FAA Office of Aerospace Medicine
Civil Aerospace Medical Institute
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AVIATION MEDICINE REPORTS

Report No: DOT/FAA/AM-96/16

Title and Subtitle: A comparison of the effects of navigational display formats and memory aids on pilot performance

Report Date: May 1996

Authors: D.B. Beringer and H.C. Harris, Jr.

Abstract: A great deal of effort has been invested in examining integrated instrumentation for advanced cockpits, but little comparable effort has been directed toward the greatest number of aircraft presently flying - those in the general aviation environment. This series of studies examined the benefits of a simple and widely available integrated instrument, the horizontal situation indicator (HSI), in the performance of simple navigational and orientational tasks by private pilots and instructor pilots. Tested in the context of the multiple-processor Basic General Aviation Research Simulator (BGARS), the private pilots exhibited significantly fewer navigational reversals and orientational errors when using the HSI (in comparison with their performances when using the traditional VOR and directional gyro combination). These results were consistent with but even more definitive than those obtained for the instructor pilots. Similar benefits in procedural error reduction were also found when instrument index markers, or "bugs," were used as short-term memory aids.

Key Words: Personal Computer-Based Flight Simulation, Simulator Research, Instrument Flight, Display Integration, Psychology, Applied Psychology

No. of Pages: 11