Preliminary Survey of Spatial Disorientation in UK Military Pilots and Navigators
Abstract
The direction of future spatial disorientation (SD) research and training is shaped primarily by the outcome of formal investigation of aircraft accidents and incidents. However, another source of vital information is aircrews's experience of SD that does not result in reported incidents. In order to access these experiences, Project Group 117 of Working Partly (WP) 61, Aircrew Standardization Co-ordinating Committee (ASCC) developed a SD survey postal questionnaire (INFO PUB 61/117/5), with the aim of providing a standard for mat for data collection and analysis. This paper reports the findings of a preliminary survey of UK aircrew. Method: For the UK survey, a total of 1320 questionnaires were distributed to 5 Naval Air Squadrons, 22 Joint Helicopter Command Units and 7 Royal Air Force stations. Seven hundreds and fifty-two questionnaires, comprising responses from 606 pilots and 146 navigators were returned. Results: Analysis was conducted primarily on the pilot data. The most frequently experienced SD episodes were the leans (by 92% of respondents), loss of horizon due to atmospheric conditions (82%), misleading altitude cues (79%), sloping horizon (75%) and SD arising from distraction (65%). When asked to rate the severity of their most recent SD episode, 3.5% (21) categorized their incident as severe ('flight safety was at risk'). In general, the frequency of SD episodes and rating of severity of the worst ever SD episode were positively related to flying experience (hours-on-type, total hours p<0.05). Overall, pilots who had received in-flight SD training reported more episodes of SD than those who had not participated in this training (p< 0.05).
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Feb 01, 2003
- Accession Number
- ADP013852
Entities
People
- Alex Bunting
- Keith Hiatt
- Lex Brown
- Sam Bostock
- Sharon R. Holmes