Selecting Pilots With Crew Resource Management Skills

Abstract

For years, pilot selection has focused primarily on the identification of individuals with superior flying skills and abilities. More recently, the aviation community has become increasingly aware that successful completion of a flight or mission requires not only flying skills but the ability to work well in a crew situation. This project involved development and validation of a crew resource management (CRM) skills test for Air Force transport pilots. A significant relation was found between the CRM skills test and behavior-based ratings of aircraft commander CRM performance, and the implications of these findings for CRM-based selection and training are discussed.

Character Strengths of Airline Pilots: Explaining Life and Job Satisfaction and Predicting CRM Performance

“…Together, participants learn about the interaction of their inner world of thoughts and feelings with their crew members' thoughts and feelings. Today, there is an understanding in the aviation world that interpersonal and self-management skills are at least as important to pilots as psychomotor skills and academic skills (Hedge et al, 2000;Nergard, 2014).…”

Personality (and Psychopathology) Assessment in the Selection of Pilots

“…Such pilots can be assessed with validated personality tests and situational judgment tests that actually present an ambiguous situation requiring problem solving (see Hedge et al, 2000). Situational judgment procedures have more face validity and are closer to what needs to be assessed.…”

Airmanship – A Qualitative Approach

“…The evolution of CRM modernized the perceptions of skills that are needed and desirable of a skilled pilot (Benison 2000;Helmreich et al 1999;Driskell, Adams 1992). The contemporary perception of a skilled pilot is that he/she has a reciprocal mixture of technical and non-technical skills (Dekker 2006;Eid et al 2008;Martinussen 2005;Hedge et al 2000;Franz et al 1990;Kern 1997;Driskell, Adams 1992;Helmreich et al 1999;Benison 2000;Franz et al 1990;Cannon-Bowers et al 1993). Skills and abilities in these areas have been formulated and studied as a pilot's "attitude".…”