Effects of verbal versus graphical weather information on a pilot's decision-making during preflight

Abstract

This study focused on the older technology of a verbal preflight weather briefing compared with the newer and emerging technology of digital textual and graphical weather pertinent to the flight route the pilot has chosen. The target population for this study was aviation students and instructors at Part 61 and 141 flight schools across the country. The accessible population for this study was flight students at a Florida university that had at least a private pilot's license through being employed as flight instructors. The 36 participants were selected from the accessible population based upon their availability and willingness to participate in the study. Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval was obtained from the university before conducting trials with human subjects. Two weather scenarios were selected for the trials. Participants were assigned to one of four groups based on the order of the two formats, verbal or visual (graphical/textual), for the two different scenarios. Four open-ended questions for the two weather scenarios were given to participants, which resulted in a total of eight open-ended questions per participant. The open-ended questions designed and included in the instrument captured the "why" behind pilots' decision to "go" or "no-go." The qualitative analysis software, Nvivo®, was used to analyze the four open-ended questions for each of the two weather scenarios. To visualize this data, a diagram was formed. The study results, discussion, and future research are presented in the paper.