This PhD project examines how novice pilots perceive and manage operational risk, aiming to improve early‑career decision‑making and safety through evidence‑based training, assessment, and policy interventions.
This PhD project will investigate how novice pilots perceive, assess, and manage operational risk, with the aim of identifying evidence-based interventions to strengthen decision-making and safety behaviour early in aviation careers. While technical proficiency is systematically trained, risk management and aeronautical decision-making are often shaped by cognitive biases, social influences, overconfidence, and incomplete threat recognition. This research will examine factors such as hazard perception, threat and error management, safety culture exposure, instructor influence, and the development of judgement under varying operational pressures. The study may employ behavioural experiments, flight training data analysis, simulator-based scenario testing, or longitudinal tracking of decision-making development. The objective is to design targeted training strategies, feedback mechanisms, and assessment tools that improve risk recognition, mitigation behaviours, and safety outcomes among early-career pilots.
Findings are expected to contribute to flight training policy, competency-based education frameworks, and Safety Management System (SMS) integration within training organisations.
School of Science
Aviation
1882
