Single Operating Captain
03-13-2015 | 09:47 PM
#52
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From: Guppy Capt.
Nice article!
I always told the guys/ girls running a train was more mental work than flying...
( former National Railroad Passenger Corporation [aka Amtrak] locomotive engineer on the NE corridor)
I always told the guys/ girls running a train was more mental work than flying...
( former National Railroad Passenger Corporation [aka Amtrak] locomotive engineer on the NE corridor)
03-13-2015 | 09:59 PM
#53
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03-14-2015 | 05:51 AM
#54
Banned
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From: A320/321 CA
Never mind any terroristic scenario. The only thing that usually keeps my forehead from making contact with the glareshield during a 4 hour flight is the guy sitting next to me.
With single pilot operations, you're still asking a single pilot to:
-Stay alert and focused with no human contact for hours on end.
-Clear traffic/obstacles both left and right after push, during taxi out and taxi-in.
-Look for traffic in the air.
-Assume he's on the correct routing, taxi route, making the right real time calls.
-Tune radios, run checklists, talk to ATC, talk to FAs, talk to pax
AND MOST IMPORTANT:
This turns back years of progress on CRM by essentially making the CA "god" again, enabling him to make unilateral, real-time decisions with little to no input from others.
Will. Not. Happen.
With single pilot operations, you're still asking a single pilot to:
-Stay alert and focused with no human contact for hours on end.
-Clear traffic/obstacles both left and right after push, during taxi out and taxi-in.
-Look for traffic in the air.
-Assume he's on the correct routing, taxi route, making the right real time calls.
-Tune radios, run checklists, talk to ATC, talk to FAs, talk to pax
AND MOST IMPORTANT:
This turns back years of progress on CRM by essentially making the CA "god" again, enabling him to make unilateral, real-time decisions with little to no input from others.
Will. Not. Happen.
03-14-2015 | 05:54 AM
#55
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03-14-2015 | 06:53 AM
#56
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03-14-2015 | 08:07 AM
#57
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From: Da Bus
Railroading is every bit as challenging as aviation. It's all about energy management and when you're coming down a mountain pass with the Earth's gravity pushing 18,000 tons of coal on your butt, you'd better have you head on strait and be working as a crew. You've got to use just the right amount of brakes. Air/car braking and locomotive/dynamic. Too little, you overspeed the first curve and you're a dead crew - fiery train wreck - taking out a small town in the process. Too much braking and you'll mismanage your air and end up with zero brakes or if you don't do that you'll melt through all your brakes and become a runaway. Next curve, same result. Pulling a hill is just as challenging too. You also have to learn an enormous set of federal regulations just like we do in aviation. It's more similar than you'd imagine.
Switching out cars in the yard is an exercise in complex logic every day. Like a massive jigsaw puzzle, how do you take apart a train, and put another one together with X number of tracks, in the least amount of moves. How do you do this day in and day out without derailing, or crunching equipment together, or the biggest challenge, not crunching yourself! It is an incredibly physical and mental environment and you're dealing with long hours, many through the night, in every type of weather. I was challenged every day, and recognized strait away that no dummy can do that job.
I wrote an article a few years ago titled : Airline Pilot vs Railroader, you should check it out.
Maybe you'll shoot me a 'cool story bro' once again, but this time really mean it
...
Switching out cars in the yard is an exercise in complex logic every day. Like a massive jigsaw puzzle, how do you take apart a train, and put another one together with X number of tracks, in the least amount of moves. How do you do this day in and day out without derailing, or crunching equipment together, or the biggest challenge, not crunching yourself! It is an incredibly physical and mental environment and you're dealing with long hours, many through the night, in every type of weather. I was challenged every day, and recognized strait away that no dummy can do that job.
I wrote an article a few years ago titled : Airline Pilot vs Railroader, you should check it out.
Maybe you'll shoot me a 'cool story bro' once again, but this time really mean it
...
I'm sure being an engineer is a challenging job. A train however operates in a two dimensional world. I have yet to read about a disoriented engineer driving a train into the side of a mountain. If you have a serious enough problem you can just stop. The UPS 747 in Dubai didn't have any such option.
I respect the difficulty of an train engineer, but it isn't in the same league as flying an airplane.
03-14-2015 | 08:54 AM
#58
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03-14-2015 | 08:55 AM
#59
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2 research venues
There are 2 research initiatives currently funded. NASA- Ames is pursuing the 1 pilot program as described. Duke University/MIT Human Performance Lab is pursuing a pilotless initiative. Don't shoot the messenger on this. UPS has already filed a petition to operate a Pilotless 767 and are actively working with Duke's HPL. Sounds crazy but they anticipate a working model in less than 18 months (contract specification). It's gonning to happen quicker rather than later and most probably with Cargo in the 5-10 year time frame. Flying a reduced pilot or pilotless plane with passengers has serious political and cultural obstacles, but there is a ton of money being spent. And to make things worse is every time we have an incident where pilot error or lack of flight path monitoring is involved, it only strengthens the case.
03-14-2015 | 09:02 AM
#60
Doing One Pilot's Job
Joined: Sep 2005
Posts: 7,870
Likes: 85
Originally Posted by Cohiba
It's going to happen quicker rather than later and most probably with Cargo in the 5-10 year time frame
Nah.
That's not me putting my head in the sand about the technology (which, despite nearly unlimited military budgets over the last 15 years STILL isn't 100% reliable or secure), its me being realistic about the regulatory and social changes required well beyond the technology to see such a thing.
You'll see single pilot G650s well before you see a single pilot (and certainly a remote piloted) transport full of revenue.
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