 Welcome back to Sun & Fun 2008. This program is a particularly important program in today's airport environment. Dan Seely, our speaker, has been an air traffic controller for more than 30 years. He's worked at such places as Pittsburgh Tower, San Juan, and Approach and Departure Control. He's got a very strong background in what it takes to keep us safe on the runways. Currently, Dan is a contractor with the runway safety team for the southern region. This particularly dedicated team works with airports, with pilots, and with the air traffic system to create the most safe environment we possibly can to enjoy the safety at an airport and to prevent runway incursions. Dan Seely has a unique perspective because he's come from one place and he now sees it from a wide variety of points of view. Please welcome Dan Seely. Thank you. Welcome. Have fun. Okay, I will. It's good to be back with you all here in Lakeland. Yes, if you've traveled at all or you get the newspaper every morning at your hotel room, you probably noticed that every other day, or at least every other week on USA Today, there's an issue about runway safety. And so because, as we've noticed, runway incursions have gone up over the past few years. And so the agency has a renewed emphasis on reducing runway incursions. Our airports, as you all know, almost more than 99% of all successful arrivals and departures in the system begin or end at an airport. In fact, oftentimes some of the more disastrous events in aviation either begin or end at an airport. And some of those things make the headlines, as is normally the case. You're usually on the six o'clock news. And one of those elements happens to be runway incursions. And so we've got a renewed emphasis in our offices and our programs to minimize the runway incursion phenomenon. The airline pilots did a survey several years ago. They did an analysis called a line-oriented safety audit. And they concluded that 23% of the errors in aviation and 38% of the risks take place on the surface of the field before you ever leave the ground. Now, when things get tight in any industry, the first thing that goes is money that they spend on advertising. And then the second thing that goes is the money that they would spend on training. Because they've concluded that there is such a risk out there on our nation's airports called runway incursions, they're now actually beginning to introduce taxi scenarios into the simulators for their recurrent training because they realize that it's such a risky activity that can take place. In fact, the renewed emphasis in the FAA began because just in the past six months there have been probably 85 to 95 incidents that involve an airliner as far as surface incursions go. The 15-year statistics for runway incursions goes something like this. We started at a low number in 93 and then it gradually increased. Our peak year of 2000, we had 68 million landings and take-offs at our nation's airports. We also had our peak year of runway incursions, 429. And there's two reasons for that because there was a large number of operations taking place in the nation. And secondly, because air traffic controllers began accurately, more accurately reporting the runway incursions that were taking place. We were reminded that that was one of our jobs as an air traffic controller. We were the certified air witness of activities that took place on the airport and we were supposed to report every violation of an FAR or an ATC clearance. So we got the message and that's why we had this spike in the year 2000. But the numbers gradually came down as the message came out because the mission of the runway safety program was to heighten awareness in Kentucky education among the pilots. So the numbers we think came down to the point where we reached the plateau and the FAA concluded that probably to bring those numbers down any further we would need to implement some new technology on the airport. And in fact, that's indeed what's taking place as budget submissions are elevated to Congress and we get money back. New technology is being implemented on a regular basis. But then again, the numbers began to climb. And so last year, the last fiscal year which ended September 30th, 2007, we had an increase to 370 runway incursions. Unfortunately, what we know is going to take place is in this fiscal year of 2008, which began October 1, we're going to have a 300% increase in runway incursions because we changed the definition. We adopted the International Civil Aviation Organization definition of a runway incursion and that's for the purpose of being able to compare data and statistics around the world between us all. And we're all on the same boat. The percentage of runway incursions taking place is pretty much the same throughout Canada, Europe and the United States and even Australia. Last year's definition, if a pilot or there was any unauthorized activity on a surface of a runway, if there was no other aircraft involved in the area, that was just classified as a surface incident. Well now, we're going to lump all of those together. There will be no such thing as a surface incident if there was an unauthorized activity on the runway. Those are now called runway incursions also. We know that we had 300% more surface incidents last year than we had runway incursions. So now when you lump them all together, obviously we're going to have a 300% increase. And as the weather begins to warm up in the north and the folks up north begin to fly more frequently, we're noticing that there is a definite spike taking place and we appear to be on track for increased number of runway incursions. If we have responsible media, well then that might be handled properly and it won't create unnecessary alarm in the nation. That's what we're hoping. And the best thing we can do is to make sure that we get the information out to the community on a regular basis so that they understand why the numbers are actually going up. But it is our mission to reduce those number of runway incursions. As far as who contributes to the statistic, it breaks down this way. 65% of runway incursions are caused by a pilot deviation of some kind. And 23% of runway incursions so far in this fiscal year are attributed to 23%, they make up 23% of the runway incursions. Air traffic controllers thus far this fiscal year have been contributing 12% of the runway incursions. We're all in the business of educating one another and making one another aware of the responsibilities and the risks that exist out there and hopefully taking responsibility for our role in the safety of the national airspace system so that we can push these numbers down. There are two reasons I think why runway incursions don't take place. The first reason, first of all, is because you're highly attentive to your responsibility, to your task. You know what the hazards are, you know where the risks are and you are attentive, you are majoring on the major in that particular time and not distracted by a minor in the cockpit or in the air traffic control tower, what happens to be. Focusing on that which is most important and doing exactly what was expected of you in compliance with rules and regulations and operating procedures. The other reason why we don't have runway incursions is because you caught the mistake that you were about to make just in time so that nobody else knows that you were about to make that mistake and we keep it a secret. Pilots and air traffic controllers, I think we have one thing in common. We like to keep our cards close to our vests. We don't want to admit what we can't do or what we didn't do or what our weaknesses were and so when we make a mistake, if we catch it just in time and the consequences never materialized then we'll feel like well we were successful and nobody else knows. We'll accept that, we'll call that, if you want to call that we'll call it luck we'll take luck but we need a whole lot more diligence in the job that we're doing rather than relying on luck. What we do, what we take with us when we go to work each day, we take our skills and our senses and which one, I always ask the pilots which one do you think is most vulnerable and most of the time after they scratch their heads for a few moments they'll admit it's probably our skills or rather our senses are our most vulnerable characteristic. Your skills, probably I need to lay off of your own particular vocation for a long period of time before your skills suffer tremendously but we never know from one day to the next how efficient our senses are going to be and I used to have a video that I would show to demonstrate to ourselves just how vulnerable our senses are and how quickly they can let us down. We never know from day to day. One of the things I do in the office when I'm not out conducting seminars with pilots or controllers is that I do analysis and conduct research on the internet to find out some more information about the human error factor wherever I can find it so we can sort of detect why we make these mistakes. I found this paper that was done by the International Air Transport Association when they gathered in Warsaw, Poland in October of 97 and they concluded that the three most common triggers of a human error event on our nation's airports are either preoccupation, forgetfulness, or inattention and these are the least manageable elements of a human error sequence and as we go on through the presentation today we're going to spend some time talking about each one of these in addition to a few other but something else that we take to work with us when we go to work is habits. We all have habits and habits are in some cases a good thing it saves us from having to use a lot of cognitive energy to accomplish a task if you want we'll call it muscle memory but sometimes with our own eyes we can see things that are out there but not interpreted and so they slip by us completely. We can hear sometimes without interpreting and an issue will slip by us completely and then we have to deal with habit intrusion. Habit intrusion in other words is that which when your habits rise up and bite you as an example here's a situation at the Newark airport and we have an aircraft down on the southwest ramp down here on the lower left-hand corner of the airport diagram here and if a southwest operation is in use at Newark and runway 22 is being active and an aircraft is coming off that ramp ground control will almost always give a pilot such as this exit the ramp at Papa Bravo, taxi via Papa Alpha or for short purposes I'll call it the Outer taxi via the Outer until you get a beam the Lindy terminal then make the jog on taxiway Bravo side step to the inner and taxi straight out to runway 22 right. Now the reason ground control will normally give that clearance is because we have a motto as ground controllers it's sort of an unofficial motto but that motto is try not to stop a moving aircraft or an aircraft that's not moving that's our job to try to keep our customers happy and keep them moving when they want to move and not stop them if we can help so in this case what this allows us to do is if we have traffic landing on runway 22 right we can have that aircraft exit at Victor or Papa Bravo or Papa Charlie or all the way at the end and taxi on the inner side by side with traffic that's on the outer and then as we determine who is behind then we can accomplish the zigzag the side step maneuver the switch lane chicane and get the inbound to the outer taxiway into the terminal and get the outbound to the inner taxiway so that's the motto but in this particular case when the aircraft who was anticipating this clearance was not necessarily given that clearance that particular time this time the air traffic controller had nobody landing on runway 22 right so they issued the pilot an alternate clearance that they weren't expecting he said come out on Papa Bravo come all the way to the inner and taxi straight out to runway 22 right and the pilot read it back correctly but this is what the pilot did instead they taxied on the inner until they got a beam the lindy terminal and just like habit always had done in the past they made that little jog maneuver and right out on the middle of the runway that's called habit intrusion that's risk in aviation those are the things we have to be mindful of that can happen to us the FAA and its comprehensive responsibility for the national airspace system has a definition for hazard in aviation that definition goes something like this anything that will cause illness in the industry anything that will cause injury anything that will cause destruction to property or the environment or anything that will cause death those are the hazards now if we do nothing about those hazards sometime in your career a hazard will rise up and bite you but if we sit down and try to identify those hazards for ourselves or as an agency then we're actually conducting a risk assessment and then if we put something in place whether it be as a rule and a regulation from the legislators point of view or as an individual to compensate for our own personal weaknesses then we've actually conducted risk management and as you probably know risk management is a buzzword in every industry right now because we have such a litigation minded society that everybody wants to minimize the risks just as much as they can so that they don't file suit and go bankrupt so what we're hoping, what we think is a best definition of safety is freedom from the unacceptable risks there are risks in aviation that we just have to accept I mean aviation is not safe, people make it safe now if you've had any FAA literature at all over the past few years you know that when it comes to risk management the FAA has suggested that we adopt this acronym called TEAM and that those four letters stand for four different ways to handle a risk either you transfer the risk, you eliminate the risk altogether except the risk which must be accepted or you minimize that risk in some particular way and as I said it made up the word TEAM we're good with acronyms, fortunately this is the word that's familiar to everybody but I wanted to dwell on the T, the T for transfer and I want to give you some insight into perhaps your own psyche and hopefully you already are aware of this but I want to expound on it a little bit as you know in our brain we have two hemispheres we have a left hemisphere and a right hemisphere and actually those hemispheres control opposite sides of our body and they function totally different as an example the left brain is a much more logical side of our brain whereas the right side is your more creative, intuitive side of your brain and those sides do not function differently in fact most of us have one side dominant over the other so now if we execute an activity under habitual as a habitual activity we're probably doing it in an intuitive way and if you wanted to transfer, when we talk about transferring that risk so that you don't get in trouble we're asking you to every once in a while make a transfer over to the more intellectual, more logical side of your brain and accomplish the task differently those brains function differently we all do and we never know which side of our brain is dominating in that particular time but they control, I threw this picture up here this picture in the middle happens to be the original picture of JFK now when we did we overlaid the left side of his face on top of the right side of his face so in the left picture over here you see the result of that and on the right side you see where we've overlaid the left side of his face with the right side of his face and maybe he looks somewhat different that's just an indication that the brain works differently and it doesn't always work the same and so he has one side of his brain that is dominant over another we did the same thing in this particular picture with Mr. Clinton and the center picture is the original picture and we did the same thing with the left side and the right side now here's a very unique individual now you see there is probably no difference whatsoever in this particular photograph but we did the same thing now what this demonstrates is that although JFK and Mr. Clinton had a dominant side of the brain Princess Di in this particular case is one of those individuals that neither side was dominant didn't mean she was smarter nor less smart than those original two it meant that she could perform a function easily from either side of the brain and she could quickly interchange from one side of the brain to the other so now we're still talking about the word transfer right now let me show you something I'm going to throw a picture up here now I don't know what mood you're in at the particular moment perhaps you're just here to be entertained and so you're probably in right brain but if you're thinking more logically if you're analyzing what I have to see you'll be in left brain so what I want you to do in this particular case is I want you to look at this picture if you see this silhouette rotating clockwise you're in your right brain if you see it rotating counterclockwise you're in left brain now you can make a transfer here if you want to like cast your eyes perhaps to the lower right hand corner of the picture and just focus on the foot that's on the ground you could coax yourself and to seeing that silhouette rotate a different way let me give you a chance to do that and you can now start trying to go back and forth do something intentionally inside of you to make the silhouette start rotating in the opposite direction this is what we talk about transferring and this is what we would hope that you would do when you're taxiing on the surface of the airport to transfer those things that you might do on a regular basis habitually without even thinking start thinking about those especially when you're on the surface of the airport don't take anything for granted the risks out there are great and then be able to look out the window get something done in the cockpit get back out the window get something done in the cockpit get back out the window because life is coming at you fast in that aircraft and we're going to talk a little bit more about that now what we did to add some realism to the runway safety statistic is that we concluded that there are sometimes category D runway incursions which meant you met the definition of a runway incursion you crossed the hold line without authorization or you got on the runway without authorization but there was nobody else in the area whereas a category A runway incursion is one of those incursions that somebody had to take extreme evasive action to avoid the collision or the disaster so we've had some realism but you can see so far our category B and A events only make up two percent each of our statistic as far as the runway safety program is concerned we feel that this is success in spite of the rising numbers because we know that we cannot eliminate a runway incursion because a runway incursion as we all know are caused by one specific thing pretty much and that is a short in the headset separator called the human error factor and we have to just deal with that even though the poet said we are beautifully and wonderfully made we are awesome we have feet made of clay we're going to make mistakes all of our life we can't throw enough money at training and education to eradicate human imperfections that's just going to happen from time to time but if we can have somebody on the surface of the field be extremely alert to the situation that's taking place out there that takes the evasive action just a little bit sooner than they might have otherwise now we're going to turn a category or potential category A or B event into a C or D event that we're concerned now the airline pilots association have recently come out with a white paper on runway incursions this happens to be about the second or third page in that paper I highlighted this one little paragraph down here in italics and I put that little unhappy face beside it because they have this sentence down here let's read this where it says given the potential severity and likelihood of a category A or B event the airline pilots association believes that the U.S. Air Transportation System is currently operating in the unacceptable risk category category because of the likelihood of a category A or B event which they think could happen on our nation system that we're operating in the unacceptable risk category now where did they get that term unacceptable risk to see this little matrix is up atop there that is an international matrix that is now being imposed on every member of the United Nations from the international civil aviation organization called a safety risk management safety risk matrix we are all adopting safety risk management what this matrix says is look at the likelihood in the left hand column you see down here we have green acceptable risk but the likelihood goes from improbable to very likely to the yellow and the red category and as the severity of that incident develops from not so severe all the way over to extremely hazardous or catastrophic see that arrives us cause us to arrive in the upper right hand corner of this matrix the ALPA has said we are in the unacceptable risk category everything that FAA implements from here on out they are subjecting those proposals to a safety risk management assessment and they must come up they must conclude how acceptable or unacceptable are the risks that we are facing and what can we do to mitigate those risks we are all in this business now together everybody is adopting this now what I have done as a runway safety analyst I have modified that matrix to my own liking what I have done an analization of hundreds and hundreds of runway incursions we concluded about 5 or 6 primary causes of why there is a runway incursion and I realized that any one of those can be catastrophic and any one of those is likely to happen at any time we never know when they are going to take place so I have flattened out this risk and I have put those categories those possible reasons for runway incursion at the top and then I have put a mitigating factor in the middle now we are going to go through each one of these one at a time to talk about them because I want to offer you from my point of view something that I think you can do for yourself to mitigate a risk to turn a risk into an acceptable risk rather than an unacceptable risk as an example, preoccupation what is preoccupation anybody remember the incident took place in Miami Florida several decades ago when an L-1011 slowly descended into the Everglades west of the field and what was the reason for that incident because the pilots were preoccupied with a light bulb that was out indicating that they may have an unsafe gear they accidentally disengaged altitude hold and the aircraft slowly descended into terrain and crashed in the Everglades preoccupied with a task we need to be able to we need to remind ourselves that that can happen there are things that will take place in aviation that will consume your attention that will require extra cognitive activity on your part but you need to realize that okay get into the mission for a moment get back out absorb the world around you get back into the mission work on solving your problem get back out absorb the world around you non-stop scanning is something that we have to subject ourselves to on a regular basis to prevent preoccupation the world is coming at you there's a lot of inertia out there the potential for disaster and destruction is tremendous we need to be out there when we're moving on the surface of the airport if you're sitting perfectly still okay get back in your aircraft and do what you need to do I don't want to let air traffic control scramble your priorities by us jumping into your cockpit at the most in opportune time I'll spend a little more time talking about that in just a few minutes but I want to move on through this matrix I also said inattention was one of those elements that causes us to do make mistakes out there inattention is something that takes you away from what you're supposed to be focusing on you know inattention has a connotation of being a bad word is it blame worthy behavior and negligence or can it be failure to see yet acting with reasonable behavior and we need to realize that that's really what inattention is people are quick to slap that word on us inattention as a weakness but inattention is just something that we have to deal with there are sometimes things that are meant to be seen that we don't see and so we'll talk about that what can you do in the cockpit to compensate for inattention one of the things that we are suggesting is implement sterile cockpit so that you don't get distracted and you don't lose the world around you sterile cockpit is something that all the airlines conform to once they push off the gate and they're taxiing out they implement sterile cockpit in other words they're not going to talk about anything other than the traffic around them acknowledging air traffic control procedures and anything that may be affecting their flight the safety of their flight as well as checklist items from that regimentation until they reach 10,000 feet MSL now you're not necessarily going to climb to 10,000 feet MSL and your single engine RECIP but you can implement the same procedure until you reach 1500 or traffic pattern altitude sterile cockpit now if you're a flight instructor we know that you need to spend some time conducting education and training while you're taxiing out but you can also set the example for that student by saying hey listen sterile cockpit but there will be an occasional thing that I will mention but while I'm talking to you you can still be looking out the window while I'm talking to you you can set the example never be in a hurry as a flight instructor even if you're a couple minutes late but maintain set that example with sterile cockpit I know one airline pilot a friend of mine who said you know I believe in sterile cockpit and I want to make sure that I tell the pilots that I'm flying with that we're going to implement sterile cockpit but I'm not one of those A type personalities so what I say to my co-pilot when he sits down and I've never met him before after I introduce myself and greet him he says I want you to help me with this I believe in sterile cockpit but I have a hard time maintaining it so I want you to hold me accountable for sterile cockpit he's already said an attitude an atmosphere in this cockpit that listen Mr. co-pilot madam co-pilot we are going to maintain sterile cockpit until we reach 10,000 feet once we push out the blocks it's a good thing to do you can do the same thing whether you're a single pilot or you have dual cockpit sterile cockpit you know one of those things we need to do we have to realize we talk to ourselves a lot I know air traffic controllers talk to ourselves a lot and you know what we don't always use words when we talk when we're formulating strategies sometimes we use we use concepts rather than words but there are things that you can say to yourself to double check yourself to make sure that you're maintaining a sterile cockpit when you're approaching a runway clear left clear right I mean when you get out on the ramp of your aircraft and you start it up just before you hit the prop you say clear prop even though there may be nobody around so adopt a procedure like you're going to say clear left and clear right just before you go across the runway we have one airline company that as soon as they reach the approach lights the pilot who is not flying the aircraft says the runway is clear cleared land in other words I'm scanning the entire length of the runway making sure that all the connectors are clear approaching the runway on those connectors is not moving at a high rate of speed that may infringe upon the safety of the runway and I'm reciting for you the fact that I got your landing clearance and we're good to go so those are sort of the self talk things that you can do out loud the procedure that you can do in your own cockpit we sometimes don't use words in our self talk but we use rhythms and we use concepts so we just need to realize that self talk is something that needs to be perhaps transferred and conducted a little bit differently than it ever was before I wish this would be a regular practice down say down like in West Palm Beach I don't know if any of you fly into West Palm Beach but the GA runway is down there on the south side runway 9 right just a short field a short runway and of course the long runway predominantly in use is runway 9 left for the large aircraft and all the FBOs that are parked on the south side of this field now they used to have a lot of runway incursions at West Palm Beach because the corporate aircraft had to go across runway 9 left to get to the parallel taxiway Charlie to take off on runway 9 left but the airport had concluded that hey listen one of the things that we can do to start eliminating runway incursions on these crossings is to create a parallel taxiway in the middle of these two runways so with FAA money they constructed taxiway Lima those two runways and so we figured this was going to be a great solution so as the smaller GA aircraft entered left base to runway 9 right as they rolled out on final this is what it looked like and guess where they were landing on a regular basis they're landing on taxiway Lima does that entice you to go to that run that taxiway rather than on the runway yeah probably so because it's even bigger the taxiway is bigger than the runway and on the other side it looks pretty much the same now we try to think of ways that we can encourage pilots to use the runway instead of the taxiway so we painted words like taxiway at the end of the taxiway and even in the middle of the taxiway and 40 foot high letters we reprated the word taxiway so that when you're on midfield downwind you can look out there and say aha there is a taxiway and then when you roll out on final if you say to yourself I am now on final for whoops runway 9 right we figured that would work out but you know what we haven't diminished the rate of taxiway Lima landings at all we really don't know what we could do other than if we started encouraging pilots to talk to themselves as they performed critical functions such as I'm going across the runway clear left clear right or as they line up on final making sure that they're on the runway or on those situations where there are two approach ends of a runway very close together and you're told the taxi in a position hold or clear for takeoff that you've checked it out real closely make sure you're departing on the right runway so that's one of those things we need to do for ourselves now one of the things that we're all plagued with doesn't make any difference how old for you are is forgetfulness that's something that we got to deal with all our life we do we rely on short term memory as air traffic controllers as pilots whoever it happens to be but short term memory if you know how it works and we're talking analysis again of the brain short term memory has that capacity of retaining six to eight items for approximately 20 seconds six to eight items give or take one or two now in a interior environment we probably as pilots absorb a lot of information and just maintain it in short term memory such as taxi instructions or ATIS code or whatever it happens to be but onboard your aircraft especially as a single pilot can you experience task saturation in a very short time you certainly can task saturation can consume us all in the most unexpected situations now even if you're a conscientious pilot and you ask for progressive instructions to get to a particular runway but you chose to retain it in short term memory now we never know you never know when task saturation is suddenly going to rise up in your cockpit and now for you to remember a new item even though you are fully saturated with ideas your brain will involuntarily drop one of those items in short term memory to make room for the new idea and what if it happened to be the progressive instructions that you got from ground control which was taxi south on echo make your second right turn turn right on taxiway foxtrot and taxi to runway 7 right but now because of task saturation and the fact that you forgot that critical instruction you're going straight ahead instead of making that turn and if that straight ahead route takes you on to a runway at certain speeds you can be on the edge of a runway in 4.2 seconds if you missed that turn if that's a standard hold line 250 feet away from the center line so to compensate for forgetfulness and your taxi instructions whatever device you need we don't have written checklist for those things you have to make them for yourself that's a risk management activity that you can do for yourself as a pilot to compensate for forgetfulness because if you write something down as long as you have enough light in your cockpit you don't have to worry about forgetting it right it's right there for you by far we think the most leading cause of any incident in aviation is loss of situational awareness it's just being aware of the environment around you there is the reality of the environment that you're in and then there is the perception of the environment that you're in and as long as that perception of the environment and the reality of the environment closely aligned with one another you're going to do pretty good as far as situational awareness goes and sometimes we can get by with just a minimum amount of good situational awareness as an example you're on a runway you're on an airport that has an 8,000 foot runway you're on the east end of the field the visibility is an eighth of a mile with fog and you could tell perhaps what's going on at the west end of the field just by listening to frequency in other situations when the visibility is good you can see things around you and just say to yourself that situation over there is not critical to what I'm doing over here so we can absorb the environment that we're in just by hearing just by watching closely paying attention to ATC's clearances to other pilots and absorbing the picture I marveled as an air traffic controller often times when I could tell that I was working with a bunch of pilots that just had developed the skill of developing situational awareness they could tell by the chatter on the frequency just what kind of a pattern they were entering and they were ready to do exactly what they could almost anticipate what I was going to say to them like I'm running dual downwinds for one runway and I'm turning an aircraft on base leg over here and the aircraft seven miles away on the other side of the localizer says hey I see that traffic at two o'clock and eight is that my traffic? Affirmative follow the traffic, clear for a visual approach and contact the tower those are the kind of days that just make an air traffic controller smile I say it's great to work in this kind of environment with these kind of pilots and then there are other days when it's just impossible to maintain good situational awareness you just have to execute precisely what is told to you because there's too much going on and you can't necessarily absorb it all and that's something else we have to realize too I know we air traffic controllers pride ourselves in being a two-eared air traffic controller we're listening to the earpiece and everything that's going on out there and we might have a supervisor or an assistant controller telling us, giving us additional instructions or asking us questions and we're giving them the high sign and we understand everything that's going on the two-eared air traffic controller but every once in a while we tell air traffic controllers there are sometimes when you've got to learn to filter out a conversation that's going on over there that you used to be a part of but now your traffic load requires you to be involved right here tune all that stuff out we need to realize that sometimes you need to do that too as a pilot the situation might be just that critical in your environment some of the things we do to help you maintain situational awareness and some of the things that we do that hinder your ability to maintain situational awareness we ask you to read back your clearance anytime we issue you a whole short instruction the LAA psychologists have said if a pilot has a part of reading back a clearance then they will have greater ownership of it and more likely that they will execute it so that's why my book, my Bible tells me that anytime you tell a pilot to hold short of a runway you must insist on a read back and sometimes it's like pulling teeth because we'll say one eight echo hold short of two seven and you'll say one eight echo Roger one eight echo I need to hear you say you're going to hold short of two seven one eight echo we'll call the full teeth here let me hear you say you're going to hold short of runway two seven oh Roger we'll hold short of two seven now I feel more confident that you know exactly what I need you to do and likelihood that you're going to do it so they changed my rule book not necessarily yours but nonetheless ATC will hound you to death until you read that back correctly don't just parrot us we have conditioned many of you pilots to be parrots you can read back exactly what we say just as fast as we say it right and then sometimes I'm sure in your cockpit the two pilots have looked together and said what did we just agree to do sometimes that happens that's we don't doubt that so be careful that I don't coax you into that situation and that's why I get to this other point down here about don't let ATC ABC you do not let air traffic control abandon you bully you or confuse you now have you ever felt abandoned by air traffic control probably so especially if you were just meaning to get across a runway in the heat of a rush and we give you the lowest priority because our job as an air traffic controller our desire is to keep pounding that pavement with arrivals and departures get maximum occupancy rate out of that runway and if I can tuck an arrival in before I get this departure off or get a departure off before I tuck that arrival in I'm going to do that and if all you want to do is get across you get the lowest priority but every once in a while under the heat of a battle I have forgotten you those who have given the lowest priority too or maybe I said continue downwind I'll call your base and now you're like 8 minutes away from the airport you're the only one in delta airspace and then the pilot has said why did it go still downwind oh Roger turn your base clear land just like you're exactly where I meant for you to be quick recovery on my part listen if your comfort zone begins to collapse on you as a pilot for whatever reason maybe I said position and hold and as you came around the corner you could tell that there was traffic out over the outer marker and now you're almost confident that that traffic is now over the approach lights get back in my ear just let me know 1-8 Echo we're still holding or 1-8 Echo we're still downwind don't hesitate to get back in my air and remind me yes indeed we have forgot pilots from time it's embarrassing and sometimes we'll apologize openly and other time we'll just cover it up but nonetheless you're out there in the area where the risks and the hazard are you need to look out for yourself how about bullying though you ever felt bullied by air traffic control ah yeah I bet so shame on us first of all if we do that with arrogance and intention to insult like that phrase that we'll use incorrectly from time to time when you ask me to say something again and the controller comes back and says I say again you know that that was meant to be an insult shame on us that's not what we're paid to do we were never trained to do that and what you need to remember by all means anytime you've been you've received discourteous service from FAA air traffic controllers you need to write down the date, the time and the frequency and you need to pass that information on to the air traffic manager and as long as it's within the past 45 days we'll have a recording of that event and we will make a cassette tape of that event and we will sit that controller down and we'll say that's not what we pay you to do we've always been in this business of trying to perfect clean up our own house and from time to time you know they'll sit that employee down with a couple of his peers and his peers will poke him in the eye for acting that way and then two weeks later one of those peers will be in the hot seat and he'll be poking them in the eye that's just the way the business works I mean we're not going to eradicate short tempers and irritability from time to time but I'm not here to explain air traffic control bullying or make an excuse for it because there is a seldom an excuse for it I'm here to say what happens to you when I've bullied you as an air traffic controller what happens to you out there moving your aircraft across the sky or through the surface of the field I've either picked your short temper or I've wounded your pride when I've insulted you that way and I've bullied you now what happens to you as an individual when that happens I know when it happens to me from time to time still and I don't fly but I drive on the highways of our nation you know we're all doing ten miles over the speed limit and nobody's batting an eye at that but then all of a sudden somebody wants to do twenty miles over the speed limit decides to cut everybody off and now he happened to torque me at the wrong time and I'm just I'm beside myself and so for the next three miles I'm going to do whatever I can to avenge myself on that person and then when it's all over with I'm breathing short breaths and my pulse rate is over a hundred and as things begin to subside inside of me I say to myself look what I did I just jeopardize the safety of my whole family to avenge myself on some media see that's what happens to us when we have been offended and when we feel that our rights have been abused or whatever it happens to be air traffic control has barked at you and insulted you the same thing is going to happen to you so are we going to change the air traffic control system not likely it's still going to happen so what do you have to say to yourself say I'm not going to allow the air traffic control system to introduce anger management into my cockpit they may try to but they're not going to hit me in my heart they're not going to hit me in my head I'm going to rise above it so you've got to be better than me alright you've got to be better than me when a pilot makes a mistake on the surface of the field the pilot could be seriously entered or worse and when the air traffic controller makes the error on the surface of the field it's the pilot that could be seriously entered or worse you have to be better than me don't let the system bully you alright one last point about confusing you ever been confused by air traffic control the speed that we talk the lingo that we use I'm sure as you've grown in the system you're probably more accustomed to what you're going to experience and it doesn't bother you as much as it did when you first started out or if you haven't been in for a while it probably overwhelms you again let me start by saying this air traffic control instructions almost in every single case are nothing more than a suggestion one more time air traffic controls almost in every case are nothing more than a suggestion I'm going to throw that exception in there because I'm saying to myself there surely must be one I just don't know what it would be it's only a suggestion until such time well first of all why can I say that it's a suggestion what is your title in the left seat of the aircraft pilot in command that means every time I issue you an instruction you're supposed to evaluate can I do that because my aircraft do that does the environment around me permit me to do that again if the question to any one of the if the answer to any one of those questions is no then that's what you say to me say unable tower, unable ground, unable approach and now I've got to come up with an alternate instruction so it's only a suggestion until such time as you say Roger, Wilco or you read it back now it's a contract my name's at the top your name is at the bottom and you're supposed to do exactly what I said not what you wanted to hear expectation bias is a way of burning people you heard what you wanted to hear rather than what was really said okay so make sure you understand me completely if I have confused you at any point in that transmission if there has been static distortion that interrupted one of my words don't fill in the blank with what you thought I might have said make sure you understand completely don't let me confuse you so let's move on disorientation what does this orientation mean being lost now these aren't the same two airports but some of our airports are pretty complex and you ought to have an airport diagram in fact you know one of the statistics we had a couple of years ago was that every runway incursion that we analyzed that was caused by pilot deviation the pilot did not have an airport diagram out so the FAA concluded well we got to get those diagrams out in different places so these pilots can download them and print them out and as far as preparation for a flight you ought to have an airport diagram for the airport that you're on that you're about to leave and the airport that you're going to even if it's your home airport because ATC with all the construction that's taking place on airports nowadays ATC can start rooting you on a route that you've never been on before you're a very seldom been on and you can get disoriented on your home field it takes cognitive energy better to keep you from getting in trouble that's one of those things one of those activities that can turn what could be a hazardous life-threatening situation by mitigating that potential and turning it into a safe operation for you one of those other categories one of those other risks that can turn into be a hazardous situation a high risk, an unacceptable risk poor aeronautical decision-making there is a definition in the AIM the aeronautical information manual for aeronautical decision-making it's very complex it talks about the mental process used by pilots when they're dealing with a given set of circumstances to make a decision what distinguishes aeronautical decision-making from any other kind of aeronautical decision-making no, let me say that again what distinguishes aeronautical decision-making from any other kind of decision-making to steal a phrase from your commercials an aviation life comes at you fast life comes at you fast you're moving a whole lot faster than you were in your automobile and you have to make decisions time to decisions, sometimes very quickly in that aircraft there is no room for poor aeronautical decision-making and in other words to be prepared to make good aeronautical decision-making you need to have thoroughly prepared for your flight all phases of that flight and to avoid task saturation if you have thoroughly prepared then only the surprises are going to need your constant attention some extra vigilance on your part so avoid task saturation everybody knows hopefully what land and hold short operations are the lasso operations let me ask you a couple of questions has a student pilot allowed to accept the land and hold short clearance they're not supposed to do you have to accept the land and hold short clearance when it's been issued to you by air traffic control no can you find out in advance where you would find land and hold short operation being conducted yes, in the back of the green book somewhere around page 430 or thereabouts you'll find all those airports that are listed in that region that conduct lasso operations they'll tell you which runways, how much runways available and so on you can prepare for those things in advance so don't get caught by surprise we air traffic controllers implemented because we knew that there are ways of enhancing airport capacity with lasso but we know a lot of people don't like to participate in it and that's just fine, that's okay the airport acceptance rate is really dependent a lot on you finally I just want to tell you there are a couple of training aids out there that you can always go to to review and rehearse and refresh yourself as far as runway safety goes and studying signage marking and lighting if you go to the runway safety page as we listed there at the top www.faa.gov slash runway safety you'll see this page and you'll see over there that little on the left margin that test your knowledge and when you select that you'll see a variety of runway safety tests that you can go to to drill yourself I mean you'll hear some actual taxi clearances you'll be given an airport diagram and you will be able to review and refresh yourself on how to execute clearances in accordance with an ATC instruction and an ATC diagram so test yourself on those things you may also know that we have a runway incursion information evaluation program some pilots are calling it the get out of jail free card all it means is that we've created an atmosphere in the FAA that we want you to open up and tell us if you've ever had a runway incursion if you've had a runway incursion FAA will investigate, the flight standard investigator will come and see you and if they find out that one you haven't had an incident of any kind in the past five years your runway incursion was not the result of negligence on your part that they're going to offer you an opportunity to participate in this REAP program where they're going to ask you a series of 44 to 48 questions try to get you open up and tell us what was it that caused your runway incursion and it goes into great detail because we don't know all the answers, we don't know all the causes and we'd like to find out from you we want you to realize that you're in a safe atmosphere and if you participate there will be no certificate action against you whatsoever nothing more than a letter in your files that said you had a runway incursion and you participated in the REAP program by all means file those NASA reports that's a good way for us to get information from you all runway incursions, they're a risk but it's a risk that can be managed and it's going to be managed by all of us we're in a partnership together we're traffic controllers are reminding one another we're reminding the pilots everybody's in the business the message is going to stay out there for a little while longer we're sure until the numbers start going down we all have a role, we all have something we can do if you have any questions I'd like you to feel free to ask them and also wait until one of the gentlemen in the room comes by with the microphone so you could be heard loud and clear well thanks a lot for your attention we enjoyed your company thank you very much I really come on