The Impact of Transition Training on Adapting to Technically Advanced Aircraft at Regional Airlines: Perceptions of Pilots in Training and Instructor Pilots

The purpose of this research study was to test a hypothesis regarding newly trained regional airline pilot and instructor pilot (IP) perceptions of how effectively pilots learn and use new technology found in technically advanced aircraft (TAA), given initial type of instrumentation training. The research questions focused on the type of initial instrumentation training to determine the differences among pilots trained using various types of instrumentation ranging from aircraft equipped with traditional analog instrumentation to aircraft equipped with glass cockpits. This investigative study failed to disprove the null hypothesis (H0): The type of instrumentation training (during initial training) has no significant effect on newly trained regional airline pilots’ perceived ability to adapt to advanced technology cockpits in more sophisticated and/or newer aircraft. Therefore, no evidence exists from this study to support the early introduction and training of TAA. While the results of this investigation were surprising, they are nonetheless instructive. Even though it would seem that there would be a relationship between exposure to and use of technically advanced instrumentation, apparently there was no perceived relationship for this group of newly trained airline transport pilots. However, the results of this investigative study raise many new questions and provide a number of ideas for future research projects.