Helicopter Pilot Performance and Workload in a Following Task in a Degraded Visual Environment

Area of Science:

• Aviation Psychology
• Human Factors Engineering
• Aerospace Medicine

Background:

• Investigated the impact of atmospheric conditions causing loss of horizon on helicopter pilot performance and workload.
• Examined the utility of helmet-mounted displays (HMD) in mitigating these effects during low-altitude, dynamic flight tasks.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the influence of degraded visual environments (DVE) on helicopter pilot performance and workload.
• To evaluate the benefits of HMDs in improving situation awareness and reducing workload under varying visual conditions.

Main Methods:

• 16 military helicopter pilots participated in a fixed-based simulator study.
• Pilots performed a dynamic low-altitude vessel-following task in good visual environments (GVE) and DVE (simulated fog).
• Evaluated flight performance, control inputs, gaze, positioning, and subjective workload, with and without HMD use.

Main Results:

• DVE led to increased pilot workload and closer proximity to the target vessel, resulting in larger control inputs.
• HMD use minimally impacted flight performance but significantly improved situation awareness and reduced workload.
• HMD benefits were observed in both GVE and DVE conditions.

Conclusions:

• Degraded visual environments significantly increase workload and negatively affect helicopter pilot performance in dynamic, low-altitude tasks.
• Helmet-mounted displays offer substantial improvements in situation awareness and workload reduction for pilots, regardless of visual conditions.