Simulator Design Features for Helicopter Landing on Small Ships. I. A Performance Study.

Abstract

The Visual Technology Research Simulator (VTRS) at the Naval Training Systems Center was used to study the effects of six simulator features on performance for helicopter landings on small ships. The purpose of the experiment was to obtain information relevant to the design of simulators for skill maintenance and transition training, and to obtain information for decisions about future transfer-of-training studies. The six simulator factors were scene detail (high detail ship deck and hangar markings versus no deck and hangar markings), field of view (VTRS-wide versus reduced SH-60B operational flight trainer field of view), system visual lab (217 msec versus 117 msec), g-seat acceleration cuing (off versus on), and collective sound cuing (off versus on). These factors were tested across two levels of seastate and pilot experience. Pilots who participated in the experiment were experienced Navy H-3 rotary wing pilots. Results indicated large effects of scene detail, small to moderate effects for visual lag, small effects for field of view, and no meaningful effects for the g-seat factors and collective sound. Performance was better with the high-detail ship, the shorter visual lag, and the VTRS-wide field of view. Transfer-of-training research is recommended as the next step to further explore these findings and to obtain information directly relevant to the design of simulators for use by student pilots. Keywords: Flight simulator; Visual simulation; Scene content; Helicopter landing; Landing at sea; and Simulator design.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Sep 27, 1985
Accession Number
ADA169514

Entities

People

  • Daniel P. Westra
  • Gavan Lintern

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Ground and Sea Platforms

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Aircrafts
  • Control Panels
  • Control Systems
  • Data Analysis
  • Flight Training
  • Helicopters
  • Human Factors Engineering
  • Information Processing
  • Information Science
  • Measurement
  • Naval Training
  • Psychology
  • Ship Decks
  • Simulations
  • Simulators
  • Small Ships
  • Training

Readers

  • Aviation Safety and Air Traffic Management
  • Military Training and Readiness Simulation
  • Vision Science/Vision Psychology/Cognitive Neuroscience.