Abstract
Under instrument flight rules (IFR) conditions in Cessna 172R (95 dBA) cockpit noise, eight IFR-licensed pilots flew four 3.5-h nonstop flights in an FAA-certified, single-engine flight simulator, while wearing one of four communications headsets in each flight. All flights imposed an equivalently high level of air traffic control communications, at three Speech Transmission Index (STI) values: 0.30, 0.50, and 0.70. Perceptual and psychomotor workload were also controlled. In addition to a battery of flight-related metrics (some reported elsewhere), an objective, flight-embedded measure of communications intelligibility was obtained—the number of readbacks required of the pilot to attain 100% intelligibility on each command. An ANOVA revealed that as a group, the ANR headsets (Sennheiser HMEC300, Bose Aviation X, LightSPEED Thirty3G) required significantly fewer readbacks (averaging 1.2–1.3) than did the passive David Clark H-10-13.4 (averaging 1.5). Flight control performance, as reflected by deviations in assigned magnetic heading, altitude, and airspeed, was highest during flights with the Bose headset. Pilots’ workload estimates were measured using the modified Cooper-Harper scale, with 1 representing lowest workload and 9 representing highest. The three ANR headsets were associated with average workload ratings of 3.4–3.5, while the passive headset yielded a higher average workload of 4.4.
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