Matching Items (8)
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- All Subjects: Transportation
- Creators: Niemczyk, Mary
Description
The Federal Flight Deck Officer (FFDO) program was mandated legislatively, as part of the Homeland Security Act of 2002. This study replicated earlier research that investigated pilots’ opinions of the current state of the FFDO program based on interviews. A Likert survey was created to allow simpler quantitative collection and analysis of opinions from large groups of pilots. A total of 43 airline pilots participated in this study. Responses to the Likert questions were compared with demographics, searching for significance through a Pearson chi-square test and frequencies were compared to earlier research findings. Significant chi-square results showed that those familiar with the program were more likely to agree the program should continue, it was effective, the screening and selection process of program applicants was adequate and the Federal Air Marshal Service’s management of the FFDO program was effective. Those with Military experience were more likely to disagree it was reasonable that FFDOs were required to pay for their own room and board during training or train on their own time. All those who shared an opinion agreed there should be a suggestion medium between FFDOs and their management. Unlike the prior study, all those familiar with the program agreed the weapons transportation and carriage procedures were adequate. Furthermore, all those who shared an opinion found the holster locking mechanism adequate, which was another reversal of opinion from the prior study. Similar to the prior study, pilots unanimously agree FFDOs were well trained and agreed that the program was effective and should continue.
ContributorsFerrara, Marc, M.S (Author) / Niemczyk, Mary (Thesis advisor) / Nullmeyer, Robert (Committee member) / Branaghan, Russell (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
Description
Transit-oriented developments (TODs) are a promising strategy to increase public transit use and, as a result, reduce personal car travel. By using TOD infill to increase urban population density and encourage transportation mode-shifting, the potential exists to reduce life-cycle per capita energy use and environmental impacts of the interdependent infrastructure systems. This project specifically examined the Gold Line of light rail and Orange Line of bus rapid transit in Los Angeles, CA.
ContributorsNahlik, Matthew John (Author) / Chester, Mikhail (Thesis director) / Pendyala, Ram (Committee member) / Pincetl, Stephanie (Committee member) / Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering Programs (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / School of Sustainability (Contributor)
Created2013-05
Description
Productivity in the construction industry is an essential measure of production efficiency and economic progress, quantified by craft laborers' time spent directly adding value to a project. In order to better understand craft labor productivity as an aspect of lean construction, an activity analysis was conducted at the Arizona State University Palo Verde Main engineering dormitory construction site in December of 2016. The objective of this analysis on craft labor productivity in construction projects was to gather data regarding the efficiency of craft labor workers, make conclusions about the effects of time of day and other site-specific factors on labor productivity, as well as suggest improvements to implement in the construction process. Analysis suggests that supporting tasks, such as traveling or materials handling, constitute the majority of craft labors' efforts on the job site with the highest percentages occurring at the beginning and end of the work day. Direct work and delays were approximately equal at about 20% each hour with the highest peak occurring at lunchtime between 10:00 am and 11:00 am. The top suggestion to improve construction productivity would be to perform an extensive site utilization analysis due to the confined nature of this job site. Despite the limitations of an activity analysis to provide a complete prospective of all the factors that can affect craft labor productivity as well as the small number of days of data acquisition, this analysis provides a basic overview of the productivity at the Palo Verde Main construction site. Through this research, construction managers can more effectively generate site plans and schedules to increase labor productivity.
ContributorsFord, Emily Lucile (Author) / Grau, David (Thesis director) / Chong, Oswald (Committee member) / Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering Programs (Contributor) / School of International Letters and Cultures (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-12
Description
This study examined the impact of Situation Presence Assessment Method (SPAM) administration on air traffic control (ATC) students’ task workload and performance in high-fidelity ATC simulations. ATC students performed high-fidelity en-route simulations in two conditions: baseline conditions (without SPAM questions) and SPAM conditions. The data collected show that while workload in the two conditions were not significantly different, there was a trend of higher mental workload in SPAM conditions than in baseline conditions. Performance immediately following SPAM questions was revealed to be poorer than that preceding the SPAM questions and that over the equivalent time periods in the baseline conditions. The results suggest that a "Ready" signal before a SPAM question may not be enough to eliminate the impact of SPAM administration on ATC students’ workload and performance in high-fidelity en-route simulations.
ContributorsZhang, Chao, M.S (Author) / Niemczyk, Mary (Thesis advisor) / Pearson, Michael (Committee member) / Nullmeyer, Robert (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016
Description
To ensure safety is not precluded in the event of an engine failure, the FAA has
established climb gradient minimums enforced through Federal Regulations.
Furthermore, to ensure aircraft do not accidentally impact an obstacle on takeoff due to
insufficient climb performance, standard instrument departure procedures have their own
set of climb gradient minimums which are typically more than those set by Federal
Regulation. This inconsistency between climb gradient expectations creates an obstacle
clearance problem: while the aircraft has enough climb gradient in the engine inoperative
condition so that basic flight safety is not precluded, this climb gradient is often not
strong enough to overfly real obstacles; this implies that the pilot must abort the takeoff
flight path and reverse course back to the departure airport to perform an emergency
landing. One solution to this is to reduce the dispatch weight to ensure that the aircraft
retains enough climb performance in the engine inoperative condition, but this comes at
the cost of reduced per-flight profits.
An alternative solution to this problem is the extended second segment (E2S)
climb. Proposed by Bays & Halpin, they found that a C-130H gained additional obstacle
clearance performance through this simple operational change. A thorough investigation
into this technique was performed to see if this technique can be applied to commercial
aviation by using a model A320 and simulating multiple takeoff flight paths in either a
calm or constant wind condition. A comparison of takeoff flight profiles against real
world departure procedures shows that the E2S climb technique offers a clear obstacle
clearance advantage which a scheduled four-segment flight profile cannot provide.
established climb gradient minimums enforced through Federal Regulations.
Furthermore, to ensure aircraft do not accidentally impact an obstacle on takeoff due to
insufficient climb performance, standard instrument departure procedures have their own
set of climb gradient minimums which are typically more than those set by Federal
Regulation. This inconsistency between climb gradient expectations creates an obstacle
clearance problem: while the aircraft has enough climb gradient in the engine inoperative
condition so that basic flight safety is not precluded, this climb gradient is often not
strong enough to overfly real obstacles; this implies that the pilot must abort the takeoff
flight path and reverse course back to the departure airport to perform an emergency
landing. One solution to this is to reduce the dispatch weight to ensure that the aircraft
retains enough climb performance in the engine inoperative condition, but this comes at
the cost of reduced per-flight profits.
An alternative solution to this problem is the extended second segment (E2S)
climb. Proposed by Bays & Halpin, they found that a C-130H gained additional obstacle
clearance performance through this simple operational change. A thorough investigation
into this technique was performed to see if this technique can be applied to commercial
aviation by using a model A320 and simulating multiple takeoff flight paths in either a
calm or constant wind condition. A comparison of takeoff flight profiles against real
world departure procedures shows that the E2S climb technique offers a clear obstacle
clearance advantage which a scheduled four-segment flight profile cannot provide.
ContributorsBeard, John Eng Hui (Author) / Takahashi, Timothy T (Thesis advisor) / White, Daniel (Committee member) / Niemczyk, Mary (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2017
Description
Recurring incidents between pedestrians, bicycles, and vehicles at the intersection of Rural Road and Spence Avenue led to a team of students conducting their own investigation into the current conditions and analyzing a handful of alternatives. An extension of an industry-standard technique was used to build a control case which alternatives would be compared to. Four alternatives were identified, and the two that could be modeled in simulation software were both found to be technically feasible in the preliminary analysis.
ContributorsFellows, Christopher Lee (Author) / Lou, Yingyan (Thesis director) / Zhou, Xuesong (Committee member) / Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering Programs (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-05
Description
There are significantly higher rates of pilot error events during surface operations at night than during the day. Events include incidents, accidents, wrong surface takeoffs and landings, hitting objects, turning on the wrong taxiway, departing the runway surface, among others. There is evidence to suggest that these events are linked to situational awareness. Improvements to situational awareness can be accomplished through training to instruct pilots to increase attention outside of the cockpit while taxiing at night. However, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) night time requirements are relatively low to obtain a private pilot certification. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of flight training experience on conducting safe and incident-free surface operations at night, collect pilot opinions on night training requirements and resources, and analyze the need for night time on flight reviews. A survey was distributed to general aviation pilots and 239 responses were collected to be analyzed. The responses indicated a higher observed incident rate at night than during the day, however there were no significant effects of night training hours or type of training received (Part 61, Part 141/142, or both) on incident rate. Additionally, higher total night hours improved pilot confidence at night and decreased incident rate. The overall opinions indicated that FAA resources on night flying were effective in providing support, but overall pilots were not in support of or against adding night time requirements to flight reviews and found night training requirements to be somewhat effective.
ContributorsWhittard, Megan (Author) / Niemczyk, Mary (Thesis advisor) / Nullmeyer, Robert (Committee member) / Hampshire, Michael (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2020
Description
Communications between air traffic controllers and pilots are critical to national airspace traffic management. Measuring communications in real time made by pilots and air traffic controllers has the potential to predict human error. In this thesis a measure for Deviations from Closed Loop Communications is defined and tested to predict a human error event, Loss of Separation (LOS). Six retired air traffic controllers were recruited and tested in three conditions of varying workload in an Terminal Radar Approach Control Facility (TRACON) arrival radar simulation. Communication transcripts from simulated trials were transcribed and coding schemes for Closed Loop Communication Deviations (CLCD) were applied. Results of the study demonstrated a positive correlation between CLCD and LOS, indicating that CLCD could be a variable used to predict LOS. However, more research is required to determine if CLCD can be used to predict LOS independent of other predictor variables, and if CLCD can be used in a model that considers many different predictor variables to predict LOS.
ContributorsLieber, Christopher Shane (Author) / Cooke, Nancy J. (Thesis advisor) / Gutzwiller, Robert S (Committee member) / Niemczyk, Mary (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2020