PILOT FATIGUE

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 9, 12 January 1938, Page 9

PILOT FATIGUE

AMERICANS TEST iIT

SEEKING MQflfcE SAFOT

At what point does a pilot »become too tired to fly safely? asks a .-writer in the "New York Time:" Joe Green, veteran flier on a commerciai aeroplane, brings his plane into its'hangar at the Municipal Airport and reports into the office, wearily shakSng the snow from his shoulders.

"Gosh, what a frip;" heigroans, while the mail truck rumbles off to *the post office with the load he has! ferried through a jstormy night. 'fEegular blizzard for two .hours straight. Radio went out east at Doeville, I hadto fight her through blind, until Bill got things going again and we picked you up about fifty miles <out. I could sleep for a week." Three days previously, Joe; brought in the same mail and was all/set to go dancing with Ms pretty wife1 when he landed—"fit as a fiddle." : Did the weather make all the difference?

Dr. WadeiHampton Miller,.<flight surgeon, recently called in by the United States Bureau of Air Commerce to . conduct a survey of the facts about pilot fertjrgue, has returned to Washington (from a trip around the -country -assembling information SErom .research institutions, army and navy, service groups, airline offices, and a -scattering of flight surgeons *and 'Other rphysiqiass whose work torings them in touch'with pilots of all --classes. Dr. Miller will present .his findings soon to a conference of representatives -of .these. .gr.ou.ps, meeting with Ihe committee recently appointed at the Bureau's request by the Medical Association at its New. York session.

WHAT HE SEEKS TO .DETERMINE,

"What -we are timing to .determine," Dr. Miller said, "is the average level of performance at which -an. average pilot can perform without (physical deterioration. ■■: Fatigue is a very ,-individual thing, .life rcah't tope jto establish either a maximum or a minimum, but we can hope to set up the .average beyond wlach /danger lies. "Our present regulations and methods of handling pilotjs are based on accumulated practical, experience rather than on scientific research," Dr. Miller continued. "We ttiay end by finding that they are satisfactory and that we have simply an accumulation of valuable statistical data, but the very fact .that we have confirmed them scientifically will ;have 'Jbeen worth all the time and effort spent. "Certain fatigue .studies have been made already, few of ftjem,. however,. of much value. They sare useful as a beginning, "but they have largely been too casual, without sufficient controls and with ioo Jew subjects.

"Physiological xeseardh. was begun in 1331 on metabolic and serologic changes and some worKJias been done also along biochemical' and psychological lines. The effects, of oxygen starvation is one of the SEevv things that has had fairly exhaustive investigation, the main work in Tfiis having been done l>yv 'Captain HarrS" Armstrong at Wright Field, some ati the Harvard Fatigue Laboratory, amd a great deal by liie British, and tbje Germans. "I stress the need -for study of the average pilot so strongly because he is the man with whom we are concerned. .'

SPECIAL TYPE (OF FATIGUE.

"Fatigue in flying ite of a very special type. There is little muscular strain in handling today's jplanes,. where the automatic pilot does such, a lion's share of the actual .Hying;, A truck driver tires Ms muscles, a' pilot his mind.

"The pilot lias hafi a most intricate "technical training; ke must make continuous and exacting calculations and observations during; his flight; often he has the responsibility not only of his valuable craft; and cargo but of other lives as well—in the case of adverse conditions, ijle; stress is on his nerves, not Tiis bioijps. "This study we /' are making' is not a regulatory thin)g, but an attempt to bring conditions to a scientific focus to help the pilotai and contribute to general safety measures. We want their co-operation. Commercially, we are not interested; in selection of personnel but In its,' maintenance—these men have already; proved their value.

is vitally njecessary to prolong the useful life ot, the pilot. His experience over a , period of years is invaluable. Much, higher professional standards are being demanded of him nowadays, and hieing achieved. We shall advise a lojiger period of training still, which -will in itself tend to produce a longer; period of flying fitness.

"To illustrate ' how important even* the biochemical approach to our problem may be, there is the instance of Dr. Dill's study! of salt loss in the body under heat conditions in industry. He found that flae resulting heat exhaustion during summer weather, lowering efficiency and often diSabling the workers, could be largely overcome by the simple ffeeding of additional common table salt in the diet.

"To the maojy medical ideas now being offered Ifc.e bureau, we are attempting an ojaen-minded, free approach, but we Tjvant to make the study 'sufficiently exhaustive to give us an accurate evaluation."