CORRELATIONS BETWEEN VISUAL TEST-RESULTS AND FLYING PERFORMANCE ON THE ADVANCED SIMULATOR FOR PILOT TRAINING (ASPT)

  • 1 January 1981
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 52  (8) , 455-460
Abstract
Looking for visual differences in pilots to account for differences in flying performance, 5 groups of subjects were tested: U.S. Air Force primary student jet pilots, graduating (T38 aircraft) students, U.S. Air Force pilot instructors and 2 control groups made up of experienced nonpilot aircrew and nonflying civilians. This interim report compares 13 different visual test results with low-visibility landing performance on the Air Force Human Resources Laboratory ASPT [Advanced simulator for pilot training] simulator. Performance was assessed by the number of crashes and by the distance of the aircraft from the runway threshold at the time of the 1st visual flight correction. The main finding was that, for student pilots, landing performance correlated with tracking performance for a target that changed size (as if moving in depth) and also with tracking performance for a target that moved sideways. Landing performance correlated comparatively weakly with psychophysical thresholds for motion and contrast. For student pilots, several of the visual tests gave results that correlated with flying grades in T37 and T38 jet aircraft. Tracking tests clearly distinguished between the nonflying group and all the flying groups. Visual threshold tests did not distinguish between nonflying and flying groups except for grating contrast, which distinguished between the nonflying group and the pilot instructors. The sideways-motion tracking task was sensitive enough to distinguish between the various flying groups.

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