Upwards of 60% of preventable aviation accidents are due to human error, suggesting that sufficient training is vital for improved flight safety. The objective of the present work was to inform the use of virtual reality technology as a flight simulation method that supports training of high-risk scenarios and has major cost saving potential compared to traditional flight simulators.Participants flew three predefined circuits in a traditional flight simulator graphics condition (Broad Angle Display System, (BADS)), and conducted the same flight path and tasks using a VR graphics environment. The exploratory hypotheses in this research are that there would be no differences in the user experience, cognitive workload, and performance, between the two graphics conditions. User experience was gathered by a questionnaire probing motion sickness and other VR usability metrics. Cognitive load was gathered from a subjective rating in a questionnaire, derived from peripheral detection task, and by continuously measuring participant's physiological indices, including heart rate and galvanic skin response. Performance was obtained from flight path and airspeed deviations, and from flying precision.
USER EXPERIENCE.There were no differences in physiological symptoms (i.e., queasiness, dizziness, or disorientation) after the first flying condition, however queasiness ratings appeared greater for participants who flew in the VR graphics condition on second exposure. COGNITIVE LOAD. The average subjective mental workload rating, heart rate, and galvanic skin response were statistically higher in the VR graphics condition than in the BADS. The remaining cognitive load metrics did not have any significant differences between the two graphics conditions. PERFORMANCE. The average airspeed root-meansquared error (RMSE) was statistically greater (worse) in the BADS graphics condition than in the VR. There were no differences in the altitude or heading RMSE, or flying precision between the two graphics conditions. The groups experiencing queasiness and dizziness symptoms in VR on first exposure both had a greater heading RMSE in VR. There were no significant effects from queasiness, dizziness, or disorientation on performance measures in the BADS group.