NARRATOR: Sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell
are the senses sending information to our brains.
Depending on how we interpret and process this information
depends on whether we see the world for what it is, or not.
And we can be easily fooled.
So, pilots must have means and ways
of managing misperceptions and illusions.
DR. GRAHAM EDKINS: It's really how we process information.
So, we take in information from the world through our senses,
so our vision, obviously, our hearing,
even feel and touch has a big part to play.
So, how we take in that information is one of the issues
that if we don't process that information in enough time,
sometimes we can make hasty decisions,
so the quality of the information that comes into the brain
is often called sensory perception,
or taking in the cues from the environment.
We've got to process that in our brain somehow,
and make decisions about it,
and then we're got to do something,
we got to, you know, perform some kind of action.
And there's lots and lots of issues that can go wrong.
Time pressure, misdiagnosing the information
that you're bringing in from the environment,
being distracted.
And we actually have what we call a physiological limitation.
Our brains can only take in so much at a given time.
And people would know that we may do something like
reverse parallel park in a carpark.
They're on their phone to their mum or maybe their dad.
They're on, hopefully, a hands-free phone obviously,
but, you know, what happens is as you start to make sure
that you're getting into that carpark,
well, if you've got a truck behind you,
there's a gap in the conversation on the phone,
and your mum or your dad might be asking you, "What are you doing?"
Of course, what that illustrates is that our brains can only process
really only one thing at a given time.
They're limited by how much they can process at any one point.
So, information processing, we have limitations, as human beings
that really, in some cases we can't get over.
Understanding about those limitations is the first principle.
So, being knowledgeable about the limitations of vision,
particularly at night time,
the limitations of hearing in noisy cockpits,
the limitations of also understanding phraseology,
particularly when talking to air traffic control or indeed other parties.
Understanding and being knowledgeable about those risks is the first step.
The second, I think, then, is really being proactive about those issues.
So, in an operation environment, understanding that, you know,
if you are flying in visual conditions,
and you're not instrument-rated,
it's making sure that you don't get caught in that situation
where you are then pushing the boundaries,
and then transitioning from visual flight rules to IFC.
Planning is really one of the key parts of making sure that we understand
what we can and can't do,
and understanding our own limitations.
CAPTAIN TODD MICKLESON: It's about how we process information,
how we actually detect information or changes in a system,
how we process that mentally and physically as well.
So, physical characteristics of the limitations of our eyesight
or limitations of how much information we can actually manage
and recall at the time.
When we're getting clearances in the aviation environment,
air traffic control clearances,
we need to have a system or a way that we deal with that.
Now, some people, that's writing it down,
other people have a way of remembering it.
As you're being given that instruction to repeat it back to yourself
before you answer back or read back that clearance.
And then a way of actually dealing with that clearance.
So, it's how we actually receive information,
process it, make sense of it, and then act upon it.
There's lots of examples of incorrect readbacks on clearances,
being cleared to a wrong level.
There was a famous accident that happened with the Flying Tigers
which was a cargo operational airline many, many years ago.
In those days, you'd be given a clearance to descend to a particular level.
And they were cleared to 2,400 feet,
from memory, which was "2 4 0 0".
They read back cleared "to 4 0 0", and descended to 400 feet.
So, descending to 400 feet, rather than 2400.
There just happened to be a hill in front of them
that was higher than 400 feet,
and they ended up crashing into that hill.
So, from that, we changed the way we actually give clearances
and read back clearances.
Other examples of looking into the way humans process information
and human performance,
for instance, fatigue, things we mentioned before,
you know, time of day,
recognising the effect of Circadian rhythms,
so that's the time of day
and how alert you are at different times of the day.
You know, how do we manage that?
An example would be for a lot of operations.
You know, aeroplanes are flying during the day.
Maintenance is done overnight.
So, that can be done in, you know, very cold or very hot hangars.
It's dark.
You know, trying to read task cards, which might be written in, you know,
pretty light sort of faint font.
Often in the old days, all in capital letters on a task card.
So, dealing with that in a better way,
to actually present the information to the engineers
in a user-friendly way,
dealing with those sorts of issues to try and minimise those risks.
DR. GLENN SINGLEMAN: In medicine, we have problems of sensory overload,
and machine overload, and information overload.
And it comes down doing medicine, we're dealing with those priorities.
Like when I go to a medical emergency team call,
we have these priorities that we follow that we know work.
Look after the airway, you know, are they breathing?
Have they got a circulation?
We follow their doctor's ABC again, and again, and again.
So, with all of the other processes that we follow
in the critical care environment,
there is a priority for those as well.
There is breathing, there is oxygenation,
there is circulation.
Then there's neurological function.
Then there's nutrition,
removal of waste.
I mean, all of this stuff,
there is a systematic prioritised approach
that you can follow.
And the same applies, in my experience,
of understanding the priorities involved
in the decision-making process involved in flight.
And now I recognise the value of making a lot of that algorithmic.
Like I follow those clear off checks when I'm flying, right?
I do it.
I just cycle through, rotate through.
Because it makes sense to me as a system that works
in my other career.
GREG HOOD: So, the human mind is a remarkable piece of your body.
Even sometimes, when you make an error,
and you don't think you've made an error,
you can still think that you're correct.
And one of the examples of that I saw in my previous employment
as an air traffic controller,
was the assignment of a level to an aircraft to, you know,
descend to flight level 3 1 0.
And the controller will swear black and blue
that flight level 3 1 0 was the level read back.
It's the level he assigned.
And it's not until you take the ATC down into the tape replay room,
and he hears himself or herself reading back flight level 3 3 0,
not flight level 3 1 0,
and that it's absolutely a surprise.
The lesson for that for me is that you really do have to accept
the fact that you make mistakes.
NARRATOR: We've heard how easy it is to make mistakes and be misunderstood.
So, listen closely to the following conversation
between an impatient pilot and an easy-going engineer.
PILOT: Mate, what's going on?
I thought the plane was ready.
MIKE: Ah, she'll be ready when she's ready, mate.
PILOT: What does that mean?
I've got passengers here.
WOMAN 1: Hey, it means what it means.
You can't rush these things.
The safety of you and your passengers should be a priority.
Like Mike said, it will get done.
PILOT: (LAUGHS) It'll get done.
Heard all that before.
WOMAN 2: I've got to be in Dubbo for a funeral.
MAN: I'm a trapeze artist.
I have to perform tonight.
PILOT: So, the flight's been delayed and no one's happy.
But did you notice all the changes?
NARRATOR: Believe it or not, there are over 18 changes in this scene.
Did you see them all?
WOMAN 1: ..should be a priority. Like Mike said, it'll get done.
PILOT: It'll get done.
NARRATOR: In the world today, seeing isn't always believing,
and things are not often what they seem.
Look at these two lines.
The one on top appears longer.
But, remove the arrows, and all is revealed.
It depends on your perception.
Some see a vase, but others see two talking heads.
So, it's being aware that we're all susceptible to illusions,
and developing means and ways to manage them.
PETER GASH: We do quite a bit of flying over water
and quite a lot of IFR flying.
Pilots need to understand the human fact as a human
elements that can cause things like illusions over a glassy ocean.
The east coast of Australia, you don't often see a glassy ocean.
And then we've got those big south-east seas and the big swells,
so nearly always got a horizon when you're over water.
A big part of that is understanding your human limit
and having a process in place to deal with it.
Knowing that "I don't have a horizon, I'm going towards this horizon".
My G1000 or my little round dial or whatever it is that I've got.
And knowing that I've got a back-up and cross-referencing it
and going to what you're trained to do, is you scan.
Move around your scan, back out and then back in,
knowing that now and again, you're going to get the leans
late at night in the dark,
when you're tired and been on the clocks for a long time.
Just knowing that it happens.
When it happens, just know that you'll sit back a bit
and you'll just trust your instrumentation,
and you'll cross-reference and check,
and it might go out now and again,
but it comes back to the core of good training.
RICHARD DE CRESPIGNY : And I'm starting to think I'm not turning.
Keep going a bit longer.
Alright, I don't think I'm turning now.
TECHNICIAN: OK, head up, open eyes.
You OK?
RICHARD DE CRESPIGNY : Yeah. (LAUGHS)
My head is rolling.
My body thinks I'm rolling this way.
And all the senses, from vision, says that I'm sitting still
does not match with my vestibular system.
It is totally out of whack.
Now it's coming back,
so my eyesight's overpowering the vestibular,
and now I've got it back,
but there was a sense of disbelief.
If I had not had the visual senses,
and I'd lifted my head up the way I just did,
I would have easily rolled the aircraft inverted
to keep what I thought was the normal attitude.
I've been flying for 37 years, 17,000 hours.
I had 11 years in the air force where we regularly,
because of the three-dimensional manoeuvres we were doing
in and out of cloud,
we were regularly getting ourselves disoriented.
So, we were used to the conflict of the vestibular system and the instruments.
And that was common-day stuff for us.
All the training, all the hours and experience I had
didn't help me one iota
when it came to sitting in the Bárány chair.
The sensation of rolling and tumbling in that chair was real
and there is no experience, nothing you can do,
no course you can do to take away that rolling sensation.
You just have to understand it exists, live with it, and respond to it,
which means you follow the instruments.
JOHN WICKHAM: Visual illusions can affect a pilot at night,
particularly the land versus the sky.
The reliance is to trust your instruments,
to manage a very active scan rate
on all your six basic flight instruments,
to protect yourself from the leans and other visual illusions
that could be part and parcel of that event.
It's the understanding of what can occur
and how you can become disorientated
in certain circumstances.
We call it an instrument rating for good reason,
because we train you to trust those instruments
and manage or replicate when you can't see the horizon,
when you've got no visual cues
that you can gain the same information
from the adaptation of your eyesight to the instrument panel.
On a very dark night, a very dim lit cockpit,
and the perception of rate of movement or acceleration
is difficult to pick up because you can't see the side cues from the eyes
and see the speed at which the aircraft's accelerated to.
And so your only reference to speed is what you see on the airspeed indicator.
When you've reached your target lift-off speed,
it's then transitioning from what you see as runway lights ahead,
and as the nose pitches up, of course, the runway lights disappear,
and all you're left with is the power setting,
the attitude, wings' level, trimming the aircraft
and flying at a profile that clears the obstacles in the flight path.
If you don't get on instruments as you transition into lift-off,
you can very quickly become inverted,
and descend and hit the ground.
Do not take your eyes off those instruments.
Trust them.
You must trust them, otherwise it'll kill you.