HOW FATIGUE IN AVIATION

How Fatigue In Aviation

How Fatigue In Aviation

Introduction

Fatigue adversely affects a person's ability to effectively accomplish his tasks. Tired employees are more likely to commit mistakes and are less mentally vigilant and physically agile. This problem rises in magnitude as this problem is increasingly felt by pilots and aviation personnel raising concerns over individual and collective security. Health personnel should influence lifestyle changes, detection of symptoms of stress in pilots and orienting its management and treatment by specialists as required.

Discussion

Fatigue can be developed from various sources. The factor important is not what causes fatigue, but the impact negative that fatigue has on the person and their ability to tasks. A long day of mental stimulation to study test or process data for a report can be as fatiguing as the work manual. Fatigue leads to a decrease in your ability to carry out tasks (Richard 2002). Several studies have demonstrated a significant alteration in a person's ability to perform tasks that require manual dexterity, concentration, and high process intellectual level. Fatigue can occur acutely, say in a relatively short period (hours) after significant physical or mental activity, or can occur as gradual over a period of days or weeks.

Typically, this situation occurs with someone who cannot get enough sleep for a long time (as in cases of sleep apnea, jet lag, "or shift work) or someone who is involved in activities without enough physical or mental rest (Thomas 2002).

According to the definition1 by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), “fatigue may be considered to be a condition reflecting inadequate rest, as well as a collection of symptoms associated with displaced or disturbed biological rhythms.” In the presence of fatigue, a pilot's ability to carry out otherwise normal functions is reduced. Fatigue negatively impacts physical and mental processes such as muscular coordination, sensorial perception, and response to stimuli, memory retrieval, decision making, situational awareness, motivation, error management, and adaptability2. Recent studies have shown that there is a positive correlation between pilot fatigue and aircraft accident rates. While most research has focused on studying physiological characteristics of pilots to combat fatigue related accidents, it may be difficult to implement such a method due to space constraints on added equipment and the need for constant physical contact with the pilot. As an example, the constant physical contact could potentially interfere with a pilot's G-suit, which may reduce his performance level even further. To date, there have been no known studies related to pilot fatigue that involve monitoring aircraft state and control variables as fatigue detectors. These variables are already typically measured on board aircraft for control and navigational purposes which would provide a solution to the physical contact issue arising from measuring physiological characteristics. Such state variables would include roll, pitch, and yaw attitude angles, angle of attack, and velocity. The control variables would include deflection of the yoke and pedals. The hypothesis is that the reduced performance of the pilot due to fatigue can be captured through ...