Background: The aviation industry is facing a substantial shortage of pilots. Per the International Civil Aviation Organization, it is projected airlines will need 350,000 pilots globally.Aims: Due to the demand of pilots, most of the conversations are focused on quantity rather than quality of the workforce. Educators and researchers in several industries have advocated competency‐based education in aviation for decades.Method: Members of the research team documented the consensus decision‐making process which determined which competencies would be incorporated into the flight program.Results: Six competencies were selected for the hybrid competency‐based education model. Teamwork, decision‐making, communication, resilience, leadership, and technical excellence were extensively defined for the aviation program.Discussion/Conclusion: Shifting toward a hybrid competency‐based education model is challenging within a large flight program. However, the members of the research team believe the transformation process will improve program outcomes. Next steps include assessment plan development and data collection.

Purpose: The purpose of the current study was fourfold: to identify bird strike reporting trends at Part 139 airports in Indiana (2001-2014) for comparison to national data; to determine which quarter of the year yields the most bird strike data; to gain a clearer understanding of the relationship between altitude and bird strikes, and to develop information based upon the data analyzed that can be used for the safety management of birds including comparisons to national data. Design/methodology: The researchers in this study answered the research questions by reviewing, sorting, and analyzing existing data. The data collection took place from March 01 to May 02, 2016. Two data sets were utilized for data collection. The National Wildlife Strike Database (NWSD) and the FAA Air Traffic Activity System (ATADS).Findings: When compared to national data, Indiana Part 139 airports have seen a faster increase in bird strike reporting during 2012 and 2014. Aggregate data indicated June through September (Quarter 3) had a significantly higher frequency of bird strikes reported. When examining bird strikes and altitude of occurrences, the exponential equation explained 95 % of the variation in number of strikes by 1,000-foot intervals from 1000 to 10,000 feet. Not surprisingly, the risk of bird strikes appears to decrease as altitude increases.Originality/value: This study adds to the body of knowledge by addressing the lack of published bird strike report analyses at a regional level. It also connects data analyses to safety management system (SMS) concepts and Wildlife Hazards Management Programs (WHMP). The aviation community can use regional bird strike data and information to develop or enhance existing wildlife hazard management programs, increase pilot awareness, and offers airport managerial implications.

According to Dawson and McCulloch (2005), indicating factors for pilot fatigue may be difficult to ascertain. However, fatigue is a probable cause in 15%-20% of all aircraft accidents (Akerstedt, 2000). It may be assumed fatigue has been important latent condition for many of the general aviation incidents and or accidents but not necessarily identified as a probable cause. Events that barely missed a detrimental situation due to fatigue, often go unnoticed and or unreported. Furthermore, fatigue can influence the quality of flight instruction and flight operations overall. The purpose of the current paper was to examine fatigue related decision-making responses from collegiate aviation pilots. These scenarios were designed to understand mitigation strategies, external pressures, and reasons for go-no-go decisions. Results of the qualitative analysis indicated some pilots were susceptible to organizational pressures, hazardous attitudes, and expressed over reliance on another pilot i.e. a Certified Flight Instructor (CFI). On the contrary, several responses indicated Positive Threat Assessment while Seeking Alternative Solutions. Researchers provided recommended practices, suggested future research, and provided a model to simplify the decision-making process.

A cross-sectional quasi- mixed-method approach was used to determine the relationships between safety culture perceptions and safety reporting behavior among flight students with and without certified flight instructor (CFI) ratings. Respondents (n=259) were recruited from five collegiate aviation programs in the US and took part in the study. Survey Items adopted from the Collegiate Aviation Perception of Safety Culture Assessment Survey (CAPSCAS) were validated using factor analysis analyzed for reliability before use in the study. Researchers sought to find out if the safety reporting behavior (reporting frequency) of respondents could be predicted from their safety culture perceptions. Pearson’s Bivariate Correlation, Multiple Regressions, independent T-test of means, and Analysis of Covariance were used for data analyses. The findings indicated that the age of respondents, perceptions on the variables Reporting System and Safety Fundamentals were statistically significant predictors of safety reporting behavior. Additionally, there was no significant statistical difference in the mean safety reporting frequency between respondents with and without CFI ratings. A major theme from the qualitative part of the study was pressure to fly when conditions were considered unsafe, in order to meet ground course targets. These respondents felt that such pressures placed them under duress to fly when not fully fit psychologically, physiologically, and in adverse weather conditions. The inclusion of the collegiate program’s safety reporting process and procedures in a related academic course like Safety Management Systems (SMS) was found to be very beneficial in some collegiate programs. Researchers of this study recommend an extension of safety awareness programs to include all line personnel, students, and management involved in collegiate aviation programs. The awareness program must entail the process and procedures for effective safety reporting. Additionally, further validation of the CAPSCAS should be conducted. Qualitative approaches can be effectively utilized to gain a clearer understanding of safety culture perceptions, specifically, how age influences safety reporting behavior. Furthermore, analysis of safety culture perceptions among groups such as flight program management personnel and flight students can be compared and contrasted. These recommendations may assist the collegiate aviation community to enhance a positive organizational safety culture.

In response to the increasing report intake and the need for more efficient and effective safety event detection and monitoring in the national airspace system (NAS), this work proposes an automated and sustainable workflow that collectively applies natural language processing (NLP) techniques to the Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS) report narratives. The proposed workflow uses latent Dirichlet allocation (LDA), a probabilistic model for uncovering hidden topics within text documents, to perform topic modeling and constructs topic trajectories based on Document Frequency – Inverse Document Frequency ( DF − IDF ) . By applying spectral analysis to the constructed trajectories, we identify multiple periodic and aperiodic topics in unfiltered ASRS report narratives from 2011 to 2021 with minimal human input. Through validation, we confirm that the periodic and aperiodic topics detected can be linked to actual safety events trending in the aviation community and are valuable for safety improvement. Beyond existing topic modeling applications on ASRS reports, this work could deliver more relevant and practical information to safety management experts, not only filling the gap between the topic model output and practical applications but also providing safety management experts with a holistic view of the entire report intake to oversee commonalities. The proposed workflow, with appropriate modifications, has the potential to be adapted to other safety reporting systems.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate collegiate aviation students’ self-awareness of their fatigue issues; to investigate possible causes of fatigue afflicting collegiate aviation students; and to investigate the collegiate aviation students’ lifestyle and perceptions of personal solutions to fatigue. Background: Pilot fatigue is a significant safety hazard in aviation operations. Several factors can contribute to fatigue, including inadequate sleep, long work hours, and inadequate nutritional habits. Some factors, such as social and academic activities, could be unique for Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 141 collegiate aviation pilots. Previous studies have addressed fatigue in commercial and military aviation. However, few studies have targeted collegiate aviation students. Method: An online survey questionnaire was utilized to investigate collegiate aviation students’ self-awareness of their fatigue issues; the possible causes of fatigue afflicting those students; their lifestyle as well as their perceptions of personal solutions to fatigue. The population for this study consisted of a subset of the GA community, flight instructors and students from an accredited 14 CFR Part 141 four-year degree-awarding university in the Midwestern region of the United States. Additionally, participants were recruited from a local fixed based operator. Results: Findings indicated that fatigue has played a role during flight training. Pilots had, for example overlooked mistakes because of fatigue. Responses also suggested decrements in alertness and cognitive functions as a result of fatigue. Conclusion: Fatigue is a safety hazard in a collegiate environment that needs addressing. Systematic fatigue education and training, better lifestyle practices, effective workload management, and even a prescriptive approach could significantly enhance aviation safety and the well-being of student pilots.