Single pilot resource management (SRM) is defined as the art and science of managing all the resources (both onboard the aircraft and from outside sources) available to a single pilot (prior to and during flight) to ensure the successful outcome of the flight. SRM includes the concepts of Aeronautical Decision-Making (ADM), Risk Management (RM), Task Management (TM), Automation Management (AM), Controlled Flight Into Terrain (CFIT) Awareness, and Situational Awareness (SA). SRM training helps the pilot maintain situational awareness by managing the automation and associated aircraft control and navigation tasks. This enables the pilot to accurately identify, assess, and manage risk and make accurate and timely decisions.
SRM is all about helping pilots learn how to gather information, analyze it, and make decisions. Although the flight is coordinated by a single person and not an onboard flightcrew, the use of available resources such as air traffic control (ATC) and Flight Service replicates the principles of CRM.
SRM and the 5P Check
SRM is about gathering information, analyzing it, and making decisions. Learning how to identify problems, analyze the information, and make informed and timely decisions is not as straightforward as the training involved in learning specific maneuvers. Learning how to judge a situation and “how to think” in the endless variety of situations encountered while flying out in the “real world” is more difficult. There is no one right answer in ADM; rather, each pilot is expected to analyze each situation in light of experience level, personal minimums, and current physical and mental readiness level, and make his or her own decision.
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| The 5P checklist |
SRM sounds good on paper, but it requires a way for pilots to understand and use it in their daily flights. One practical application is called the “Five Ps” (5 Ps). [Figure] The 5 Ps consist of “the Plan, the Plane, the Pilot, the Passengers, and the Programming.” Each of these areas consists of a set of challenges and opportunities that face a single pilot. And each can substantially increase or decrease the risk of successfully completing the flight based on the pilot’s ability to make informed and timely decisions. The 5 Ps are used to evaluate the pilot’s current situation at key decision points during the flight, or when an emergency arises. These decision points include preflight, pretakeoff, hourly or at the midpoint of the flight, predescent, and just prior to the final approach fix or for visual flight rules (VFR) operations, just prior to entering the traffic pattern.
The last two decision points are just prior to decent into the terminal area and just prior to the final approach fix, or if VFR just prior to entering the traffic pattern, as preparations for landing commence. Some pilots execute approaches with the expectation that they will land out of the approach every time. When using a risk management thought process, the pilot realizes that changing conditions (the 5 Ps again) may cause the pilot to divert or execute the missed approach on each approach. Let’s look at a detailed discussion of each of the Five Ps.
The Plan
The plan can also be called the mission or the task. It contains the basic elements of cross-country planning, weather, route, fuel, publications currency, etc. The plan should be reviewed and updated several times during the course of the flight. A delayed takeoff due to maintenance, fast moving weather, and a short notice temporary flight restriction (TFR) may all radically alter the plan. The plan is not only about the flight plan, but also all the events that surround the flight and allow the pilot to accomplish the mission. The plan is always being updated and modified and is especially responsive to changes in the other four remaining Ps. If for no other reason, the 5P check reminds the pilot that the day’s flight plan is real life and subject to change at any time.
Obviously, weather is a huge part of any plan. The addition of real time data link weather information gives the pilot a real advantage in inclement weather, but only if the pilot is trained to retrieve, and evaluate the weather in real time without sacrificing situational awareness. And of course, weather information should drive a decision, even if that decision is to continue on the current plan. Pilots of aircraft without data link weather should get updated weather in flight through Flight Service.
The Plane
Both the plan and the plane are fairly familiar to most pilots. The plane consists of the usual array of mechanical and cosmetic issues that every aircraft pilot, owner, or operator can identify. With the advent of advanced avionics, the plane has expanded to include database currency, automation status, and emergency backup systems that were unknown a few years ago. Much has been written about single-pilot IFR flight both with and without an autopilot. While this is a personal decision, it is just that—a decision. Low IFR in a non-autopilot equipped aircraft may depend on several of the other Ps to be discussed. Pilot proficiency, currency, and fatigue are among them.
The Pilot
Flying, especially when used for business transportation, can expose the pilot to high altitude flying, long distance and endurance, and more challenging weather.
The combination of late night, pilot fatigue, and the effects of sustained flight above 5,000 feet may cause pilots to become less discerning, less critical of information, less decisive, and more compliant and accepting. Just as the most critical portion of the flight approaches (for instance, a night instrument approach in the weather after a 4-hour flight), the pilot’s guard is down the most. The 5P process helps a pilot recognize the physiological situation at the end of the flight before takeoff and continues to update personal conditions as the flight progresses. Once risks are identified, the pilot is in a better position to make alternate plans that lessen the effect of these factors and provide a safer solution.
The Passengers
One of the key differences between CRM and SRM may include the way passengers interact with the pilot. The pilot of a single-pilot aircraft may often interact with the passengers. In fact, the pilot and passengers may sit within arm’s reach.
The desire of the passengers to make airline connections or important business meetings enters easily into this pilot’s decision-making loop. Done in a healthy and open way, this can be a positive factor. Consider a flight to Dulles Airport and the passengers, both close friends and business partners, need to get to Washington, D.C., for an important meeting. The weather is VFR all the way to southern Virginia, then turns to low IFR as the pilot approaches Dulles. A pilot employing the 5P approach might consider reserving a rental car at an airport in northern North Carolina or southern Virginia to coincide with a refueling stop. Thus, the passengers have a way to get to Washington, and the pilot has an out to avoid being pressured into continuing the flight if the conditions do not improve.
Passengers can also be pilots. If no one is designated as pilot in command (PIC) and unplanned circumstances arise, the decision-making styles of several self-confident pilots may conflict.
Pilots also need to understand that non-pilots may not understand the level of risk involved in the flight. There is an element of risk in every flight. That is why SRM calls it risk management, not risk elimination. While a pilot may feel comfortable with the risk present in a night IFR flight, the passengers may not. A pilot employing SRM should ensure the passengers are involved in the decision-making and given tasks and duties to keep them busy and involved. If, upon a factual description of the risks present, the passengers decide to buy an airline ticket or rent a car, then a good decision has generally been made. This discussion also allows the pilot to move past what he or she thinks the passengers want to do and find out what they actually want to do. This removes self-induced pressure from the pilot.
The Programming
The electronic instrument displays, GPS, and autopilot reduce pilot workload and increase pilot situational awareness. While programming and operation of these devices are fairly simple and straightforward, unlike the analog instruments they replace, they tend to capture the pilot’s attention and hold it for long periods of time. To avoid this phenomenon, the pilot should plan in advance when and where the programming for approaches, route changes, and airport information gathering should be accomplished as well as times it should not. Pilot familiarity with the equipment, the route, the local air traffic control environment, and personal capabilities vis-à-vis the automation should drive when, where, and how the automation is programmed and used.
The pilot should also consider what his or her capabilities are in response to last-minute changes of the approach (and the reprogramming required) and ability to make large-scale changes (a reroute for instance) while hand flying the aircraft. Since formats are not standardized, simply moving from one manufacturer’s equipment to another should give the pilot pause and may require more conservative planning and decisions.
The SRM process is simple. At least five times before and during the flight, the pilot should review and consider the “Plan, the Plane, the Pilot, the Passengers, and the Programming” and make the appropriate decision required by the current situation. It is often said that failure to make a decision is a decision. Under SRM and the 5 Ps, even the decision to make no changes to the current plan is made through careful consideration of all the risk factors present.
Information Management
The volume of information presented in aviation training is enormous, but part of the process of good SRM is a continuous flow of information in and actions out. How a learner manages the flow of information definitely has an effect on the relative success or failure of each and every flight because proper information contributes to valid decisions. Scenario-based training (SBT) plays an important part in teaching the learner how to gather pertinent information from all available sources, make appropriate decisions, and assess the actions taken.
Some pilots who transition to an unfamiliar sophisticated aircraft, may be overwhelmed and unable to find a specific piece of information. The first critical information management skill includes understanding the systems and displays at a conceptual level. Remembering how the system is organized helps the pilot manage the available information. Simulation software and manuals on the specific system used are of great value in furthering understanding for both the flight instructor and the learner.
A good strategy for accessing and managing the available information from PFD to navigational charts is to stop, look, and analyze. The goal is for the learner to understand how to monitor, manage, and prioritize the information flow to accomplish specific tasks.
Task Management
Task management (TM), a significant factor in flight safety, is the process by which pilots manage the many, concurrent tasks that should be performed to safely and efficiently fly a modern aircraft. A task is a function performed by a human, as opposed to one performed by a machine (e.g., setting the target heading in the autopilot).
The flight deck is an environment in which important tasks compete for pilot attention at any given time. TM determines which tasks the pilot(s) should attend to. TM entails initiation of new tasks; monitoring of ongoing tasks to determine their status; prioritization of tasks based on their importance, status, urgency, and other factors; allocation of human and machine resources to high-priority tasks; interruption and subsequent resumption of lower priority tasks; and termination of tasks that are completed or no longer relevant.
When information flow exceeds a person’s ability to mentally process the information, any additional information becomes unattended or displaces other tasks and information already being processed. Once the information flow reaches its limit, two alternatives exist: shed the unimportant tasks or perform all tasks at a less than optimal level. Like an electrical circuit being overloaded, either the consumption must be reduced, or a circuit failure is experienced. Once again, SBT helps the learner understand how to effectively manage tasks and properly prioritize them.
Automation Management
Automation management is the demonstrated ability to control and navigate an aircraft by means of the automated systems installed in the aircraft. One of the most important concepts of automation management is knowing when to use it and when not to use it. Ideally, the goal of the flight instructor is to train the learner until he or she understands how to operate the aircraft, using all the available automation. However, the flight instructor should ensure the learner also knows how and when to operate the aircraft without the benefit of the automation.
No one level of automation is appropriate for all flight situations, and the learner should know how to set the level of automation. It is important for a learner to know how to operate the particular automated system being used. This ensures the learner knows what to expect, how to monitor for proper operation, and promptly take appropriate action if the system does not perform as expected.
At the most basic level, managing the autopilot means knowing at all times which modes are engaged and which modes are armed to engage. The learner needs to verify that armed functions (e.g., navigation tracking or altitude capture) engage at the appropriate time. Automation management is a good place to practice the callout technique, especially after arming the system to make a change in course or altitude.