ABSTRACT
Although the business of pilot selection has been going for several decades now, it is only since the early 1990s that a clearer picture of what constitutes a valid pilot selection process has begun to emerge (Burke, 1995a and 1995b). This is due to three significant advances in recent years: a clearer understanding of the links between cognitive abilities, personality and work behaviours; a clearer picture of the validity of various pilot selection measures; and the advances in human assessment technology facilitated by the development of computer based assessment (CBA) methods. The purpose of this paper is to describe recent results from one line of research and development (R&D) that has sought to capitalise on these three advances; namely, the development of the PILot APtitude Tester or PILAPT system (Burke, 1996a & 1996b; Burke. Kitching & Valsler, 1995, 1997).
