Richard S. Jensen

Pilot Judgment: Training and Evaluation

An analysis of accident statistics reveals that over 50% of pilot-caused civil aviation accident fatalities are the result of faulty pilot judgment. Although the FAA requires examiners to evaluate pilot judgment, it provides no definition or criteria against which such an evaluation can be made. In spite of the statistics implicating pilot judgment in many aviation fatalities, attempts to teach it are almost nonexistent. It is but a slight overstatement to say that good pilot judgment is learned by the lucky and the cautious over many years of varied flying experiences. This paper examines some of the decision-research literature in an attempt to provide an operational definition of pilot judgment and to suggest ways that pilot judgment may be taught and evaluated in civil aviation.

Prediction and Quickening In Perspective Flight Displays for Curved Landing Approaches

In an empirical test of various prediction and quickening display algorithms, 18 professional pilot-subjects made four curved-path landing approaches in a GAT-2 simulator using each of 18 dynamically different display configurations in a within-subject design. Results Indicate that second-and third-order predictor displays provide the best lateral performance. Intermediate levels of prediction and quickening provide best vertical control. Prediction quickening algorithms of increasing computational order significantly reduce aileron, rudder, and elevator control responses, reflecting successive reductions in cockpit work load. Whereas conventional crosspointer displays are not adequate for curved landing approaches, perspective displays with predictors and some vertical dimension quickening are highly effective.

Flight Display Dynamics Revisited

Good old ideas for pictorial flight displays that were once impractical warrant reconsideration in light of current microcomputing and display technology. Among the ideas are the contact analog, highway in the sky, and flight path predictor concepts. Basic pictorial display principles established in the 1950s and 1960s have been supported by additional experimental findings in the 1970s. These include pictorial realism, magnification, integration, compatible motion, frequency separation, pursuit presentation, quickening, and predicting. An extended analysis of dynamic display variables provides a broadened conceptual foundation for future multifactor experimental optimization of forward-looking pictorial flight displays.

Optical information for detecting loss in one's own forward speed

An experiment was conducted to determine whether accuracy and efficiency of detecting loss in ones own forward speed are constant when optical information is invariant over a wide range of environmental variables. Deceleration rate, initial forward velocity, and altitude were varied so as to isolate initial optical flow rate, optical flow deceleration, and optical flow damping invariants specified in observer-relevant metrics. The candidate resulting in the most consistent effect on performance was global damping, which specifies a contrast of flow deceleration with initial flow rate. The finding is a first step toward validating a procedure for identifying functional invariants by assessing the usefulness of mathematically specified optical information for the perception of egomotion. The research represents both a methodological development and empirical support for the broader program of ecological functionalism.

Computer-Animated Predictive Displays for Microwave Landing Approaches

The safe, orderly, and economical flow of air traffic at congested metropolitan airports can result from the advent of microwave radio guidance systems. By providing aircraft position in three dimensions, these terminal navigation aids potentially allow steeply curved landing approaches that will facilitate unprecedented noise abatement procedures, large fuel savings, and precisely timed arrivals at airport runways. To implement such complex flight procedures will require a combination of semiautomatic computer-assisted airplane guidance and control and radically different flight displays if pilots are to monitor such maneuvers confidently and execute them manually when necessary. Results of a simulator investigation, involving visual guidance and flight-path prediction embedded in computer-animated contact analog displays, show that pilots can reliably execute computer-programmed curved approaches to airport runways with the needed precision in the face of severe wind shears.