ABSTRACT
Pilot training is practically as old as aviation. Whatever the “ecology” of the cockpit design, whatever the respect paid by operational procedures to the natural human cognitive processes, flying will never be a natural environment for humans. The flying heroes of the pioneering years quickly learned this hard lesson, and quickly understood the need for training. Flight simulators have been used as early as 1909. Training has always been a challenge, particularly in the periods of rapid change, whether the change was of technological or sociological nature. The historical safety data clearly show a strong “learning effect” during the introductory years of all major new socio-technical concepts. In other words, the accident rate is significantly higher during the first years of introduction, as shown by the diagram in Fig. 9.1.
