Nov 2013 - CHG 1
The purpose of this document is to identify and prioritize guidance on human factors issues to consider in the design and evaluation of flight deck displays and controls for all types of aircraft (Title 14, Code of Federal Regulations (14 CFR) parts 23, 25, 27, and 29), in the interest of improving aviation safety. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) provides human factors requirements and guidelines for specific avionics systems in different documents (e.g., the Code of Federal Regulations, Technical Standard Orders, and Advisory Circulars). However, many of the human factors issues are related, and system-specific guidance provided for one system may aid in identifying and resolving human factors related issues with other systems. This general guidance document is intended to serve as a single comprehensive reference for all human factors regulatory and guidance material related to flight deck displays and controls, to facilitate the identification and resolution of human factors issues with these systems. This document is not intended to replace FAA regulatory and guidance material specific to the type of aircraft. Current FAA regulatory and guidance material takes precedence over the material here.
This document contains ten chapters focused on key human factors/pilot interface issues seen across multiple FAA Aircraft Certification projects involving flight deck displays and controls, as well as some that are important but are often overlooked, and those for which FAA regulatory and guidance material has been routinely requested. These issues are grouped into ten “topic areas” to keep related items together, which directly correspond to the chapters in the document, as follows:
The objective of each of the ten chapters is to provide human factors regulatory and guidance material, as well as recommendations and best practices, from industry, academia, and government research organizations, related to each topic area. In addition, the document contains five appendices which contain a variety of sample checklists, testing scenarios and procedures, key reference lists, and “gold star” human factors research reports which have proven to be useful to both the FAA and industry representatives who evaluate and approve flight deck displays and controls. Taken together these appendices, along with the contents in the main body of the document, are intended to facilitate the identification and resolution of human factors issues with flight deck displays and controls, in the interest of improving aviation safety.