FEAST Vigilance and Conflict Recognition 2

Question 1

A radar display shows 10 aircraft tracks.
Nine are maintaining their cleared altitudes.
One aircraft is 200 ft above its cleared altitude and trending upward.
The controller who spots this first demonstrates:

Accepted Answer

High vigilance — detecting a small deviation against a background of normal tracks

Answer

Good spatial reasoning — calculating the drift from assigned altitude

Answer

Fast processing speed — quickly scanning all 10 tracks

Answer

Strong working memory — remembering all 10 cleared altitudes simultaneously

Question 2

Two aircraft are on parallel headings, same altitude, separated by 4 NM. ICAO minimum radar separation is 5 NM. The controller should:

Accepted Answer

Issue an immediate instruction to increase separation to at least 5 NM

Answer

Wait for STCA to activate before taking action

Answer

Accept 4 NM as the aircraft are parallel and not converging

Answer

Monitor the situation — parallel aircraft will naturally diverge

Question 3

During a 20-minute radar monitoring simulation, a candidate has a hit rate (correctly identifying deviations) that decreases from 100% in the first 5 minutes to 75% in the last 5 minutes. This change is most consistent with:

Accepted Answer

Vigilance decrement — the well-documented decline in detection performance during sustained monitoring

Answer

Fatigue from the physical demands of sitting at the workstation

Answer

Increased task difficulty as more aircraft are added during the simulation

Answer

Learning effects — the candidate becomes overconfident and stops checking carefully

Question 4

An aircraft is squawking 7700 (general emergency) but has not made any radio contact. The controller's correct first action is to:

Accepted Answer

Attempt to establish communication on the guard frequency 121.5 MHz and on the assigned frequency

Answer

Treat the squawk as a transponder malfunction and take no immediate action

Answer

Immediately alert emergency services and divert all other traffic in the area

Answer

Wait for the pilot to initiate contact before responding to the emergency squawk

Question 5

A conflict recognition task shows 8 aircraft. Two of them will reach minimum separation in 4 minutes but are not yet in conflict. A candidate who takes no action for 3 minutes before acting is demonstrating:

Accepted Answer

Late conflict recognition — the situation should have been acted on as soon as the converging trend was identified

Answer

Appropriate delayed response — action at 1 minute before conflict is standard ATC procedure

Answer

Correct behaviour — waiting confirms the conflict is real before issuing instructions

Answer

Efficient prioritisation — handling other tasks first before the urgent conflict develops

Question 6

A controller is working a quiet night sector with very little traffic. After 45 minutes of minimal activity, a conflict begins to develop. Compared to a controller working a busy sector, this controller is at greater risk of:

Accepted Answer

Slow conflict detection due to under-stimulation and low arousal — quiet periods reduce vigilance

Answer

Fast conflict detection — they have had time to rest and are fresher

Answer

Better conflict resolution — quiet periods allow more careful planning

Answer

No difference — vigilance is unaffected by prior workload level