Going SPO: Hierarchical Task Analysis of Pilot Flying and Pilot Monitoring in Two-crew Operations

The high costs associated with pilot training and remuneration have placed a heavy financial burden on airlines, prompting people to actively study single pilot operation (SPO). It is an important and transformative technical field of future civil aircraft development that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) pay close attention to. This paper selects a typical nominal two-crew operation (TCO) scenario of a Boeing 777 airliner approaching a domestic airport, and uses the ergonomics method of hierarchical task analysis (HTA) to systematically sort out the action, monitor, and communication tasks to be performed by the pilot flight (PF) and pilot monitoring (PM) in the current TCO, generating detailed baseline task set model validated by a series of subject matter experts (SMEs). Based the approach scenario baseline task set model for the TCO, it is possible to propose and evaluate changes to operation procedures, crew coordination, use of automation, and responsibilities of the airborne pilot and current dispatcher from TCO to SPO.