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Utilizing Uas To Support Wildlife Hazard Management Efforts By Airport Operators, Flavio A. C. Mendonca, Ryan Wallace

Publications

The FAA requires airports operating under the Code of Federal Regulations Part 139 to conduct a wildlife hazard assessment (WHA) when some wildlife-strike events have occurred at or near the airport. The WHA should be conducted by a Qualified Airport Wildlife Biologist (QAWB) and must contain several elements, including the identification of the wildlife species observed and their numbers; local movements; daily and seasonal occurrences; and the identification and location of features on and near the airport that could attract wildlife. Habitats and land-use practices at and around the airport are key factors affecting wildlife species and the size of …

Contributory Factors Of Fatigue Among Collegiate Aviation Pilots: An Ordinal Regression Analysis, Flavio A. C. Mendonca, Julius Keller, Daniel Kwasi Adjekum

Publications

Fatigue is a pervasive safety hazard in aviation affecting several aspects of a pilot's’ ability to safely perform their jobs. Several factors can contribute to fatigue, including inadequate sleep, stress, long work hours, excessive workload, and inadequate nutritional habits. In addition to flight training, some factors including academic, social, part-time work, and emerging time management skills are unique for Title 14 Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) Part 141 collegiate aviation pilots. By utilizing the Collegiate Aviation Fatigue Inventory (CAFI-II) at eight flight programs (n = 422), the current study examined factors such as fatigue training received, time spent working/studying and …

Utilizing Uas To Support Wildlife Hazard Management Efforts By Airport Operators, Flavio A. C. Mendonca, Ryan Wallace, Anthony Chimino, Jose Cabrera Jr, Robert Sliwinski

Publications

Purpose of our Study:

To investigate how UAS technologies could be safely and effectively applied to identify hazardous wildlife species to aviation operations as well as potential wildlife hazard attractants within the airport jurisdiction.

Trends Of Non-Fatal Hems Accident-Related Injuries, Richard J. Simonson, Joseph R. Keebler, Alex Chaparro

Publications

We conducted an investigation into non-fatal helicopter emergency medical service accidents from January 26, 1991 to April 26, 2018 via the National Transportation Safety Board aviation accident database. Over this 28-year timeframe 247 accidents results in 251 fatalities and 179 non-fatal injuries. Exploratory analysis of the data indicate that more non-fatal injuries occurred in September compared to any other month during the study timeframe. Exploratory correlational analysis via elastic net logistic regression concluded that no linear relationship of NTSB accident database data provide insights into what factors are correlated with an increased likelihood of non-fatal injuries. Further, no linear relationships …

The Impact Of Human Factors And Maintenance Documentation On Aviation Safety: An Analysis Of 15 Years Of Accident Data Through The Pear Framework, Flavio A. C. Mendonca, Natalie Zimmermann

Publications

Regardless of the type of maintenance performed on aircraft, instructions are to be used to provide the aviation technicians completing the maintenance activities with guidance on, and an outline of, the maintenance items to be performed and completed. However, the use of instructions does not guarantee the correct and proper completion of the maintenance activities as the instructions may be erroneous and/or maintenance personnel can misunderstand, misinterpret, or improperly follow the procedures outlined. Resulting maintenance errors can potentially result in aircraft accidents, as illustrated by Air Midwest Flight 5481. With the purpose of understanding how human factors associated with written …

Spatio-Temporal Data Mining For Aviation Delay Prediction, Kai Zhang, Houbing Song, Yushan Jiang, Dahai Liu

Publications

To accommodate the unprecedented increase of commercial airlines over the next ten years, the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) has been implemented in the USA that records large-scale Air Traffic Management (ATM) data to make air travel safer, more efficient, and more economical. A key role of collaborative decision making for air traffic scheduling and airspace resource management is the accurate prediction of flight delay. There has been a lot of attempts to apply data-driven methods such as machine learning to forecast flight delay situation using air traffic data of departures and arrivals. However, most of them omit en-route …

Fatigue And Its Management In The Aviation Industry, With Special Reference To Pilots, Rajee Olaganathan, Timothy B. Holt, Jackie Luedtke, Brent D. Bowen

Publications

Abstract Fatigue is a significant contributing factor that reduces human ability and leads to accidents and threatens the safety of aircraft and human lives. Approximately 70% of fatal accidents that occur in commercial aviation operations are due to human factors. More specifically, crew fatigue contributes to nearly 15 to 20% of the accidents (Akerstedt, 2000). These accidents and incidents are associated with pilot fatigue because of the long duty periods, disruption of circadian rhythms, and inadequate sleep that are common among both commercial and military pilots. Though fatigue is seen in all the disciplines associated with the aviation industry, this …

Impact Of Covid -19 On Pilot Proficiency – A Risk Analysis, Rajee Olaganathan, Roli Angelo H. Amihan

Publications

Pilot proficiency is essential in the aviation industry to maintain a safety record for successfully operating airlines. The current COVID-19 scenario has made it practically difficult for pilots to achieve the federal requirements stated in Title 14 CFR 121.439 (a) and 14 CFR 61.57 (a) (1). It has placed a burden on pilots to maintain their currency and proficiency related to cost and lack of aircraft access due to furloughs and lay-offs. The purpose of the first part of this study was to assess the impact of COVID-19 on global air traffic based on the data collected from the International …

Understanding Fatigue Within A Collegiate Aviation Program, Flavio Mendonca, Julius Keller, Erik Levin, Aaron Teo

Publications

Objective: The purpose of this study was fivefold: to investigate the symptoms that would prompt collegiate aviation pilots perceive they are fatigued; to investigate the time of the day they are most fatigued; to investigate their academic and personal schedules; to investigate the methods collegiate aviation pilots utilize to ensure they are fit to fly; and to investigate whether they have received any academic and/or flight fatigue identification and management training.

Background: Fatigue is a pervasive safety hazard in aviation affecting several aspects of flight crew members’ ability to perform their job. Fatigue in aviation and its consequences has been …

Viability And Application Of Mounting Personal Pid Voc Sensors To Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems, Cheryl Lynn Marcham, Scott Burgess, Joseph Cerreta, Patti J. Clark, James P. Solti, Brandon Breault, Joshua G. Marcham

Publications

Using a UAS-mounted sensor to allow for a rapid response to areas that may be difficult to reach or potentially dangerous to human health can increase the situational awareness of first responders of an aircraft crash site through the remote detection, identification, and quantification of airborne hazardous materials. The primary purpose of this research was to evaluate the remote sensing viability and application of integrating existing commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) sensors with small unmanned aircraft system (UAS) technology to detect potentially hazardous airborne contaminants in emergency leak or spill response situations. By mounting the personal photoionization detector (PID) with volatile organic compound …

Competency-Based Education: A Framework For A More Efficient And Safer Aviation Industry, Flavio A. C. Mendonca, Julius Keller, Brian G. Dillman

Publications

Aircraft design and reliability as well as pilots’ education and training have steadily and significantly improved in the last 20 years. Nevertheless, high-profile accidents still occur, even when the aircraft and related systems are operating adequately. Controlled flight into terrain, runway incursion accidents, and loss of control in flight are examples of mishaps in which inadequate decision-making, poor leadership, and ineffective communication are frequently cited as contributing factors. Conversely, the investigation of accidents (e.g., US Airways Flight 1549, in the U.S. on Jan. 15, 2009) and serious incidents (e.g., TAM Linhas Aereas Flight 3756 in Brazil on June 17, 2011) …

Exploring The Impact Of Composite Material Fires And Associated Response Protocol On The Material Analysis During An Aircraft Accident Investigation, Flavio A. C. Mendonca, Natalie Zimmermann, Peng Hao Wang, Julius Keller

Publications

Metals, beginning in the 1930s, have been frequently used as the material of choice for aircraft construction (Hallion, 1978; Jakab, 1999). Common metals used in the aviation industry range from alloyed and heat-treated aluminum to titanium, magnesium, and superalloys, the latter used in specialized applications (Hallion, 1978; Mouritz, 2012). Nevertheless, a shift in aircraft construction – specifically in terms of the materials used – began in the 1970s, as composite materials were introduced into commercial aircraft (Mouritz, 2012). Among others, the increased use of composited materials was – and still is – propelled by the ability to manufacture comparative lightweight …

Aviation English Assessment And Training, Robert Fowler, Elizabeth Mathews, Jena Lynch, Jennifer Roberts M.A.

Publications

Due to a significant global increase in demand for air travel, there has been a corresponding increase in demand for ab initio flight training. Thousands of international flight students seek admission to collegiate aviation programs in the United States and Canada every year. These international flight students come to the United States and Canada because flight training is nonexistent in their native countries. In fact, flight training in most of these countries is impossible due to airspace restrictions and onerous regulations. If there is flight training available in these countries, the cost is usually prohibitive compared to the cost in …