Scenario-Based Private/Instrument Syllabus versus Traditional Maneuver-Based Syllabi: A Preliminary Descriptive Analysis

Abstract

The Aerospace Department at Middle Tennessee State University and the NASA Langley Research Center entered into a cooperative agreement in 2003. The project is named the SATS Aerospace Flight Education Research (SAFER) and is part of NASA’s Small Aircraft Transportation System (SATS) initiative. The SATS project envisions a future flight environment that employs light aircraft to transport people and cargo from point to point using small, under utilized airports, instead of the major gridlocked airports. The aircraft used in the SATS vision would take advantage of a range of emerging technologies including glass cockpits, new structures, and new engines. But with the understanding that the best aircraft and the best systems are still only as good as its operator, MTSU Aerospace set out to explore how pilot training might be different in the SATS environment. The SAFER project therefore takes beginner pilots and completes their initial Visual Flight (VFR) and Instrument Flight (IFR) flight training in technically advanced aircraft to determine how best to educate the next generation of pilots in the next generation of aircraft. The availability of information from an automated flight deck can be easily adapted to scenario-based training, so the SAFER researchers decided to incorporate scenario, rather than strictly maneuver-based training as the core of the training syllabus. This approach instantly begs the question: If you train using a scenario-based method, will the students also develop the “stick and rudder†skills that are also so important for pilots to master? The early results from the SAFER project indicate that piloting skills (stick and rudder) are being mastered despite the scenario-based method, and that decision making skills are being increased.