Always Learning

Most of the time, of course, the computer is only doing what you told it to do, and with practice you learn how to push the right buttons to get the result you want. But that sense of dismay—who’s really in charge here?—has underpinned our relationship with technology since HAL joined the crew on the Discovery One.

In 1997, American Airlines Capt. Warren Vanderburgh coined the term “children of the magenta” in a training presentation meant to combat automation dependency among pilots who were increasingly accustomed to following the magenta course line on the flight display. Flight management computers were intended to reduce pilot workload, but the airline faced a growing number of incidents where the crew became task saturated and lost situational awareness while head-down with the technology. Vanderburgh admonished pilots to use the appropriate level of automation for the task, stepping down in automation when necessary to lower workload in a changing environment: If you find yourself asking “What’s it doing now?” at a low altitude, disconnect the automation and control the airplane. Once the flight path is stabilized, you can turn your attention to troubleshooting the electronics.

Vanderburgh’s insights hold up more than a quarter-century later, and the risks related to pilots’ interaction with increasing cockpit automation are borne out in the accident record. Perhaps most famously, in the 2009 crash of Air France Flight 447, the crew’s failure to understand and react appropriately to a loss of airspeed information and the disconnection of the autopilot sent an airliner plunging into the ocean.

“Children of the magenta line” has become shorthand for pilots who manage and monitor systems but lack the stick-and-rudder skills to fly the airplane with authority. You may hear it wielded as an epithet in a discussion of “real pilots” versus “kids these days.” But in many cockpits today, automation illiteracy may be as dangerous as automation dependency. Vanderburgh’s insights shouldn’t drive us to reject automation altogether, but rather put it in its proper place in our pilot toolkits. Just as you should hand-fly regularly to keep your stick-and-rudder skills sharp, you should also practice using the technology available in the aircraft you fly.

Pilots should be able to step down in automation as needed—don’t respond to a traffic conflict by using the autopilot vertical speed mode, for instance, as Vanderburgh described one pilot doing. In some circumstances, however, a step up in automation might make sense. Take a VFR pilot inadvertently flying into instrument conditions: In an airplane with an autopilot, would you rely on limited training in basic attitude instrument flying to maintain orientation and reverse course, or would you engage the autopilot to keep the airplane upright and make the turn?

Understanding your aircraft’s avionics goes well beyond “Direct To” and following the GPS course line. If your airplane has an autopilot, do you understand its modes? Can you name three ways to disengage the autopilot? In aircraft with envelope protection, do you know under what conditions the system engages, the pitch and bank limits, and how to override the control forces? Do you consistently verify the navigation source for the needles displayed on your course deviation indicator? When, if ever, does it switch automatically? Proficiency in this buttonology ensures you can reap the benefits of cockpit technology and makes it less likely you’ll mutter, “What’s it doing now?”

Vanderburgh spoke about magenta-line dependency when cathode ray tubes ruled airline cockpits. Today pilots carry charts, procedures, traffic displays, and synthetic vision with us on an iPad. GPS enables instrument approaches to thousands of airports, many of them offering precise vertical guidance down to 200 feet above the ground. Technologies like envelope protection, fly-by-wire, and autoland have expanded beyond commercial aviation, and full-color moving-map displays come standard in even the smallest airplanes produced today.

Automation isn’t going away, and used properly it can reduce workload and improve situational awareness. As aviation technologies grow and mature, we children of the magenta line can learn to use them like grown-ups.