Correlations between visual test results and flying performance on the advanced simulator for pilot training (ASPT)

Looking for visual differences in pilots to account for differences in flying performance, we tested five groups of subjects: Air Force primary student jet pilots, graduating (T38 aircraft) students, Air Force pilot instructors, and two 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 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 first visual flight correction. Our 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. On the other hand, 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. On the other hand, 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.