Flight Energy Management Training: Promoting Safety and Efficiency

Abstract

Poor aircraft energy management can lead to unsafe and inefficient operations. Despite their impact on safety and economy, energy management skills are not adequately taught or evaluated in civilian pilot training. This paper 1) addresses the need for better energy management training, 2) provides a conceptual and pedagogical framework for later curriculum development, and 3) suggests key attributes of an effective training program. To make the case, the study uses energy management to link safety and efficiency. It then synthesizes energy principles across disciplines and illustrates how such principles, once simplified, become powerful instructional tools. Finally, it suggests that an integrated, energy-centered, top-down training approach will lead to a better mental model of how the airplane works and, in doing so, to enhanced energy management and decision-making skills for safe and efficient operations.

Energy-Based Metrics for General Aviation Flight Data Record Analysis

“…Cruise 15 3. General 2,6,7,9,10,11,16,17,18,21,25,26,27,29 4. Turning and maneuvering 22,30 Classification based on Purpose 1.…”

“…6 Within the literature targeting safety improvements, there are three major themes used to outline the scope of each effort: the specific purpose, the intended aircraft category, and the flight regime. We organize the literature surveyed according to these themes as follows:…”

“…6,21,11,17,18 Specific total energy is usually the metric representing the energy state of the aircraft as defined in many papers. It is also known as Energy Height.…”

“…Development of cockpit flight displays for enhancing energy awareness of crew 8,9,23,21,24,29 2. Pilot training for better energy management 6 3. Development of control system based on energy management 7,9,11,16 4.…”

The Flight of Birds and Other Animals

“…The theory [10] says that the range is just the energy height multiplied by the lift:drag ratio. It would be simple to display energy height in a glass cockpit with an "energy altimeter", a fact which has not escaped the engineers [11]. Any pilot can multiply this by the lift:drag ratio, and any bird watcher can do it from the Flight programme, which displays both the energy height and the L/D ratio.…”