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UDC 656.7
Islamov D. senior lecturer "Air navigation Systems" Department "Aviation Transport Engineering" Faculty Tashkent State Transport University Uzbekistan, Tashkent
REDUCED PILOT SKILLS DUE TO PANDEMIC
Aviation experts and airline representatives acknowledge that when pilots are inactive for several months, their skills and proficiency deteriorate. Among the most common errors are coming in too fast or too high during a landing or forgetting to get clearance from the air traffic control tower before descending to a lower altitude.
Keywords: pilot skills, pandemic, inactive, in-flight errors, incident, proficiency.
I want to write article about the influence pandemic for flying skills. It's not secret staying at home not flying results to lose the flying skills. Unfortunately it's a very dangerous situation which can lead some accidents and incidents. I think about using simulators for that or even in playing a computer game for flying skills to solve the problem. Who flies very seldom should use most of flight in manual mode if circumstances permit for that. New aircraft should be more automatic especially during emergency situations, in normal situation pilot can fly manually. There are some examples about the accidents and incidents due to losing pilot skills.
Airline pilots making in-flight errors say they're 'rusty' because of pandemic:
A pilot preparing to pull a passenger jet away from an airport gate forgot to disengage the parking brake, damaging a part of a towing vehicle that was trying to pull the plane to the runway. Another pilot had so much trouble landing a passenger jet on a windy day that it took three tries before the plane touched down successfully. In another incident, the first officer forgot to turn on the anti-icing mechanism that ensures the altitude and airspeed sensors on the outside of the plane are not blocked by ice. Luckily for the passengers, the plane completed its flight without problems. These incidents are among at least a dozen flying errors and mishaps since May that pilots and first officers have attributed, at least in part, to being out of practice because the COVID-19 pandemic — which pushed air travel demand to the lowest levels in decades — had kept them away from flying for a while. "Because I had not flown in a few months, I was rusty," the first officer who forgot to activate the anti-icing mechanism said in an anonymous report to a safety reporting system run by NASA. "I felt that my
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recollection was strong enough, but in reality I should have taken some time to review" the standard operating procedures.
Aviation experts and airline representatives acknowledge that when pilots are inactive for several months, their skills and proficiency deteriorate. Among the most common errors are coming in too fast or too high during a landing or forgetting to get clearance from the air traffic control tower before descending to a lower altitude. "The key to flying safely is frequency," said Richard G. McSpadden Jr., senior vice president at the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Assn.'s Air Safety Institute. "You are not as sharp if you haven't flown for a while."
Stefanie J. Lipson, Partner, Private Client Services, Greenberg Glusker
LLP
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, airlines have dramatically reduced the number of daily flights on some routes and, in some cases, eliminated service to low-demand destinations. In April and May, the number of daily takeoffs in the U.S. dropped to about 75% below pre-pandemic levels. In recent months, the number of takeoffs has risen to 43% below pre-pandemic times, according to industry data. As a result, some pilots have been brought back to work after being away for up to four months. Delta Air Lines announced this week that it planned to bring back about 400 pilots by summer in hopes that the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines will boost demand for travel. So far, there have been no reported incidents of out-of-practice pilots causing accidents that have injured passengers. Aviation experts say there are enough backup systems in modern passenger jets to prevent minor oversights from becoming serious accidents. However, an Airbus 330 passenger jet trying to land at Kualanamu International Airport in Indonesia on Sept. 15 veered off the runway and onto the adjoining dirt and weeds. None of the passengers were injured. Indonesia's transportation safety agency, known as the KNKT, concluded that "during the COVID-19 pandemic the operation department had difficulties [trying] to maintain pilot proficiency." The agency also said that the plane's second in command had not flown in the previous 90 days and that the pilot had flown less than three hours in the previous 90 days.
In conclusion I can say, pilots should use any means of training to keep their proficiency and flying skills. Examples: using computer based training simulators, playing computer games which improves pilot skills etc. During routine flights use manual mode if circumstances allowed and it is safety to do that.
References:
1. Los Angeles Times, By Hugo Martinstaff Writer Jan. 29, 2021
2. "Covid-19: Time to retrain inactive pilots to fly again" By Agency Global Thursday, 18 Mar 2021
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