Perceived Velocity and Altitude Judgments During Rotary Wing Aircraft Flight

Abstract

Eight Army rotary wing aviators made judgments concerning the ground speed and altitude of a UH-1 helicopter. Combinations of three ground speeds and four altitudes were used across four visual conditions including daylight and simulated night environments. In general, the results indicate: (1) Absolute error in ground speed estimations increased as altitude increased; (2) At ground speeds above 50 knots there was a tendency to underestimate ground speeds, and below 50 knots ground speed estimates were dependent upon visual cinditons. (3) Absolute error in altitude judgment increases with aircraft altitude; and (4) At low altitudes the trend is toward understimation and as altitude and airspeed increase the tendency is to overestimate altitude. These and other results are discussed as well as their possible implications for conduct of safe flight.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 01, 1975
Accession Number
ADA016870

Entities

People

  • Charles A. Bowen
  • Lewis W. Stone
  • Mark A. Hofmann
  • Michael G. Sanders
  • Richard N. Armstrong

Organizations

  • United States Army Aeromedical Research Lab

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Aircraft Equipment
  • Aircrafts
  • Airspeed
  • Altitude
  • Analysis Of Variance
  • Collision Avoidance
  • Computer Programming
  • Daylight
  • Elevation
  • Fixed Wing Aircraft
  • Flight Speeds
  • Ground Speed
  • Helicopters
  • Judgment
  • Low Altitude
  • Night Vision
  • Rotary Wing Aircraft

Readers

  • Atmospheric Science / Meteorology, specifically Wind Wave Turbulence.
  • Aviation Science / Aeronautics.