Presenter Email
matt.vance@okstate.edu
Location
Mori Hosseini Student Union Events Center (Bldg #610) – Rooms 165 B/C
Start Date
3-2-2020 8:00 AM
End Date
3-2-2020 9:30 AM
Submission Type
Presentation
Keywords
Flight Training, Flight Simulation, Solo, Ab-initio, Backwards Chaining
Abstract
Flight simulation has made progressively significant inroads into pilot training at all levels of a pilot’s career – typically starting with training for the Instrument rating in light aircraft and concluding with Type Certification in transport category jetliners. This research was designed to explore if significant training inroads could also be offered to ab-initio pilots, those with no prior flight experience. A control group of first-year, collegiate pilot trainees, all without prior flight experience, enrolled in a traditional FAR 141 PVT (Private Pilot license) curricula on track to their first solo flight, were compared with an experimental group of up to15 pilot trainees, also without prior flight experience, who were exposed to flight in a backwards chaining simulation starting from 4’ AGL (Above Ground Level). Graduated, exponential increments of both altitude and distance from landing were successively added to the simulation experienced by the backward chain experimental group of pilots all the way through a standard FAA General Aviation traffic pattern to return the student pilot to the start of take-off. Once the students had completed the backward chaining simulation, they were placed in an identical aircraft (Cessna-172R/G1000) for an actual flight with an appropriately rated Certified Flight Instructor (CFI). All experimental group pilots were able to successfully act as sole manipulator of the aircraft controls (Pilot-in-Command) for three complete circuits of the traffic pattern on their first flight lesson.
Presenter Biography
Dr. Matt Vance holds a PhD in Aviation Science from Saint Louis University. He is the Oklahoma State University Professional Pilot faculty representative responsible for academic classes covering human factors, crew resource management, aviation law, ethics, FAR 141 PVT/INST/COMM/MULTI ground school, space science and safety. Additionally, Dr. Vance is a Certified Flight Instructor and teaches in our FAR Part 141 flight program. Research publications and interests include sUAS integration into the NAS, the propensity for autonomous airliners, crew resource management training and basic human preference. Previous to his posting at OSU, he served as Senior Researcher/Flight Instructor for the Center for Aviation and Space at Saint Louis University. Previous industry positions include Boeing Director of Advanced Global Services and Support Business Development at Boeing Defense Space and Security, Secondee (Exchange Officer) – UK Ministry of Defense in London, Director of Washington Studies and Analysis, Future Combat Systems, Air Traffic Management and Boeing Commercial Airplanes Product Strategy. During his years at McDonnell Douglas, Dr. Vance served as a Principal Engineer for Phantom Works Systems Assessment division and prior to that assignment he was a Lead Engineer for the HARPOON missile. His flight experience includes 5,200 hours between U.S. Naval Flight Officer, civil Pilot-in-Command / Instructor flying time. His 20-year military career includes more than 3,000 hours of patrol / submarine hunting with extensive operational experience in Pacific, Indian, Arctic, and North Atlantic theaters and joint Command Center Duty Officer service at the United States Transportation Command.
Backwards Chaining – Accelerating Solo Flight Training
Mori Hosseini Student Union Events Center (Bldg #610) – Rooms 165 B/C
Flight simulation has made progressively significant inroads into pilot training at all levels of a pilot’s career – typically starting with training for the Instrument rating in light aircraft and concluding with Type Certification in transport category jetliners. This research was designed to explore if significant training inroads could also be offered to ab-initio pilots, those with no prior flight experience. A control group of first-year, collegiate pilot trainees, all without prior flight experience, enrolled in a traditional FAR 141 PVT (Private Pilot license) curricula on track to their first solo flight, were compared with an experimental group of up to15 pilot trainees, also without prior flight experience, who were exposed to flight in a backwards chaining simulation starting from 4’ AGL (Above Ground Level). Graduated, exponential increments of both altitude and distance from landing were successively added to the simulation experienced by the backward chain experimental group of pilots all the way through a standard FAA General Aviation traffic pattern to return the student pilot to the start of take-off. Once the students had completed the backward chaining simulation, they were placed in an identical aircraft (Cessna-172R/G1000) for an actual flight with an appropriately rated Certified Flight Instructor (CFI). All experimental group pilots were able to successfully act as sole manipulator of the aircraft controls (Pilot-in-Command) for three complete circuits of the traffic pattern on their first flight lesson.
Comments
Presented during Concurrent Session 1A: Flight Training