To insure the most effective utilization of his aviation resources, the rotary wing flight commander requires information which describes how extended flight time affects the operational capability of his flight crews. In response to this requirement, the US Army Aeromedical Research Laboratory has conducted an investigation of the man-helicopter system performance during five days of extended flight. The current report describes the changes in pilot performance and aircraft stability on one of the maneuvers performed during the large scale fatigue investigation, the stabilized three-foot (.91 meter) precision hover.The results obtained during the current examination strongly suggest the occurrence of a learning effect across the first day of extended flight. The most stable hover performance was observed during the second flight day. By the third flight day, pilots attempted to maintain high quality precision hovers through an increase in the number of control inputs. Results obtained on the fourth day of flight suggest that the pilots have shifted their control technique from active control of the helicopter to a more passive strategy of responding to observed error.

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The present study assessed the validity ofa laboratory simulation of the car-passing task by means ofcanonical correlation techniques. Twelve experienced drivers observed filmed situations in the laboratory and actual situations on the road. A canonical correlation of.96 was obtained between the laboratory performance measures and the on-the-road criterion measures. It was found that 41 % of the variability accounted for in the laboratory was redundant with 60% of that accounted for on the road. Application to driver education is emphasized.

Army aviation is at serious risk in chemical and biological warfare environments. One of the potential countermeasures for aviators against the chemical threat is the development of antidote and pretreatment drugs. Just as the chemical agent carries the threat of degrading aviator performance, antidote and pretreatment drugs could independently produce problems either alone or in combination with an agent. This paper briefly outlines part of the first phase of a systematic program using controlled, simulated flight conditions and a Zero Input Tracking Analyzer (ZITA) to identify and measure flight performance and psychomotor effects of unchallenged atropine (one of the chemical defense antidotes) on aviators. Each of 12 U.S. Army helicopter aviators voluntarily received 3 dosages: 0 mg (saline solution), 2 mg of atropine sulfate, and 4 mg of atropine sulfate. Results indicate that simulator flight performance data did prove to be sensitive in identifying and measuring effects of 4 mg of atropine. Additionally, some ZITA tests showed a statistically significant degradation with the 4 mg dosage.