ABSTRACT
In many ways, the manner in which a commercial aircraft is controlled has changed vastly in the first century of aviation. The automation in the Machine plays the central role in determining the three-dimensional (even four-dimensional) flight path of the aircraft. Nevertheless, this has not changed the basic skill set required by the huMan in charge of the Machine: it has, however, added to it considerably. This chapter looks at the basic problem of aircraft control from the perspective of the pilot but it is impossible to do this without some consideration of various other aspects of the design of the aircraft and its flight deck, specifically issues in automation and interaction with the aircraft computer systems. As a result, there is a lot of overlap between the content of this chapter and the following two chapters. Furthermore, the problem of aircraft control also cannot be separated from training. I think that I mentioned somewhere that it was almost impossible to separate many aspects of human factors in aviation as the interrelationships were manifold and complex!
