Certified Flight Instructors’ Performance – Review of the Literature and Exploration of Future Steps

Abstract

ABSTRACT Objective We conducted a systematic review of peer-reviewed articles aimed at the evaluation of certified flight instructors’ (CFI) performance in a training context and a scoping review of potential research avenues given the previously identified gaps. Background As the demand for pilots will continue to grow significantly in the coming decades, so will the demand for CFIs, and for ways to improve their existing performance. Understanding performance factors of CFIs could benefit their training and help meet the increasing demand for pilots. Method State-of-the-art research on the subject was surveyed via a systematic review of performance factors of CFIs and a scoping review to identify areas where other fields of research could inform CFI performance evaluation. Result Only 20 articles since 1965 have directly assessed performance factors of CFIs. Their focus has mostly been on communication and educational processes. The scoping review brings forward concepts from cognitive psychology and psychophysiology as means of improving the current understanding of CFI situation awareness and task management. Conclusion Very little work has been done on CFI situation awareness and task management. These are the two main domains in which psychophysiological tools could provide a clear understanding of the attentional and decisional processes at play while developing situation awareness in a dynamic environment and quantify the task load affecting it.