Modern avionics can reduce workload, improve precision, and expand situational awareness, but only when pilots understand what the system is doing, why it is doing it, and what it is likely to do next.

Managing Automation brings automation theory into the cockpit. Drawing on human-factors research, official accident and incident investigations, and practical operating principles, Matthew James McDermott examines how highly capable systems can produce mode confusion, automation surprise, weakened monitoring, and difficult transfers of control.

Readers will learn how to build accurate mental models, recognize divergence between aircraft behavior and pilot intent, manage workload, preserve manual-flying proficiency, and choose an appropriate level of automation. The book's Automation Management Cycle: predict, verify, observe, compare, simplify, communicate, and intervene, turns those lessons into a practical discipline.

Written for developing and experienced aviators, instructors, and safety-minded readers, this is a measured guide to using sophisticated tools without surrendering judgment, discipline, or command.