Medication and flight

Some drugs have a similar effect to alcohol and other toxic substances. If you are taking medications, it is important to make responsible assessments of your abilities and limitations. You should not fly if the medication you are taking makes your performance dangerous. This applies to prescription drugs as well. Examples of common side effects are decreased attention, longer reaction time, and decreased judgment.

Different medicines affect you at different stages. Some only at the beginning, others all the time or only when you stop. In addition, combining medicines or alcohol in combination with medicines can increase or change the effect.

Fatigue and flight

It’s important to rest during the flight so that you don’t pose a risk to the safety of people and property. Fatigue will impair your concentration, as well as your ability to react, make decisions, coordinate and perceive information through your senses. Getting tired is just as serious and can have the same consequences as drinking alcohol.

The risk of accidents due to fatigue is higher at night, in the dark, at the end of the flight or under the influence of alcohol, drugs or other toxic substances.

If you fly for a long time, your attention may diminish over time – you may start to think about other things, or even want to finish your work soon to rest. These are common signs of fatigue that you should take seriously. Make sure to stop if you notice that you start to lose concentration – resting for 20 minutes may be enough.

Vision – our most important sense

During the flight we get most of the information we need through our vision. Many of us have, or may in the future develop, some difficulty with our vision, so it is a good idea to have your vision checked regularly, preferably once a year. If you need glasses or contact lenses, you should use them during flights.

The two percent

Direct vision is the part of vision that focuses on the visual field. Normally, the field of vision is 180 degrees, of which direct vision makes up only one to two percent. This means that only 2 percent of your vision is sharp; everything else is blurry.

Regional vision

Peripheral vision also enables you to perceive what is out of focus – the blurred parts of your field of vision. Peripheral vision enables you to observe movements and detect obstacles or hazards that are not in your direct vision while flying.

Vision gets worse in the dark

Trying to see in the dark, precisely because our vision is reduced, makes us tired. Therefore, in such a case, we have to be more careful during flights. Many people suffer from myopia in the dark, as it is difficult for the lens of the eye to adjust when there is not enough light. It is also common knowledge that the lens of our eye lenses lose their elasticity over the years, which means that our night vision can get worse as we age. Some people have no night vision at all, usually from birth. This is called night vision or night blindness.

The lower a person’s night vision is, the more their vision will have more trouble switching from darkness to light and vice versa.

If you are flying at night in a place without any lighting, you can reduce the brightness of your remote’s screen and if there is a lot of artificial light, you may even need a screen shade.

Make sure that the equipment of your SSEA is adapted to the environment. If you are flying in the dark, you can reduce the brightness of the screen and if it is very bright, you may need to use a screen hood to help you see the flight information.

Visually scan the airspace

When flying drones, at visual line of sight (VLOS) distance, in addition to seeing the UAV clearly, we must also monitor the airspace in which we are flying. This means that it is important to visually scan the airspace in a proper manner.

In order to get a good visual scan of the airspace, it is better to systematically move the visual focus between several different points in the sky than to look around.

You must practice the technique of visual scanning so that you can monitor the SFE, the control screen, and the airspace at regular intervals. This method is also used by manned aircraft pilots and involves looking at your control screen for a short period of time before looking at the sky again. This takes a little practice, but when done correctly, it makes you a much safer pilot.

Practice makes us better

The more experience you gain, the better your visual scanning ability will be. This makes it easier for you to perceive dangers and resolve difficult situations.

Misinterpretation of information

If visibility during the flight is poor or if you suffer from fatigue, there is a risk that your brain will misinterpret the information. These visual illusions cause you to misjudge situations or distances. This is another reason to get a good rest before you take a flight!

Different types of colour blindness 

The most common type of colour blindness is called red-green (Protanopia – Deuteranopia) colour blindness. This form of colour blindness not only makes it difficult to distinguish between red and green but also between colours containing red or green. For example, you may have difficulty distinguishing between brown and green because brown is a mixture of red and green, or between blue and purple because purple is a mixture of red and blue.

Another form of colour blindness is reduced sensitivity to blue (Tritanopia). People with impaired blue sensitivity have difficulty identifying differences between blue-yellow, purple-red and blue-green. For these people the world around them looks like generally reddish, pink, black, white, grey and turquoise.

A third and very rare form of colour blindness makes you see everything in shades of grey (monochromatism).

Other important sensations during the flight of an SFE

When flying your Semi-EA, it is important to listen to things that may affect your flight or route, such as emergency alerts from the controller, other airspace users, birds, wind, updates from your crew and so on. And, of course, strange noises that indicate hardware failure in your SFE and could potentially lead to a malfunction or an accident. Therefore, during the flight you should not listen to music or have similar activities, but be solely focused on your mission.

Touch is one of the senses we also use before and during flight. Controlling the SFE and the correct positioning of all its components, selecting commands on the ground station display and sometimes warning vibrations on the controller if something happens while the SFE is in the air are some of the instances of using our touch during flight operations.

Smell is important as it alerts us to the existence of emergency situations, for example a burning smell in case we fly in a forest environment, or even in case of fire in the Lipo batteries, or in other components of our SSEA.

Awareness of the situation 

The cornerstone of successful execution of a successful Semi-Aircraft flight is the perception of Tactical Situation Awareness (S.A.). S.A. is the continuous perception and understanding of the situation of both oneself and the S.A. in relation to the dynamic flight environment, threats (environmental, weather, etc.), as well as the ability to anticipate and then execute actions based on this perception. The term also includes the impact that these actions will have both immediately and in the near future.

It is a key component of good decision-making and a tool for risk and workload management. It affects safety before, during and after the flight and is a major cause of aviation accidents. An understanding of the importance and significance of S.A. is an aid to the execution of safe flights.

Situational awareness is “built” by the following:

• Indications of the organs of the SSEA. 

• Sense and Avoid instrumentation indications.

• Visual stimuli from the camera and/or other sensors.

• Communication of crew members.

• Air Traffic Information. 

Different learning methods give different results

In-depth understanding 

As its name suggests, deep structured learning means that you have a deep understanding of the things you learn and read. You’ll be able to understand the logic behind specific rules, but also the context and causes as a whole. The knowledge will be integrated and become a natural part of your flight when you are out in the field.

Surface learning

The opposite of deep structured learning is surface learning. If you just read fast enough, and only in parts, to pass the theory test, your knowledge will probably be fragmented. This will result in a lack of knowledge of the rules and regulations when it comes to flying in real world conditions.

Inevitable patterns

By observing other people’s behaviour, we learn unconsciously. This is called imitation learning. In many cases, this is unavoidable – therefore, it is also very important to be a good role model for others.

Experienced or very comfortable?

The experience you’ll gain through many flights will make you a better pilot. Through repetition, you will gain automaticity and you will be able, while flying, to spend more time in the flight environment, discovering hazards and planning the next step in time.

But sometimes this comfort that you gain with experience makes you less cautious, since you trust your ability too much.