Effects of Video Weather Training Products, Web-Based Preflight Weather Briefing, and Local Versus Non-Local Pilots on General Aviation Pilot Weather Knowledge and Flight Behavior, Phase 3

The primary purpose of Phases 1 and 2 of this research was to test the effects of video weather training products on weather-related risk-taking. During the investigation, two unexpected observations were made 1 Despite specific instructions to fly visual-flight-rules-only VFR, nine of 50 Phase 1 pilots spent more than 10 min in simulated instrument meteorological conditions IMC, plus three of those nine repeated that behavior in Phase 2 2 Whole-group N50 weather knowledge test scores were significantly lower 19, p.001 than average FAA certification exam scores obtained by freshly licensed pilots, implying knowledge decay over time. To assess if any of the IMC violations were willful rather than inadvertent, we sent a brief questionnaire to the nine pilots of interest. Five responded. After analysis, the leading explanation seemed that their flight profiles were consistent with preflight terrain avoidance planning TAP. These pilots seemed determined to fly straight and level above the highest known obstacle, even if that obstacle was distant and TAP altitude meant flying initial VFR-into-IMC. The average group decline in certification exam scores was equally significant from a logical standpoint. Since knowledge retention tends to be a function of knowledge relevancy, if FAA test questions were uniformly relevant to real-world weather encounters, we would expect pilots scores to increase with experience, not decrease. Since experience tends to increase with time, this should offset the normal decay process of forgetting. However, this study shows that it did not. This was consistent with pilot anecdotes that FAA test questions often seemed, to them, trick questions, or otherwise based on tasks that pilots rarely do and conditions rarely encountered.