An Experimental Study of the Effect of Out-of-the-Window Cues on Training Novice Pilots on a Flight Simulator

Abstract

The effects of out-of-the-window cues on learning a straight-in landing approach and a level 360" turn by novice pilots on a flight simulator have been investigated. The treatments consisted of training with and without visual cues as well as density of visual cues. The performance of the participants was then evaluated through similar but more challenging tasks. It was observed that the participants in the landing study who trained with visual cues performed poorly than those who trained without the cues. However the performance of those who trained with a faded-cues sequence performed slightly better than those who trained without visual cues. In the level turn study it was observed that those who trained with the visual cues performed better than those who trained without visual cues. The study also showed that those participants who trained with a lower density of cues performed better than those who trained with a higher density of visual cues. IntroductionWith the increasing availability of low-cost powerful personal computers the development of 'intelligent' flight simulators for use by general aviation flight schools is becoming viable (Ludwig et. al. 2002, Remolina et. al. 2004). Such simulators will be able to use the available computational power to incorporate not only traditional but also novel training techniques based on learning theories. Also, these simulators will have robust and realistic assessinent of task performance to provide feedback thus making selfinstruction effective as well as controlling the training to progress in the right direction. The motivation for developing 'intelligent' flight simulators of course is to reduce the cost of Right training. The FAA already has allowed a certain number of silnulator hours on Personal-Coinputer based Aviation Training Devices (PCATD) to substitute for flight hours thereby reducing the cost of training. However, these simulator hours have to be supervised by a certified flight instructor (CFI). The main advantages of 'intelligent' flight simulators then would be to increase the number of siinulator hours substituting for flight hours, effective utilization of simulator hours, increased transfer of training thereby further reducing flight hours to gain proficiency, and reducingleliininating the need for a CFI during flight simulator training.