HUMAN FACTORS SUBCOMMITTEE

2018 SUMMER/FALL MEETING

Barbara Holder Ph.D.

November 14, 2018
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Human Factors Subcommittee Summer/Fall Meeting

Last Meeting:

•Summer/Fall meeting at the JMA offices in Washington D.C., August 

28-29, 2018

Next Meeting:

•Winter/Spring meeting, at Boeing, Seal Beach, California, March 12-

13, 2019

Two new members were present:

• Captain Jon Tovani, Delta Airlines

• Captain Richard Louden, Alaska Airlines

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Presentations

FAA’s Strategic Research Agenda

•Shelly Yak, FAA Director of William J. Hughes Technical Center, 

REDAC Co-Chair

•The subcommittee believes the Landscape will become an effective 

method for identifying, planning, and prioritizing key research drivers 

across domains within and outside the FAA (See F&R 1)

Runway Friction Research

•Paul Giesman, Transport Standards (AIR-671)

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Deep Dives

Flight Deck Core

•Advanced Vision Systems, Terry King, Flight Standards 

NextGen Research Program

•Terminal Sequencing and Spacing, Randy Bone, MITRE

NextGen Enterprise ATC

•Established on RNP, Lauren Thomas, Evans Incorporated

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Human Factors Subcommittee Summer/Fall 2018

•Briefed on HF Core and NextGen programs, however these were not 

presented in sufficient technical detail to provide guidance

• Discussed the current state of the budget and implications for critical 

priorities

•Important/urgent research needs and gaps in the portfolio were 

identified and most are currently unfunded (see Action 3)

• Discussed how ongoing research aligns with HF emerging issues 

and requested briefings on how the FAA will address alignment 

•The prioritization scheme used to fund research remains unclear 

even after multiple requests for transparency

•Several prior actions were addressed:

- Industry partnerships

- Remote towers

- Mixed environment

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Human Factors Subcommittee Summer/Fall 2018

Updated: Human Factors Emerging Issues List

Urgent near term issues to be 

addressed within 5 years:

• Human Factors issues associated 

with implementation of UAS in the 

NAS 

• Increasing complexity of the 

airspace, transition to trajectory 

based operations (TBO) and 

performance based navigation

• Information management, 

managing distraction, overload

• Training and qualification methods 

and technologies 

• Increased automation and 

autonomy that enables operations 

with a reduced crew

Important longer term issues to 

be addressed in the next 5-10 

years:

• Development and deployment of 

new and novel interfaces 

• Cybersecurity and safe integration 

of new technologies

• Data collection and analysis to 

enable big data analytics, data 

fusion, real-time assessments

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UAS Integration Research Plan

Task 1: Identify high-value applied research areas deemed essential to 

support the rulemakings, standards, and procedures necessary to safely 

achieve the operational capabilities articulated in the plan.

Feedback:

•Identify safety implications of sUAS colliding/interfering with other aircraft

• New collision hazards and potential for damage to other vehicles

• Detect and avoid sensing requirements

•Artificial intelligence and machine learning

• Unmanned large commercial passenger/cargo transport and dispatch 

requirements 

•Ensure various scenarios surrounding the introduction of UAS is 

understood

•Issues regarding “levels of autonomy”

• HF definition is too narrow, there is always a human in the system 
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UAS Integration Research Plan

Task 2: Identify areas where planned activities and/or needs reflected 

in the plan are already being addressed within the stakeholder 

community or do not impact UAS integration objectives.

Feedback:

•There appears to be several high activity areas missing from the plan 

e.g. Urban Air Mobility vehicles that could be easily tracked

•Flight path management and hazard avoidance 

•Some of the needs seem overly broad, with unclear purpose or scope 

e.g. airspace density/capacity studies

•Several tasks assigned to the NSF Center for UAS seem to be better 

addressed by the industry stakeholders & applicants: 

- Detect and Avoid

- Flight Intent

-Swarm control of multiple UASs
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UAS Integration Research Plan

Task 3: Opportunities to leverage relevant on-going or planned 

industry-led research.

Feedback:

•Progression in operational capabilities provided in plan seems to 

incorporate major concepts under consideration by industry:

- Detect and Avoid

- Traffic management

•Autonomous vehicle research and development in adjacent industries

•Work in other parts of the world

•Other regulatory inputs, e.g. ICAO
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UAS Integration Research Plan

Task 4: Adjustments to research timelines in the plan, which are 

necessary to keep pace with industry-led technology advancements

Feedback:

•Expand plan beyond 5 years and consider parallel development

• Large carrier cargo/passenger operations are currently not supported 

by key enabling technical capabilities 

•Airspace design and procedures to “integrate” unmanned rotorcraft

•Identify research most critical to enabling necessary updates to 

industry standards, regulations, and critical priorities

•Some research topics seem overly open-ended and could become 

enduring study areas rather than focused efforts with tangible 

progress

• UAS research needs to be flexible/agile to address gaps that arise 

because of on-going research.
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Finding and Recommendations 1: 

Research and Development Landscape

Finding 1:

•The sub-committee appreciated the framework presented by Shelley 

Yak on the FAAs’ Research and Development Landscape

•This new perspective promises to be a valuable tool for informing the 

FAA’s R&D portfolio and planning 

•The subcommittee has three recommendations regarding its further 

development and use

•These recommendations are structured around content, process, and 

communicating the plan’s status and impact
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Finding and Recommendations 1: 

Research and Development Landscape

Recommendation for Content: 

• Continue to mature the landscape framework

•Identify partnerships for cross cutting HF areas and identify what 

research is being done, where, and any gaps

•Identify lead, leverage, and watch areas for Human Factors research 

areas and provide links to partnerships

•Illustrate the budget for the entire portfolio and identify high priority 

areas and how they link to funded programs

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Finding and Recommendations 1: 

Research and Development Landscape

Recommendation for Process: 

• Create a means by which the Landscape can inform the R&D portfolio, 

including prioritization of projects

• Describe how the Landscape will address cross cutting issues like 

Human Factors and Safety that impact multiple areas/domains identified 

in the Landscape

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Finding and Recommendations 1: 

Research and Development Landscape

Recommendation for Communication: 

•Provide the HF subcommittee evidence the Landscape is influencing 

the HF portfolio plan and prioritization of projects

•Provide examples of how the landscape is being used to influence the 

overall R&D portfolio, especially as related to partnering and 

leveraging R&D from other stakeholders

Consequences:

• Lack of strategic direction for the R&D portfolio, prioritization, and 

opportunity to leverage research from other parts of industry

•Inability to identify significant partnerships

•Inability to maximize collaboration

• Duplication of effort and funding 

• Research gaps

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Finding and Recommendations 2: 

Flight Crew Information Management

Finding 2:

• Modern Flight Decks enable an extensive amount of information to be 

displayed to the flight crew

• New information automation systems and applications distance the 

pilot from the processing of information such as:

-Advanced radar, Advanced Vision Systems, CPDLC, ACARS, 

Electronic Flight Bags, including operator and vender “Apps”

•These applications/systems provide useful information to the flight 

crew, however there is little guidance to operators for managing 

information and for approvers to accurately assess its impact on 

workload. 

•This issue was identified and recommended for funding several years 

ago, but remains unfunded and is an continuing gap in the current HF 

R&D portfolio

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Finding and Recommendations 2: 

Flight Crew Information Management

Recommendation to fund research:

•Fund research on Information Management 

• Document current practices, identify actual/potential threats, and 

identify mitigation strategies 

• Research should include but should not be limited to the following:

- Managing information across systems such as: CPDLC, 

ACARS, Radar, EFB, aircraft systems, external (non-aircraft) 

applications, Etc., 

-Identify strategies for mitigating information overload and 

distraction

- Methods for understanding the accuracy, integrity, (i.e., 

trustworthiness), and timeliness of information

-Effective information management for operational, tactical, and 

strategic decision making

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Finding and Recommendations 2: 

Flight Crew Information Management

Recommendation to provide guidance to operators:

• Leverage research as well as the experience of operators who are 

already working to address these issues to develop guidance for flight 

deck information management practices, challenges/threats, 

procedures, and training. 

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Finding and Recommendations 2: 

Flight Crew Information Management

Recommendation provide guidance to approvers:

• Develop guidance to aid the operational approval process for:

-Evaluating and approving information automation 

applications/systems (e.g., non-certified applications) and their use 

with information applications installed in the certified flight 

deck/avionics systems. 

- Guidance should include how information will be displayed, 

gathered, and used on the flight deck, and its fit into the flight crew 

workflow, and mitigation of conflicting information from different 

sources. 

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Finding and Recommendations 2: 

Flight Crew Information Management

Consequences:

•Perpetuate ongoing human factors/safety issues

•Operators will continue to develop their own unique strategies for 

managing information and distractions on the flight deck

•The FAA may perpetuate inadequate workload assessment methods

•The FAA may permit the implementation of information integration 

where the integrity or completeness of presented information may 

be misunderstood or is used inappropriately by the flight crew

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