The final version of a guide to teach pilot monitoring skills should be released by late spring next year, a member of the working group told an audience at the Flight Safety Foundation (FSF) international safety summit in Washington, D.C. Pilot monitoring deficiencies have been listed as a contributing factor in a number of accidents over the past decade.

Although the term “pilot monitoring” has been in use for years, a precise task definition and style for teaching and acting as a pilot monitor has never existed. The working group believes effective monitoring needs to become a core pilot skill as important as good stick-and-rudder and communications skills. The group’s goal is to deliver specific, user-friendly recommendations that will yield an immediate operational benefit.

The scope of the pilot monitoring working group’s final product focuses on taxi in and out procedures, as well as flight path and automation management, areas fraught with the greatest risks. These goals call for development of predictive expectations of an aircraft’s automation system, said Helena Reidemar, working group member and the Air Line Pilots Association’s director of human factors.

Some of the most common missteps in effective monitoring include the failure of the pilot monitoring to challenge the flying pilot and to constantly anticipate changes, as well as the failure to follow standard operating procedures.

The pilot monitoring working group includes members of other pilot unions, airlines, regulators and the FSF.