The Transition of Experienced Pilots to a Frequency-Separated Aircraft Attitude Display

Abstract

Independent groups of eight professional pilots each were given one flight in a Link GAT-2 simulator and one flight in a Beechcraft C-45H using, respectively, the moving horizon, moving airplane, and frequency-separated attitude displays. The flight tasks performed by the subjects included recovery from unknown attitudes, disturbed attitude tracking, and completion of an area navigation course. Data collected in the C-45H aircraft demonstrated superior performance of both the frequency-separated and moving horizon displays when compared to the moving airplane display during unknown attitude recoveries. The frequency-separated display was superior to all others during disturbed attitude tracking. It was concluded that the flight performance of experienced pilots during their initial transition to a frequency-separated flight attitude presentation is at least comparable, and for some tasks superior, to their flight performance with the conventional moving horizon presentation.