ASSIGNMENT 1

Assignment 1

[Name of the Institute]

Assignment 1

Introduction

The purpose of this study is to review stress management in aviation. A major objective of this study is to critically evaluate the fact that pilots require a certain amount of stimulation to perform their flights tasks safely and effectively. Furthermore, this paper discusses the potential impact of increased automation on aircraft operation and safety in relation to pilot arousal level. Since its inception in early 1900s, commercial aviation has advanced enormously. This advancement in commercial aviation has resulted due to the technological progress in this field. Automated system is the foremost technological advancement in the aviation industry. The increased level of automation has substantially decreased the level of stimulation received by pilots as they accept more of a monitoring role. Moreover, as the job of a pilot is extremely stressful in nature, pilots tend to get over-stressed during their work hours. Stress during flight operations substantially influence aviation safety and mission execution. Therefore, air crew members should be well aware of the effects of stress on their bodies. Furthermore, they should be familiar with the fact that how their lifestyles and behaviour may increase or decrease the amount of stress experienced by them. Pilots should not get over-stressed as this would have a negative impact on their performance.

Impact of Stress in Aviation Industry

Different departments of aviation industry suffer from stress, particularly pilots. Stress can be defined as an unresolved force, strain or pressure that acts upon the physical or mental systems which if allowed to continue, causes damage. (Swinburne University of Technology, n.d., p. 4). These definitions indicate that if a pilot is confronted with excessive demands then they may surpass the ability of the pilot to cope with them. This is the point where it becomes necessary to deal with the issue of stress in an effective manner. There are two categories of stress that a pilot can experience: acute and chronic. Acute stress takes place when he is faced with an unexpected and sudden event. It is a reaction that is unexpected and sudden in nature having high intensity. An example of a sudden and unexpected event is a bad weather condition through which the aircraft has to travel. Pilots undergo enormous levels of stress as they face such a situation. However, this type of stress is short term in nature. As the critical event gets passed, the pilot returns to his normal state of mind. An event that causes acute stress proves to be a disruption for the present workload (Swinburne University of Technology, n.d., p. 20). Subsequently, it forces a change in goal—oriented behaviour. For instance, as a pilot conducts a navigation exercise, he lays all his focus on precise navigation. All of a sudden, the engine of the aircraft gets failed. With the occurrence of this event, the goal of the pilot changes immediately to engine failure management. Pilot's workload gets increased. This increased workload and knowledge of potential consequences of bad handling of engine failure puts the ...