Dr. Paul Nolan

Dr. Paul Nolan, MD, ASTech

Dr Paul Nolan is MD of ASTech a company based in Ireland specializing in examination and assessment software for the aviation industry. He is formerly an academic and was Professor of Mechanical Engineering at National University of Ireland and is currently Emeritus Professor. He has a doctorate in engineering from McMaster University in Canada and has very extensive experience in making conference presentations (over 100 worldwide) including presentations at WATS and EAMTC.

Cabin Crew iPad-based Drag ‘N Drop Assessment for Correct Safety Equipment Location

As part of cabin-crew training, flight attendants have to undergo training and be assessed in a number of areas such as First Aid, Safety and Emergency Procedures, Security and so on. As part of Safety and Emergency Procedures, trainees have to be familiar with the various items of safety equipment used such as oxygen masks, first aid kits, defibulators, fire extinguishers, life jackets and so on. Additionally trainees have to know the correct location such as in FD under pilot seat and so on. This is further complicated when cabin crew have to be know this information for various aircraft types.

Testing of cabin crew in this area using traditional MCQ online exams, although possible, is usually regarded as sub optimal and a more graphic based approach where easily identified icons representing the equipment and a schematic of the aircraft can be seen, is preferred. The Drag ‘n Drop facilities in LMS systems offers but the setup is very tedious for modern aircraft with large number of equipment items, number of stations and aircraft models.

This presentation describes a web application which can be hosted on a Cloud Server or an airline’s server allowing tests to be run an iPad. Multiple personnel can do exercises at the same time. Exercises can be easily set up for different aircraft with varying number of stations and safety equipment icons which are dragged and dropped into possible correct positions. Items of equipment can be moved around between locations or returned to an initial position. The exercise is complete when all equipment items have been placed. Timing information is included and alternative grading ranging from simple count of number of correct placements to sophisticated algorithms taking into account the perceived seriousness of incorrect placements.

A live demo will be available during the presentation.