Factors of Fatigue in Short-Haul Pilots - Essay Example

Psychology Critique Psychology Critique There is little research on what factors are associated with fatiguein short-haul pilots. The aim was to investigate how length of duty, number of sectors, time of day, and departure airport affect fatigue levels in short-haul operations. Fatigue is an important influence on pilot performance in commercial airline operations. To date, most research activity has focused on transmeridian international operations, where tours of duty involve long sectors and travel across several time zones. The course of research remained to show that, despite little research on fatigue in pilots flying short-haul operations, the work pattern of these pilots often had a number of factors associated with increased reports of fatigue (Broadbent, 1994). Pilots flying short-haul operations often lay fostered for an irregular pattern of early starts and late finishes, which can disrupt normal sleep routines and increase fatigue. In contrast to long-haul flying, the work pattern may involve multiple takeoffs and landings, resulting in a more demanding workload across the workday. Furthermore, two-pilot crews carry out short haul flying so there are no in-flight rest opportunities and this has proved result in higher fatigue levels than three-pilot crews. The theory behind the study remained that Short-haul rosters cause pilots to sleep less, wake earlier, and have less restful sleep over the work period. Studies with UK pilots have identified time of day and the number of flights per day as important influences on the development of fatigue during the course of a short-haul duty period. It is clear from the small amount of research conducted with short-haul crew that early starts, late finishes, and the high workload caused by multiple sectors are important influencing factors on fatigue levels. The research revolved mainly round Surveys have suggested fatigue is a common problem in short-haul commercial pilots, with pilots identifying extended duty periods and successive early management notifying them of the study and asking them to consider participating in the research. Over the study period, there were 2034 duties with at least one operating sector. During the data collection period, pilots lay asked to complete a brief anonymous questionnaire at the top of descent on the last sector of the duty day. Pilots recorded duty start time, current time (top of descent), and number of sectors flown across the day. We found pilot fatigue in short-haul pilots at the end of their last duty sector was significantly influenced by length of duty, time of day, the number of sectors flown, and airport of departure. The most important influences on fatigue were the number of sectors and duty length, which in this particular operation are very closely related. Duty length and the number of sectors increased fatigue in a linear fashion. Time of day had a weaker influence, with lowest levels at midday and an increased level of fatigue later in the day. The data showed that the most favorable time of day for the last landing depended on the duty length. For shorter duties, the most favorable time for the last landing was around midday, whereas for longer duties, the best time was 20:00. The higher levels of fatigue found in pilots departing from the Dunedin and Wellington airports were probably due to pilots being required to position the previous day and stay overnight in a hotel, as opposed to Auckland and Christchurch, which are home bases for the pilots. Indicators of the quality of an instrument are the validity and reliability of the measures. In addition, responsiveness nature of the degree to change is of which lies of interest in majority of the health care applications where improvement in outcomes because of action is a prime goal of research. Data sources for measures used in pharmacy and medical care research often involve patient questionnaires. Often, observational instruments or rating scales remained developed to evaluate the behaviors of subjects who lay directly observed. However, any measure that relies on the judgments of raters or reviewers requires evidence that any independent, trained expert would come to the same conclusion (Kimble, 1985). Thus, interpreter reliability should be established when data are abstracted from medical charts or when diagnoses or assessments are made for research purposes. Interpreter reliability in research such as this depends on developing precise operational definitions of variables lying measured as well as having observers well trained to use the instrument (Broadbent, 1994). The rational evaluation of a corporation’s strengths and weaknesses is important in identifying investment opportunities, which may lie gainfully exploited. Evaluation of a company’s existing strategy will help the company shape its future strategy. Through this, the company is also able locate and exploit its strengths, invest more in these strengths and take advantage of potential opportunities that will come up. A company can also identify the threats and risks that will occur and prevent their occurrence by following the appropriate strategy. In this paper, I will critically analyze pilots and pilot fatigue evaluating its strategies, performance, and policy’s. Questionnaires lay used to reach to the participants. The authors obtained a free service website called Google Spreadsheets to allow them to answer the questionnaire online. After the creation of online questionnaires, the authors have sent online questionnaires link to Thai female students email (Thwaites, 2007). At the same time, the authors also asked them to forward this questionnaire to their female friends who have potential in buying luxury fashion goods (Breedlove, 2010). The respondents can easily click on the link, which will directly lead them to the questionnaire. The results remain summarized into charts and graphs by the website and lay sent to the authors email. Therefore, this online questionnaire can create unbiased, accurate, and fast responses. The kind of research in question, which lays more rigid than interviews, was on the use of more and more practices. They lay used to gather ideas from a large population as it lies placed in quantitative research method (Kimble, 1985). Therefore, questionnaire lie developed to inquire the rational evaluation of a corporation’s strengths and weaknesses. The target sample of this study is concentrated since the authors have identified the characteristic of the population that remains interviewed; non-probability sampling method lay selected in finding this population. The need for uniqueness is the sought to be different from others. Nevertheless, it is not generally non-conformity. This is because; non-conformity means the unawareness of social norms or the social approval. In the angle of luxury consumer behavior, consumers need for uniqueness is the pursuit of differentiation from others that remains reached through the acquisition of luxury products for enhancing ones personal identity (Wallace, 2008). . As part of this procedure, contrasts within the main effects were included as regressor variables in the form of polynomials, which are duty length and number of sectors, as well as time of day (Roback, 1952). Where the contrast or contrasts accounted for all the significant differences within a factor, they replaced that factor in subsequent analyses, including in the interaction terms. The graphical representation of the main effects in this paper lies derived from a model in which the terms remain taken from the equation of best fit. Differences between individual means remained tested using the multiple range tests (Breedlove, 2010). The analysis lay carried out on both the visual analog data and on the Samn-Perelli scores. However, these two variables remained closely related, with a Pearson correlation coefficient of 0.86, and the results of both analyses were similar. Therefore, only the Samn-Perelli data were presented here (Powell, 2011). Ones all the necessary resources lay acquired; it is of utmost importance to utilize them effectively, with a main purpose of achieving the goals. It is necessary that there should be in place, an appropriate strategy or rather study, which aids in the procedure of decision-making, concerning which type of research method should lie in place, to facilitate the conducting of the most proper research procedures (Myers, 2004). This study had several strengths including a large sample and good response rate, as well as collecting data at a critical phase of flight rather than retrospectively. However, there are a number of methodological issues relevant to the interpretation of the results. Fatigue laid measured using subjective pilot ratings rather than using objective indices, such as reaction time tasks (Wickens, 1982). However, the Samn-Perelli scores remain shown to follow similar trends to objective measures throughout a duty period. Similarly, all the data remained collected on domestic sectors of a similar length with no overnight duties and no time zone changes, so they may not be directly applicable to different operations (Breedlove, 2010). It is also likely that this lack of overnight duties attenuated the time of day effect, as highest levels of fatigue tend to occur in the early morning. Data from this study will enable further validation of these models in actual airline operations. Furthermore, the study demonstrated that collecting fatigue data through a brief questionnaire at a critical time in the workday across an airline operation is feasible, and produces reliable and useful data (Powell, 2011). This study shows the usefulness of such data for identifying the factors associated with fatigue patterns, but also for identifying problem duties and providing a metric for identifying overall levels of fatigue across an operation. References Breedlove, S. M., Watson, N. V., &Rosenzweig, M. R. (2010).Biological psychology: an introduction to behavioral, cognitive, and clinical neuroscience (6th ed.). Sunderland, MA: Sinauer Associates, Inc. Publishers. Broadbent, E. (1994, December 19). Psychology: Learning Cynicism on the Job.The Washington Post, p. 40. Brown, C. (2006). Social psychology.London: SAGE. Kimble, G. A., & Hammonds, B. L. (1985).Psychology and learning.Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association. Myers, D. G. (2004).Psychology (7th ed.). New York: Worth Publishers. Powell, D. (2011, December 21). PILOT FATIGUE RULE COMPARISON..States News Service, p. 54. Roback, A. A. (1952). History of American psychology.New York: Library Publishers. Thwaites, T. (2007).Reading Freud Psychoanalysis as Cultural Theory.London: SAGE Publications. Wallace, E. R., &Gach, J. (2008).History of psychiatry and medical psychology with an epilogue on psychiatry and the mind-body relation.New York: Springer. Wickens, T. D. (1982). Models for behavior: stochastic processes in psychology.San Francisco: W.H. Freeman. Read More