Pilot non-conformance to alerting system commands

Instances of pilot non-conformance to alerting system commands have been identified in previous studies. Pilot non-conformance changes the final behavior of the system, and therefore may reduce actual performance from that anticipated. Two simulator studies have examined pilot non-conformance, using the task of collision avoidance during closely spaced parallel approaches as a case study. The first study discovered subjects´ decisions to alert, and their selected avoidance manoeuvre, differed from those typically commanded by collision avoidance systems. The second study found consonance between the display and the alerting system improved subject agreement with automatic alerts. Based on these results, a general discussion of the factors involved in pilot conformance is given, and design guidelines for alerting systems are suggested