Perhaps a portion of testing could be performed in the simulator using a random sample of line pilots?
The current advanced qualification program in use at the airlines kinda is set up to test operational policies. All pilots of a fleet (essentially a random sample of abilities) go into the sim once a year and perform a check on what’s considered a ‘normal’ flight in the sim where anomalies are presented without being pre-briefed and the crew must over come them just as if they were out flying the line. The data is aggregated and problematic trends are identified and corrected.
Translate the same to new aircraft certification. Get the airplane basically ready and train some pilots in the sim. Just regular line pilots who will be flying the aircraft for their airline. Then spend an appropriate amount of time giving them realistic scenarios (without pre-briefing the anomalies) that test the boundaries of the aircraft performance and see how the human/machine interaction occurs and if there are problems that need to be addressed. In the case of the MAX, MCAS was a new system so scenarios to test pilot interaction with it would’ve been a requirement and I’m sure these issues could’ve been identified.
This already happens to some degree when airlines take delivery of a new aircraft. They make proving runs to hammer out any small bugs and get good real world data on fuel usage, performance, etc. My proposal is simply to expand the scope of proving runs in the sim with a good dose of abnormal operations using normal every day line pilots.
The current advanced qualification program in use at the airlines kinda is set up to test operational policies. All pilots of a fleet (essentially a random sample of abilities) go into the sim once a year and perform a check on what’s considered a ‘normal’ flight in the sim where anomalies are presented without being pre-briefed and the crew must over come them just as if they were out flying the line. The data is aggregated and problematic trends are identified and corrected.
Translate the same to new aircraft certification. Get the airplane basically ready and train some pilots in the sim. Just regular line pilots who will be flying the aircraft for their airline. Then spend an appropriate amount of time giving them realistic scenarios (without pre-briefing the anomalies) that test the boundaries of the aircraft performance and see how the human/machine interaction occurs and if there are problems that need to be addressed. In the case of the MAX, MCAS was a new system so scenarios to test pilot interaction with it would’ve been a requirement and I’m sure these issues could’ve been identified.
This already happens to some degree when airlines take delivery of a new aircraft. They make proving runs to hammer out any small bugs and get good real world data on fuel usage, performance, etc. My proposal is simply to expand the scope of proving runs in the sim with a good dose of abnormal operations using normal every day line pilots.