span. Avoid the temptation to fixate on one thing for too long or to remain distracted for an excessive amount of time. Create routines or scans in the cockpit and use mnemonics or prompts if necessary to help divide up your attention, thereby helping you to identify any potential threats. For example, the workcycle ‘Lookout – Attitude – Instruments – Traffic’ naturally divides and spreads our attention in and out of the cockpit, helps us avoid distractions and helps maintain our Situational Awareness.
Manage our workload. Humans are incapable of performing at 100% effectiveness, ever, for those who’ve seen the film ‘Limitless’ unfortunately no such pill exists yet! At best we can expect to perform at about 80% of our maximum potential when we are feeling refreshed, relaxed, current, and competent, basically when we are ‘on our game’. If we ‘got out of the wrong side of bed’, are feeling tired or stressed, then we are probably already underperforming before we even start and taking on too many tasks will overload us more quickly than when we are ‘having a good day’. Therefore, we need to think about our fatigue and stress levels prior to flying; going flying whilst refreshed and stress-free is highly likely to provide a better outcome than being tired and taking issues airborne with us.
Whilst basic, the IMSAFE checklist is a great way to make sure we are in a good condition mentally and physically to get airborne. Flying can be a great way to switch off from life’s stresses, but we can sometimes unknowingly bring external issues into the cockpit with us. This could be things like financial concerns, work or family problems that can cause us to become distracted, leading to reduced capacity and Situational Awareness as the task list starts to pile up. Make a judgement call on how you feel that day before you head off for the airfield.
Summary
Situational Awareness is understanding the information presented to us and being able to use that information to think ahead and make sound, safe decisions. However, the human brain has limitations that can result in a degradation or loss of Situational Awareness. Being aware of our limitations and being able to recognise threats that may cause a loss in Situational Awareness will allow us to take appropriate action. Planning and preparation gives us the capacity to cope and deal with distractions and unexpected events and ultimately helps us maintain our Situational Awareness and have a safe and successful flight.
Further reading:
https://skybrary.aero/articles/situational-awareness-oghfa-bn
https://www.aviationsafetymagazine.com/features/situational-awareness/
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/23894247_Managing_Situation_Awareness_on_the_Flight_Deck