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Assessing Helicopter Pilots
Published in Robert Bor, Carina Eriksen, Todd P. Hubbard, Ray King, Pilot Selection, 2019
Paul Dickens, Christine Farrell
In fixed-wing aircraft flying, the pilot uses a joystick or control yoke and rudder pedals. In helicopter flying, the collective, cyclic and anti-torque pedals are used to control the forces in flight. In most helicopters the pilot’s left hand controls a lever called the collective linked through a correlator to the throttle. Lifting the collective automatically increases blade pitch and power (to overcome increasing blade drag), and produces lift, and lowering reduces power, rotor pitch and causes descent. The pilot’s right hand controls the cyclic. The pilot’s right hand controls the cyclic, usually positioned between the pilot’s legs. The cyclic is perpendicular to the floor of the helicopter and provides pitch and roll about the lateral and longitudinal axes, respectively. The cyclic essentially works by changing the tip path plane of the rotor allowing you to manoeuvre in directions impossible for the fixed-wing pilot including flying backwards, sideways and of course hovering over a fixed location! While collective and cyclic keep the pilot’s hands busy, the anti-torque pedals demand that their feet participate as well. In a single rotor system, like those found on many helicopters, pushing on the right pedal turns the helicopter to the right while pressure on the left pedal rotates the aircraft left. Their main purpose is not to add yet another required movement to flying a helicopter but rather to counteract torque. The pedals need to be used every time the throttle is increased or decreased in flight to maintain the desired heading or when hover taxiing to change heading to left or right.
Pilots’ mental workload variation when taking a risk in a flight scenario: a study based on flight simulator experiments
Published in International Journal of Occupational Safety and Ergonomics, 2023
Lei Wang, Shan Gao, Wei Tan, Jingyi Zhang
The experiment was run on a flight simulator equipped with X-Plane version 11.0. The simulator comprises a high-performance computer, three display screens, a flight control column, a throttle controller and a pair of rudder pedals (Logitech, Switzerland). The photoplethysmograph (PPG) sensor used to measure HRV was 43 × 25 × 12 mm3 in size with 24-bit resolution and a sampling frequency of 64 Hz (Kingfar, China). It uses an ear clip sensor, which is clamped on the earlobe and fixed on the collar with another clip. The relationship between the optical signal and blood flow was calculated using the transmission and reflection principle of the wavelength beam. The conversions from optical signals to electrical signals were then amplified to obtain the changes in volume, pulse and blood flow. The flight data were recorded by a module installed on X-Plane version 11, flight simulator software that recorded flight performance data every 200 ms. It can record a large number of flight parameters, including time, speed, weather, aircraft state (pitch, roll and headings) and position (latitude, longitude and altitude), etc. (Figure 1).
Investigation of Pilot Inceptor Workload and Workload Buildup Technique Through Simulator and In-Flight Studies
Published in The International Journal of Aerospace Psychology, 2022
A fixed-base, fixed-wing, variable-stability HQ research simulator (Kamali et al., 2014; Babu et al. 2019) was used for the simulator studies. Figure 1 shows the different components of the simulator. It consists of five central processing units, three 24-in. monitors for outside view, a 22-in. monitor for an instructor console, an 18.5-in. monitor for head-down display, control stick, throttles, rudder pedals, and a seat. The simulator has a unique variable-stability feature, making it possible to design the aircraft models of three different FQ levels. Three aircraft models were designed in the variable-stability simulator with distinctly different FQ levels and their modal parameters are tabulated in Table 3. Three aircraft models were validated based on pilot opinion ratings awarded as CHR by pilots while flying the three aircraft models with the longitudinal tracking tasks in the simulator.
Investigating the Predictive Validity of the COMPASS Pilot Selection Test
Published in The International Journal of Aerospace Psychology, 2021
Iñaki González Cabeza, Brett Molesworth, Malcolm Good, Carlo Caponecchia, Rasmus Steffensen
Unlike older computerized tests such as WOMBAT, COMPASS is an online test, thus providing quick access to the results, including all seven subtests. WOMBAT uses a bespoke console whereas COMPASS is administered with a trimmable joystick and rudder pedals, commonly used for recreational flight simulators. COMPASS appears to be more diverse in the skills and attributes it attempts to measure compared to WOMBAT. It is designed to measure hand-eye coordination (control and slalom), memory, mathematics, spatial orientation, task management, and technical comprehension. The tests are thought to have high face validity, primarily because a number of the exercises employed in COMPASS are based on tasks pilot typically perform (e.g., navigation, memory for material to be entered in the flight management system).