<p>General Aviation (GA) is a category of aircraft operations, exclusive of all military and commercial operations. According to Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), fixed-wing aircraft (also known as airplanes) account for 76.2% of all the estimated registered GA fleet in the United States. Out of all the GA accidents that the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigated in 2017, 87.7% of the accidents involved fixed-wing aircraft. The NTSB reports on all GA accidents and records the accident details in their database. The NTSB database has an abundance of accident data, but the data is not always logically complete and has missing information. Many researchers have conducted several studies to provide GA fixed-wing accident causation using the NTSB accident data. The quantitative analyses conducted by the researchers focused on a chain of events approach and identified the most frequent events in accidents. However, these studies provided little insight into why the events in the accidents happened. In contrast, the qualitative analyses conducted an in-depth study of limited accidents from the NTSB database. This approach helps in providing new findings but is difficult to apply to large scale datasets. Therefore, our understanding of GA fixed-wing accident causation is limited. This research uses a state-based approach, developed by Rao (2016), to provide a potentially better understanding of causes for GA fixed-wing accidents. I analyzed 10,500 fixed-wing accidents in 1982–2017 that involved inflight loss of control (LOC-I) using the state-based approach. I investigated the causes of LOC-I using both a conventional approach and a state-based approach. I analyzed fatal, non-fatal and overall LOC-I accidents in three timeframes: 1989–1998, 1999–2008 and 2008–2017. This multi-year analysis helped in discerning changes in the causation trends in the last three decades. A mapping of the LOC-I state definition to the NTSB codes helped in identifying 2350 more accidents in the database that were not discernible using the conventional approach. The conventional analysis revealed “directional control not maintained” as the top cause for the LOC-I accidents, which provides little information about how loss of control happened in accidents. The state-based analysis highlighted some important findings that contribute to LOC-I accidents that were not discernible using the conventional approach. The state-based analysis identified preflight mechanical issue as one of the new causes for LOC-I with a presence in 5.1% of LOC-I accidents in 2009–2017. It also helped in inferring some of the missing information in the accident data by modeling the accidents in a logical order. Using the logic rules in the state-based approach, I inferred that the pilot’s tendency to hit objects or terrain caused loss of control in 19.9% of LOC-I accidents in 2009–2017. Further, the logic rules helped in inferring that 7.5% of LOC-I accidents in 2009–2017 involved hazardous condition of an aircraft before the start of flight. A comparison of the findings from state-based approach with the GAJSC (General Aviation Joint Steering Committee) safety enhancements revealed that the state-based approach encompassed all the potential issues addressed in the safety enhancements. Additionally, a state-based analyses of larger datasets of fatal and non-fatal accidents suggested some new potential issues (such as improper maintenance) that were not explicitly addressed in the GAJSC safety enhancements. </p>

abstract: Student pilots are the future of aviation and one of the biggest problems that they face as new pilots is fatigue. The survey was sent out asking if student pilots were fatigued, if they attribute flight training, school work, work outside of school, and social obligations to their sleep loss, and how they spend their time on those activities. The survey was given to aviation students at Arizona State University (ASU) Polytechnic Campus. ASU student pilots were found to be fatigued through a single sample t-test. Other t-tests were done on each of the questions that asked student pilots how flight training, school work, work outside of school and social obligations affect their sleep loss. Flight training and school were found to be contributing to student pilots sleep loss. Work outside of school and social obligations were found to not be contributing to student pilots sleep loss. It was found that student pilots’ tendency to use a planner or calendar was found to not be significant. Along with this planning through the week when they will do assignments or study for exams was also not found to be significant. Students making lists of assignments and when they are due was also found to not be significant. The t-test also found that student pilots are neutral on the topic of whether good time management skills would help increase the amount of sleep that they get. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Technology 2019

This dissertation provides evidence that information displays to support procedure following can aid performance and increase situational awareness and safety. The intent of such displays is to assist operators in not only following operational procedures, but also in comprehending the context of the procedures, enabling them to understand why, when, and how to deviate from the procedures if necessary. The results of the dissertation research show that the addition of procedure context increases situation awareness and reduces procedure-following errors, which has been shown to be a significant causative factor for accidents in aviation and other domains. In addition, a pilots ability to comprehend noncompliance appears to be limited, despite their interest in (and ability to) detect noncompliance. Pilots do not appear be able to interpret the consequences of that noncompliance, suggesting that the design of displays and procedures should assist them in doing so. The results also demonstrate that pilots attempted to use procedure information even when clearly outside the scope of the procedure. This means that procedures and procedure-support aids should consider operation outside of its normal bounds in their design, rather than only for nominal operation as is currently the case.

Thesis (M.S.)--Naval Postgraduate School, 2002. / Thesis advisor(s): Lawrence R. Jones, Gregory K. Mislick. Includes bibliographical references. Also available online.

Thesis (M.S. in Human Systems Integration)--Naval Postgraduate School, December 2009. / Thesis Advisor(s): O'Connor, Paul E. Second Reader: McCauley, Michael E. "December 2009." Description based on title screen as viewed on January 29, 2010. Author(s) subject terms: Crew resource management, bridge resource management, human error, human factors. Includes bibliographical references (p. 65-70). Also available in print.

Thesis (M.S. in Human Systems Integration)--Naval Postgraduate School, June 2009. / Thesis Advisor(s): O'Connor, Paul E. "June 2009." Description based on title screen as viewed on July 10, 2009. DTIC Identifiers: CRM (Crew Resource Management), training evaluation, aviation mishaps, cockpit resource management, training effectiveness evaluation, human error. Author(s) subject terms: Crew Resource Management, CRM, Naval Aviation, Training Evaluation, Cockpit Resource Management, Safety, Aviation Mishaps, Training Effectiveness Evaluation. Includes bibliographical references (p.99-106). Also available in print.

Thesis (M.S. in Computer Science)--Naval Postgraduate School, June 2009. / Thesis Advisor(s): Darken, Rudy ; Ciavarelli, Anthony. "June 2009." Description based on title screen as viewed on July 10, 2009. Author(s) subject terms: Common Cockpit, MH-60S Knighthawk, Crew-Centered Design Philosophy, Systems Engineering Cockpit Design Methodology, Human Computer Interface Design Methodology. Includes bibliographical references (p. 111-117). Also available in print.

Thesis (M.S. in Systems Engineering Management)--Naval Postgraduate School, September 2009. / Thesis Advisor(s): Hart, David ; Wascavage, Joseph S. "September 2009." Description based on title screen as viewed on November 04, 2009. Author(s) subject terms: test and evaluation, naval aviation, acquisition, NAVAIR, policy, guidance Includes bibliographical references (p. 55-57). Also available in print.

Thesis (M.S. in Operations Research)--Naval Postgraduate School, September 2009. / Thesis Advisor(s): Miller, Nita Lewis. "September 2009." Description based on title screen as viewed on November 04, 2009. Author(s) subject terms: FlyAwake, SHARP, fatigue countermeasures, performance effectiveness, sleep, shift work, continuous operations, sustained operations, ORM. Includes bibliographical references (p. 59-60). Also available in print.

Thesis (M.S.)--Boston University