International Validation of a Cognitive Screening Tool for Pilot Risk of Accidents in Flight

General Aviation (GA) contributes billions in GDP, and supports hundreds of thousands of jobs in Canada and the United Kingdom (UK). Sustaining the industry requires experienced pilots flying safely for as long as possible. To preserve pilot engagement in GA, Carleton University’s Advanced Cognitive Engineering Laboratory has developed the CANFLY, a cognitive health screening tool for GA pilots to monitor changes in cognition associated with increased accident risk. This project expands the impact of CANFLY, by adapting and validating it for use in the UK. CANFLY will be distributed to a sample of UK GA pilots (ideally 35), to ensure the tool reflects local operations, then, adapted based on pilot feedback, and finally, distributed to a larger sample of GA UK pilots (60 for planned analyses). This collaboration strengthens CANFLY’s international application, and creates the foundation for future joint projects in GA between Canada and the UK. Through the collaboration, Carleton University will expand the reach of CANFLY beyond Canada, while Imperial College will gain access to CANFLY, assisting them to engineer a safer GA industry. The project allows Carleton and Imperial to work in tandem to achieve their research goals, with an impact that will long outlive the collaboration.

Faculty Supervisor:

Chris Herdman

Student:

Partner:

Imperial College London

Discipline:

Sociology

Sector:

Education

University:

Carleton University

Program: