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Notices to Airmen
UCF's Notices to Airmen Research in the National Flight-Safety Spotlight
by Sae Schatz (sae@cs.ucf.edu)
Flight Safety Cover
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May 20, 2004 -- UCF Team Performance Laboratory's research on Notices to Airmen (NOTAMs) was the lead article in the April issue of Flight Safety Digest, the flagship journal of aviation safety in the United States. The research report, entitled "Freeing NOTAMs From Teletype Technology," received an unprecedented 35 pages of the journal's space and was the feature on the journal's cover.
NOTAMs are notices that are distributed by telecommunication. They contain essential information for flight personnel, such as changes in aeronautical facility, procedures, or hazards.
Doctoral students Raegan Hoeft and Janeen Kochan, along with Team Performance Laboratory Director Florian Jentsch, authored the Flight Safety Digest NOTAM report. Their work is part of a research grant funded by the Federal Aviation Association's (FAA) Human Factors Research Program.
Under the grant, the team evaluated the U.S. domestic and international NOTAM system. They found that the current NOTAM system is clumsy to use, causes people to make mistakes, and has contributed to many aviation accidents and incidents. For example, on October 31, 2000 a Singapore Airlines flight bound for Los Angeles ran into concrete barriers and construction equipment on the runway while attempting to take-off. Eighty-three occupants were killed in the accident, which was caused, in part, by the faulty NOTAM system.
The NOTAM system has remained largely unchanged for almost three decades. In their report, Hoeft, Jentsch, and Kochan offer suggestions for improving it, such as guidelines for making the notices more understandable and less ambiguous, ways to improve the system's organization, and methods to improve training.
Based upon the Flight Safety Digest article, Jentsch has been invited by the Air Transport Association (the trade association of the U.S. air carriers) to present the group's NOTAM research at a high-level meeting of FAA administrators, airlines, pilot unions, and general aviation pilots in June.
UCF's Team Performance Laboratory has earned an international reputation as world's expert in team performance and team training -- generating over $10 million in research, around $4 million of which was in aviation research, and over 100 publications in the last decade. Aviation and transportation is one of the laboratory's specialities. UCF Researchers have developed training software that is now used in almost every airline in America. In addition to pilot-training packages, UCF's aviation and transportation researchers have established pilot communication guidelines, created more effective roadway designs, and worked with AAA and elderly persons to evaluate aging drivers' skills and difficulties.
The Team Performance Laboratory is part of the Human Factors Psychology program. UCF's human factors program is ranked among the best programs in the world, and it is accredited by the international Human Factors and Ergonomics Society
Raegan Hoeft has been working as a graduate research assistant at the Team Performance Lab since the summer of 2000. She is currently an ABD (All-But-Dissertation) student working toward her Ph.D. in Applied Experimental and Human Factors Psychology and an M.S. in Industrial Engineering: Human Engineering/Ergonomics.
Florian Jentsch was the recipient of the 2002 Earl Alluisi Early Career Achievement Award in Applied/Experimental Psychology from the American Psychological Association, and he was appointed director of the Team Performance Lab in December 2003. In addition, he is an associate scientist/scholar in the Department of Psychology at UCF and the director of the FAA/NAWCTSD/UCF Partnership for Aviation Team Training Research.
Janeen Kochan joined the Team Performance Laboratory as a Graduate Research Assistant in 2001. She holds a B.A. in Psychology and an M.S. in Industrial and Systems Engineering-Human Factors from the Ohio State University. She is currently a doctoral candidate in the Applied Experimental and Human Factors Psychology program, and she works as a Boeing 767 Captain for a major U.S. air carrier.
For more information about this research or the Team Performance Laboratory go to www.tpl.ucf.edu or contact the Department of Psychology at 407-823-4344. You can also download the article from the Flight Safety Digest at http://flightsafety.org/fsd_home.html
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