Abstract
Issues related to fatigue are common across transportation industries, and the National Transportation Safety Board identified the need for fatigue education that raises awareness about sleep (Marcus & Rosekind, 2016). Although the impacts of fatigue in the airline industry are more acute, fatigue in the flight training industry also deserves investigation because many collegiate flight students will eventually become airline pilots. Replicating previous research focused on the fatigue-awareness of collegiate flight instructors (McDale & Ma, 2008), this study aims to evaluate the fatigue-awareness of students enrolled in a professional pilot program. As late adolescents, collegiate flight students are a unique population in the aviation industry, and the effects of fatigue impact them differently than older pilots (Buboltz, Brown, & Soper, 2010). Evaluating the fatigue-awareness of collegiate flight programs will help aviation educators better understand the effectiveness of human factors education aimed at fatigue awareness education. To evaluate their fatigue-awareness, this study revised the survey instrument developed by McDale and Ma (2008) to make it more relevant to collegiate flight students. Results indicate that collegiate flight students are generally aware of their own fatigue, but they do not make lifestyle changes to reduce their fatigue.