Details:

Creators:
Prinzo, O. V.
Corporate Creators:
Civil Aerospace Medical Institute
Subject/TRT Terms:
[+]
Air Traffic Control Air Traffic Controllers Air Traffic Control Systems Aviation Safety Commercial Aircraft Communication Communication And Control Data Links Pilot Reply Time Reaction Time Simulation Terminal Operations Workload
Publication/ Report Number:
DOT/FAA/AM-01/8
Resource Type:
Research Paper
Corporate Publisher:
United States. Office of Aviation Medicine
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.


Format:
PDF
Funding:
Task AM-B-98-HRR-516
Collection(s):
US Transportation Collection FAA Civil Aerospace Medical Institute
Main Document Checksum:
[+]
urn:sha256:9b6f76cdaee3276dcc52648d185a052bd3663feeff15f0ce17031a949ba17795
Download URL:
https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/5162/dot_5162_DS1.pdf
File Type:

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