The Pilot's Burden: Flight Safety and the Roots of Pilot Error

by Robert N. Buck

Have modern aviation technology and regulations become so complex that they actually hinder, rather than help pilots fly aircraft well? Do they deprive pilots of the time and liberty to apply innate instincts and skills necessary to safe, well-performed flight? Are pilots becoming victims of advancement intended to aid them? Are they becoming scapegoats for accidents ever more frequently cited as "pilot error"? Changes in piloting throughout modern aviation and answers to these questions are explained in The Pilot"s Burden. Drawing on extensive firsthand experience, Buck traces the evolution of the required skills and increased responsibilities of pilots, from the early days of the open cockpit biplanes flying in uncontrolled skies, to the latest computerized aircraft flying in the jam-packed, controlled skies of today. He recounts aviation history to show how increasing technology has affected pilots.

252 pages, Hardcover

First published April 30, 1995