United States Department of Transportation
i
Data-Linked Pilot Reply Time on Controller Workload and Communication in a Simulated Terminal Option
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2001-05-01
[PDF-280.44 KB]
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Abstract:This report describes an analysis of air traffic control communication and workload in a simulated terminal radar approach
control environment. The objective of this study was to investigate how pilot-to-controller data-link acknowledgment time
might affect controller-perceived workload and operational communication. Eight controllers provided air traffic services to
simulated arrival aircraft during a moderate-traffic density simulation in which voice radio and data link communications
were available. The effect of a delay in downlinked pilot acknowledgment time to controller uplinked messages was the
primary variable of interest. Each controller completed the same scenario twice, with the order of presentation
counterbalanced. That is, for the first simulation, half the controllers received immediate responses to their data link
messages while the other half received pilot acknowledgment time delayed by about 11 seconds. The primary finding was a
general, albeit not statistically significant, tendency among controllers towards an increase in subjective workload overall and
on individual dimensions of the NASA Task Load Index when the simulation environment supported mixed, rather than
immediate pilot responses. The analysis performed on communication measures revealed that controller workload was
affected by the communications capability onboard the aircraft but not ghost pilot response type (immediate, delayed).
Transmissions to data link-equipped aircraft took longer to complete and contained longer pauses than transmissions to
non-data linked aircraft. The mode of communications selected by controllers also influenced workload but ghost pilot
response type did not. When controllers used data link, their transmissions took nearly 2 seconds longer to complete than
comparable messages sent by voice. When compared with voice radio messages, controllers took longer to formulate and
transmit messages over a data link-communications system, but their messages were more accurate and contained fewer
message elements. This finding was replicated when messages with courtesies, salutations, and those involved in the initial
contact services were removed. Often, the data-link transmissions that contained longer pauses resulted from deliberate
actions on the part of the controllers. Longer latencies did not result in a loss of efficiency but reflected innovations on the
part of the controllers to optimize performance. For example, by placing data-link messages in a pending status, controllers
would communicate with a non-data-link-equipped aircraft. When the data link-equipped aircraft arrived at a transitionpoint
along their filed flight plan (generally approaching a hand-off point or transition altitude or fix), controllers uplinked
their already composed messages to those aircraft.
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