Web Activities

by Ray Oyung

March 20, 2000

Currently, we're working on a modification to our web site to provide another segment of the aviation community with information from our research findings that will help increase safety in the sky and on the ground.

General aviation pilots are a group in the aviation community that don't really have access to a large portion of information that the airline pilots have access to in regards to fatigue and human factors. These pilots consist of about two out of every three pilots with valid pilot certificates flying about 200,000 different kinds of aircraft. We are focusing our web based interactive fatigue countermeasures class with the general aviation pilot in mind. Who exactly are general aviation pilots? "Chopper One reporting heavy traffic". "Life Line Three Sierra Lima requesting transition to Stanford Medical Center". "Cessna Four Three Victor banner towing activity over 3Com Park at Candlestick Point. "Piper Eight Tango Romeo on a Bay Tour". These pilots perform many tasks with their aircraft for business and recreation.

In order to determine whether our efforts are adding to the safety factor, we are integrating some tests (yuck) to the web class. Actually, these tests are useful to us and important in the educational process. The results of tests on the material we provide help us determine how well our "students" are grasping the information and provide us a gauge as to how we can improve on this learning process. If more people can grasp and apply the concepts we present, the outcome is a safer environment for all of us. Now isn't that worth taking a test?