Aviator performance in week-long extended flight operations in a helicopter simulator

Effect of Combat on Aircrew Subjective Readiness During Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm

“…Such results lend additional support to the influence of circadian effects on aircrew readiness. Consistent with previous findings (Borowsky & Wall, 1983;Krueger et al, 1985;Lees et al, 1979;Storm, 1980), the number and order of flights in a 24-hr day influenced reported SSD. Both aircrews reported consistently longer SSDs following the second flight in a 24-hr period.…”

Introduction

“…Maintenance of subject interest over long periods of time is enhanced by exciting or job-related challenging tasks with feedback; thus, such tasks are frequently embedded in operational work scenarios (see, Angus & Hes1egrave, 1985;Graham, Cook, Cohen, Phelps, & Gerkovich, 1985;Krueger, Armstrong, & Cisco, 1985) so that subjects relate to them as part of their' 'normal jobs. " Under these conditions, individual differences become more manifest and task performance variance increases.…”

“…Naps are studied for their intrinisic as well as enhancement potential (Dinges, Orne, & Orne, 1985;Haslam, 1985a;Naitoh, Englund, & Ryman, 1982). Unscheduled naps also are studied; after many hours or days of testing, and certainly in the face of progressive sleep deprivation, subjects take naps unscheduled by the experimenter (Krueger, Armstrong, & Cisco, 1985), and transient perceptual distortions and hallucinations are occasionally reported (Babkoff, Sing, Hegge, Thorne, & Genser, in preparation;Johnson & Naitoh, 1974;Mullaney, Fleck, Okudaira, & Kripke, 1985).…”

“…Some SUSOPS tasks and, therefore, experiments are machine-paced (e.g., Dinges & Powell, 1985;Dinges & Whitehouse, 1985;Graham et al, 1985;Mullaneyet al, 1985;Webb, 1985), many are self-paced ; demanding duty cycles (e.g., Babkoff, Thorne, Sing, Genser, Taube, & Hegge, 1985;Krueger, Armstrong, & Cisco, 1985).…”

“…Laboratory SUSOPS studies often simulate "realworld" sustained operations settings (e.g., Krueger, Armstrong, & Cisco, 1985;Stokes, Banderet, Francesconi, Cymerman, & Sampson, 1975). In some cases, lab-based methodology has been transported to the field (Kimball & Anderson, 1975;Lees, Stone, Jones, Kimball, & Anderson, 1979;Pleban et al, 1985).…”