Doctoral Dissertation (Aviation Related)

[Sua Sponte]

In a few weeks, I travel to Oklahoma State University to defend my doctoral dissertation in front of my Institutional Review Board. This is a culmination of not only four years of studying, research, writing, and editing but also the final chapter of my academic career, which started in 2017 after I left the Air Force.

This academic journey spanned three universities, one undergrad and two graduate degrees, one move from Washington to Colorado, two vacations to Australia and one to England, five jobs, one pandemic, four vehicles, and one amazing girlfriend. 

This dissertation is dedicated to one of the pilots I interviewed, who was tragically killed in a vehicle accident shortly after I interviewed him in his office.

I would like to thank everyone here who helped me along the way, thank you. I've been apart of this place right since I started flying as a KC-135 Boom Operator in 2006. We have grown up together in a lot of ways and I wouldn't be the person I am today without the people I've interacted with from the board.

 

2 Timothy 4:7 "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith."

I present to you my dissertation.

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/g8hd0223adxfdnanl36ok/Dissertation.docx?e=1&fbclid=IwY2xjawJeTGJleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHhLLyfv16g-4NqFWmsH5hUbpJqZ1M-G1gtdhgbsVJW0pLTw3xEXTXd6Uq_zH_aem_YADTZOEkhzOXQP_1zn9mpg&rlkey=t411kwzvuh4chjw2z5s9rt1do&st=ywppe4ea&dl=0

[Lord Ratner]

TL;DR

 

 

 

 

congrats dude.

[arg]

Congratulations. Now, put all that fancy learnin to good use

[Swizzle]

[Sua Sponte]

10 hours ago, Lord Ratner said:

TL;DR

 

 

 

 

congrats dude.

Thanks man, I wouldn’t have had the opportunity had you not helped me out years ago. I’ll always appreciate that.

[Zero]

I'm about halfway through it-- very well written. One thing that I would have liked to see early on was specifics when talking about how pilots find themselves in situations and don't trust the automation or vice versa. You go into the specific accidents later, but I think that a specific example--not a full blown incident-- would really help seal the narrative and "proof" at that early junction. For example-- was watching Air Disasters the other night and it gave the example where the captain's ADI went bad but hte co-pilot's and the standby were still receiving good data. The Captain absolutely failed the Recognize-Confirm-Recover piece-- never recognized and saw that his ADI indicated nose up and climbing, and he pushed it immediately into a dive from which they ultimately couldn't recover. 

That being said, that's the pilot in me talking-- I think that the academia world might not understand it-- especially for an education doctorate and it might be overkill at that point that potentially loses your audience in the jargon. If that's your target audience to get through the dissertation, it's probably good. If you're writing it for the aviation community, I think you could expand a little right there if you wanted to. 

Page 34-- you're referencing Air France and you mention Air Force training-- typo or deliberate? 

Nicely done-- I look forward to getting through the rest of it tonight or tomorrow. 

Cheers,

Zero

[ClearedHot]

I am reading through it.  

Let me lead with - great topic to research...as a long time military pilot who is now in GA I find the automation has great benefit but also has pitfalls that must we need to be aware of.

Perhaps based on my age and experience level but If I were questioning you during your defense I found a theme you need to address...age Demographic.  Maybe it doesn't matter because folks in my age group will time out (of airline flying), over the next 10 years but our initial training was different and had you compared our performance and opinions versus the younger generation it might have helped prove your hypothesis.  I cut your respondents demographic right out of your paper...ALL of your respondents are between 25-44 which is a very specific generational group that has likely exposed to newer forms of automation since they first played a video game.  Interestingly some of the accidents you cite happened with aircrew that are not in the age demographic you measured.

Age of Research Participant Responses

Percentage of Responses

18-24 0 out of 14 0%

25-34 4 out of 14 29%

35-44 10 out of 14 71%

45-54 0 out of 14 0%

55-64 0 out of 14 0%

65 or older 0 out of 14 0%

Case in point, I flew T-37's and T-38's in UPT...both had steam gauges.  I also flew the AC-130H, again with steam gauges.  In the AC-130H in we did not get a moving map until many years after I joined the unit and it forced me to build an SA picture in my brain bucket.  As I moved into GA and the absolute saturation of data offered by automation it took me a while to develop a new flow, but once I did I was far ahead of my much younger CFI doing my Cirrus training.  Also, when the automation has driven me into what I consider a corner...I have ZERO problem or delay in punching the system off and hand-flying the airplane.  Case in point, the Perspective Plus in the SR-22 has an issue with VNAV on some approaches depending on where you commence the approach and when you actually select approach mode.  On several occasions I have simply disconnected the autopilot and flown the needles rather than fight the automation.  Is that a function of my training in the Cirrus...or my initial training as a pilot?

 

 

[Lord Ratner]

7 minutes ago, ClearedHot said:

I am reading through it.  

Let me lead with - great topic to research...as a long time military pilot who is now in GA I find the automation has great benefit but also has pitfalls that must we need to be aware of.

Perhaps based on my age and experience level but If I were questioning you during your defense I found a theme you need to address...age Demographic.  Maybe it doesn't matter because folks in my age group will time out (of airline flying), over the next 10 years but our initial training was different and had you compared our performance and opinions versus the younger generation it might have helped prove your hypothesis.  I cut your respondents demographic right out of your paper...ALL of your respondents are between 25-44 which is a very specific generational group that has likely exposed to newer forms of automation since they first played a video game.  Interestingly some of the accidents you cite happened with aircrew that are not in the age demographic you measured.

Age of Research Participant Responses

Percentage of Responses

18-24 0 out of 14 0%

25-34 4 out of 14 29%

35-44 10 out of 14 71%

45-54 0 out of 14 0%

55-64 0 out of 14 0%

65 or older 0 out of 14 0%

Case in point, I flew T-37's and T-38's in UPT...both had steam gauges.  I also flew the AC-130H, again with steam gauges.  In the AC-130H in we did not get a moving map until many years after I joined the unit and it forced me to build an SA picture in my brain bucket.  As I moved into GA and the absolute saturation of data offered by automation it took me a while to develop a new flow, but once I did I was far ahead of my much younger CFI doing my Cirrus training.  Also, when the automation has driven me into what I consider a corner...I have ZERO problem or delay in punching the system off and hand-flying the airplane.  Case in point, the Perspective Plus in the SR-22 has an issue with VNAV on some approaches depending on where you commence the approach and when you actually select approach mode.  On several occasions I have simply disconnected the autopilot and flown the needles rather than fight the automation.  Is that a function of my training in the Cirrus...or my initial training as a pilot?

 

 

Very wise words. And you don't need to be a dinosaur like cleared hot to see the effect 🤣😂. I was talking to a flight attendant recently going through one of the flight schools that shove you into the airlines as quickly as possible. I was stunned to hear that during her PPL training they regularly used the autopilot to get from the base airport to the outfields. Of course I then found out that her instructor was 22 years old that had been flying for a grand total of 2 years. There is going to be a wave of automation babies like we haven't seen in the long time. 

This same instructor by the way told the flight attendant that PAPIs know what the closest airplane is and then display glideslope information specific to that aircraft, and airplanes behind shouldn't look at the papis until they are number one for landing. Yeah, we've all believed dumb things, but this is pretty wild for someone who's supposed to be teaching students how to fly instruments.

[DirkDiggler]

1 hour ago, Lord Ratner said:

Very wise words. And you don't need to be a dinosaur like cleared hot to see the effect 🤣😂. I was talking to a flight attendant recently going through one of the flight schools that shove you into the airlines as quickly as possible. I was stunned to hear that during her PPL training they regularly used the autopilot to get from the base airport to the outfields. Of course I then found out that her instructor was 22 years old that had been flying for a grand total of 2 years. There is going to be a wave of automation babies like we haven't seen in the long time. 

This same instructor by the way told the flight attendant that PAPIs know what the closest airplane is and then display glideslope information specific to that aircraft, and airplanes behind shouldn't look at the papis until they are number one for landing. Yeah, we've all believed dumb things, but this is pretty wild for someone who's supposed to be teaching students how to fly instruments.

  I see this quite a bit with guys who are early in the MC/HC-J syllabus I teach.  The bulk of the guys/gals coming through training right now are T-1 sim only or T-6 only; they never flew an actual Phase 3 trainer.  Their initial inclination on the early sorties in the sim is to engage the autopilot as quickly as possible after takeoff cause they're very unsure/hesitant about hand flying the airplane.  The are also usually struggling SA wise and engaging the automation lets them not have to fly and think at the same time.  It's very unfortunate where the AF is leaving these guys skill wise coming out of UPT.

[uhhello]

1 hour ago, Lord Ratner said:

Very wise words. And you don't need to be a dinosaur like cleared hot to see the effect 🤣😂. I was talking to a flight attendant recently going through one of the flight schools that shove you into the airlines as quickly as possible. I was stunned to hear that during her PPL training they regularly used the autopilot to get from the base airport to the outfields. Of course I then found out that her instructor was 22 years old that had been flying for a grand total of 2 years. There is going to be a wave of automation babies like we haven't seen in the long time. 

This same instructor by the way told the flight attendant that PAPIs know what the closest airplane is and then display glideslope information specific to that aircraft, and airplanes behind shouldn't look at the papis until they are number one for landing. Yeah, we've all believed dumb things, but this is pretty wild for someone who's supposed to be teaching students how to fly instruments.

A metric shit ton of GA accidents have "I don't know why the autopilot isn't doing what its supposed to do" right up to the end of tapes

[Mole]

Congrats, one heck of an accomplishment. Now go buy yourself another fancy car.  

[Sua Sponte]

On 4/7/2025 at 5:59 AM, Zero said:

I'm about halfway through it-- very well written. One thing that I would have liked to see early on was specifics when talking about how pilots find themselves in situations and don't trust the automation or vice versa. You go into the specific accidents later, but I think that a specific example--not a full blown incident-- would really help seal the narrative and "proof" at that early junction. For example-- was watching Air Disasters the other night and it gave the example where the captain's ADI went bad but hte co-pilot's and the standby were still receiving good data. The Captain absolutely failed the Recognize-Confirm-Recover piece-- never recognized and saw that his ADI indicated nose up and climbing, and he pushed it immediately into a dive from which they ultimately couldn't recover. 

That being said, that's the pilot in me talking-- I think that the academia world might not understand it-- especially for an education doctorate and it might be overkill at that point that potentially loses your audience in the jargon. If that's your target audience to get through the dissertation, it's probably good. If you're writing it for the aviation community, I think you could expand a little right there if you wanted to. 

Page 34-- you're referencing Air France and you mention Air Force training-- typo or deliberate? 

Nicely done-- I look forward to getting through the rest of it tonight or tomorrow. 

Cheers,

Zero

Thank you, I'll correct it.  I've already found some grammatical errors, I'm just skimming through for the 69th time. I've been working on this for two years, and no matter how often I read it, I still find either format or grammatical errors. All of the professors/doctors on my institutional review board are commercial/civilian pilots except one who has to be outside of the program that I'm in. 

[Sua Sponte]

On 4/7/2025 at 8:41 AM, ClearedHot said:

I am reading through it.  

Let me lead with - great topic to research...as a long time military pilot who is now in GA I find the automation has great benefit but also has pitfalls that must we need to be aware of.

Perhaps based on my age and experience level but If I were questioning you during your defense I found a theme you need to address...age Demographic.  Maybe it doesn't matter because folks in my age group will time out (of airline flying), over the next 10 years but our initial training was different and had you compared our performance and opinions versus the younger generation it might have helped prove your hypothesis.  I cut your respondents demographic right out of your paper...ALL of your respondents are between 25-44 which is a very specific generational group that has likely exposed to newer forms of automation since they first played a video game.  Interestingly some of the accidents you cite happened with aircrew that are not in the age demographic you measured.

Age of Research Participant Responses

Percentage of Responses

18-24 0 out of 14 0%

25-34 4 out of 14 29%

35-44 10 out of 14 71%

45-54 0 out of 14 0%

55-64 0 out of 14 0%

65 or older 0 out of 14 0%

Case in point, I flew T-37's and T-38's in UPT...both had steam gauges.  I also flew the AC-130H, again with steam gauges.  In the AC-130H in we did not get a moving map until many years after I joined the unit and it forced me to build an SA picture in my brain bucket.  As I moved into GA and the absolute saturation of data offered by automation it took me a while to develop a new flow, but once I did I was far ahead of my much younger CFI doing my Cirrus training.  Also, when the automation has driven me into what I consider a corner...I have ZERO problem or delay in punching the system off and hand-flying the airplane.  Case in point, the Perspective Plus in the SR-22 has an issue with VNAV on some approaches depending on where you commence the approach and when you actually select approach mode.  On several occasions I have simply disconnected the autopilot and flown the needles rather than fight the automation.  Is that a function of my training in the Cirrus...or my initial training as a pilot?

 

 

It was hard to find a lot of the military mishap reports and data. When I FOIA requested it from the Air Force, they said, "Here's our AIB webpage." The Marines and Navy just blew me off (sts), and the Army said all of their aviation mishap reports were privileged and they don't have a public AIB equivalent. The major airlines didn't respond, except SWA, who said, "Great research topic, but we aren't sending you any data." I did have some older more experienced pilots who were initially committed to being interviewed, but then declined due to fear of their company or organization finding out their identity and having negative repercussions. The only person who knows all of the pilot identities is me, not even my IRB will know. 

I believe that's a function of your initial training as a pilot. You flew before being introduced to advanced automation that was incorporated into the aircraft you've flown and currently fly. You've accomplished a lot of experience flying without automation, so when it doesn't work correctly or you assume something is amiss, you feel comfortable disconnecting the automation and manually flying the aircraft. Let me ask you this: if you had to tell someone a lot of information, would you text them, or would you call them? I bet you would call them. You have a son in high school, correct? What would he do in that scenario? Would you just send a lot of texts?

[ClearedHot]

5 hours ago, Sua Sponte said:

It was hard to find a lot of the military mishap reports and data. When I FOIA requested it from the Air Force, they said, "Here's our AIB webpage." The Marines and Navy just blew me off (sts), and the Army said all of their aviation mishap reports were privileged and they don't have a public AIB equivalent. The major airlines didn't respond, except SWA, who said, "Great research topic, but we aren't sending you any data." I did have some older more experienced pilots who were initially committed to being interviewed, but then declined due to fear of their company or organization finding out their identity and having negative repercussions. The only person who knows all of the pilot identities is me, not even my IRB will know.

Understood, but many of the accidents you cited were with Captain's trained the way I was.  I know you tried on the survey, would have been great if some other age groups responded.

5 hours ago, Sua Sponte said:

I believe that's a function of your initial training as a pilot. You flew before being introduced to advanced automation that was incorporated into the aircraft you've flown and currently fly. You've accomplished a lot of experience flying without automation, so when it doesn't work correctly or you assume something is amiss, you feel comfortable disconnecting the automation and manually flying the aircraft. Let me ask you this: if you had to tell someone a lot of information, would you text them, or would you call them? I bet you would call them. You have a son in high school, correct? What would he do in that scenario? Would you just send a lot of texts?

I do feel comfortable punching the system off and have felt the negative impacts of automation.  Two years ago I picked my plane up after an inspection that required they pull the battery.  I have a custom profile I can select and going through my checklist I thought all was well.  As I taxied out I had my map zoomed in (Cirrus has a great safe taxi system).  The weather was crappy and I filed IFR with the intent of staying low and VMC to fly the 40 miles back to my home airport.  Unfortunately the airspace was saturated and the controlled had me climb to transition over KPNS.  In doing so I went IMC and when I zoomed my map out my gyros nearly tumbled...disconnecting the battery reset all the presets and my map was course up...I have ALWAYS flown North up.  I had to force myself not to look at the MFD and stayed glued to the PFD while I "caught up".  I was on vectors so once I leveled off I had enough brain stem to start searching the menus to switch to north up.  There were 10 other settings (ABSA traffic, Weather, Glide Ring, Trend Line...etc), I prefer but I focus on two or three then set up the approach. 

I am a prolific texter...mainly because I don't like people and texting means I don't have to talk to them.  My son and I text all day and share reels from Instagram (sports and flying), with each other through the app.

[Sua Sponte]

23 minutes ago, ClearedHot said:

In doing so I went IMC and when I zoomed my map out my gyros nearly tumbled...disconnecting the battery reset all the presets and my map was course up...I have ALWAYS flown North up.  I had to force myself not to look at the MFD and stayed glued to the PFD while I "caught up".

You're a North map guy? Those are considered lepers in the KC-135 world compared to heading map bros.

[Sua Sponte]

8 hours ago, Mole said:

Congrats, one heck of an accomplishment. Now go buy yourself another fancy car.  

I bought another EV, it might be awhile.

[ClearedHot]

7 hours ago, Sua Sponte said:

You're a North map guy? Those are considered lepers in the KC-135 world compared to heading map bros.

Learned to fly when I was 16, IP was a Korean War vet who flew Panthers and insisted that was the only way to fly with a map. I found it easier to know where I was, quick look at the map to know where north was, didn't have to calculate backwards off the course or look for a floating N...old habits die hard. 

[bfargin]

Congrats on completing your doctorate. That’s proof of a lot of time and energy spent. Are you going to teach at the university level now?

[Sua Sponte]

On 4/9/2025 at 8:58 AM, bfargin said:

Congrats on completing your doctorate. That’s proof of a lot of time and energy spent. Are you going to teach at the university level now?

Thank you! It's been a long four years. I started my last two years of undergrad as a transfer student due to having CCAFs in 2017 after I left the USAF. I graduated with that, started my masters program three months later, spent two years doing that, and started my doctorate in 2021 right after graduating from my masters program. I'm glad this is a terminal degree since I'm burnt out now. I'll be 43 next month and just wanted to finish all of my higher education as fast as possible.

I would like to become an adjunct professor in the aviation sector. 

[bfargin]

I’m guess ERU has more online courses than MTSU but you might be able to be paid more as tenure track at MTSU. Adjunct might be a fun distraction if you have a great paying job you don’t want to give up.

I almost took a job at MTSU in 2002 since the College of Business and Aviation school share a building. The CofB said they’d allow me to teach an aviation class as part of my teaching load. I was tempted, but went to a smaller state school.
 

If you could go there as tenure track I’m guessing you’d be into 6 figures with a great quality of life. And Murfreesboro and surrounding area isn’t too costly compared to many places.

 

Regardless what you do with it, you should feel some pride in your accomplishment.

[Sua Sponte]

On 4/11/2025 at 10:52 AM, bfargin said:

I’m guess ERU has more online courses than MTSU but you might be able to be paid more as tenure track at MTSU. Adjunct might be a fun distraction if you have a great paying job you don’t want to give up.

I almost took a job at MTSU in 2002 since the College of Business and Aviation school share a building. The CofB said they’d allow me to teach an aviation class as part of my teaching load. I was tempted, but went to a smaller state school.
 

If you could go there as tenure track I’m guessing you’d be into 6 figures with a great quality of life. And Murfreesboro and surrounding area isn’t too costly compared to many places.

 

Regardless what you do with it, you should feel some pride in your accomplishment.

Usually, one would have to move in residence to teach the tenured track. Once a professor goes the adjunct route, it's hard (but not impossible) to switch to the tenured track. 

[Sua Sponte]

Defended my dissertation yesterday. Passed with corrections.

[ClearedHot]

16 minutes ago, Sua Sponte said:

Defended my dissertation yesterday. Passed with corrections.

Congrats...great accomplishment!

[arg]

Doctor Sua Sponte?

[Sua Sponte]

1 hour ago, arg said:

Doctor Sua Sponte?

Sorta...my doctorate is an EdD, which is what my advisor and another member of my board have. The other two members of my board have PhDs. A large part of my corrections is due to the two PhDs not signing off until I add some specific quantitative information in my dissertation, which is usually what PhDs do. Qualitative data is usually what EdDs do. 

After my defense I could tell my advisor, who was the chair of my board, was pissed at the other two, but what could you do? I'll make the corrections they want and they'll hopefully sign off.

I don't have to defend again and I'm going to the 9 May graduation in Stillwater.