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3. The methods of evaluating airline pilots
4. The critical situations in airline flying and their causes
5. Pilot fatigue

METHOD AND PROCEDURE

General Plan of Project
[underlined]


The plans for the survey called for obtaining information from five principal sources. First, as examination was made of the pilot records of the Civil Aeronautics Administration. This study was conceived as somewhat separate from the one herein described, and its methods and results have been described in a separate report. The second source of information was an extensive program of interviews with airline pilots. A third source of information was interviews with pilots responsible for the evaluation of the flight performance of airline pilots -- Civil Aeronautics Administration Air Carrier Inspectors and airline company check pilots. A fourth source was airline accident reports kept on file by the Civil Aeronautics Board. The fifth and final source was certain information in airline company personnel files on pilots who had been eliminated by the company and on pilots who had successfully completed their training for the job of airline pilot.

Originally it was intended that information be solicited from control tower operators and supervisors of pilot training and company operations. A preliminary investigation and some try-out interviews with a small number of control tower operators indicated that this was not a promising source of information pertaining to the job of the airline pilot. It had been the opinion of the president of the Air Line Pilots Association that this was not a promising source of information. Contacts were made, however, with the supervisors of pilot training and company procedures, but they were primarily for the purpose of explaining the project and obtaining their permission to interview their pilots and examine their personnel files.

It was originally intended that the survey be conducted over a four-months period. This was later extended to a six-months period -- March, 1947, through August, 1947. An initial period of approximately one month was used as a try-out period during which proposed procedures were field tested. Preliminary interviews, some electrically recorded, were conducted with airline pilots, control tower operators and Civil Aeronautics Administration Air Carrier Inspectors. A preliminary study of the personnel files of one airline was made for the purpose of learning about the nature of the records and trying out methods and procedures. A preliminary study was made of the accident reports of the Civil Aeronautics Board after which standardized procedures were established for processing these records.

The Pilot Interview Phase

1. Aims. The interviews with airline pilots were expected to provide valuable information which would assist in accomplishing several of the main objectives of the study. First, it was intended that the interviews with pilots would be a rich source of information pertaining to the critical requirements of the airline pilot. One of the aims, then, was to obtain from