Abstract
The flight management system (EMS) has been one component of a suite of advanced automated systems which are now standard on most commercial aircraft. While the potential benefit of these systems has been cited from both users and designers, many users have recognized the difficulties of the FMS. Comments related to the difficulty of the interface, lack of or misunderstanding of system use, and increased workload are not uncommon. The current paper focuses on pilot knowledge and attitudes towards FMS use for an entire fleet of a major airline. Knowledge and attitudinal measures were obtained through pilot completion of vignette-based questionnaires. The questionnaires examined knowledge through investigating various knowledge types, difficulty of questions, and trained vs. untrained FMS-related topics. FMS knowledge scores were significantly related to flight hours in type and years with the current fleet. In addition, there was an interaction between time with current fleet and crew position in that the best knowledge scores were demonstrated by Captains and First Officers at different experience levels.
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