A COMPUTER-BASED ANALYSIS OF EXPERT AND NOVICE FLIGHT INSTRUCTOR PREFLIGHT DECISION-MAKING

The study was designed to examine aspects of flight instructor decisio n making involving the decision to authorize a student to conduct an i nitial, solo, cross-country flight. Experienced and inexperienced flig ht instructors were examined on a number of dimensions during a comput er-based task presented in a Windows-based environment. Although diffe rences were noted between experienced and inexperienced flight instruc tors in terms of the decision-outcome, no differences were evident rel ating to the process of information acquisition. Differences evident w ithin the experienced group, however, suggested that the context of th e scenario may have contributed to the outcome. These results are disc ussed in relation to flight instructor decision making training and st andardization.