Development of automated GAT-1 performance measures.

Abstract

Abstract : The report describes a systematic search for flight parameters that correlate with pilot proficiency. The system for making psychophysical measurements of the parameters consists of a Link General Aviation Trainer (GAT-1) connected to a small on-line digital computer(LINC-8). The computer can simultaneously monitor eight flight variables and input pseudo-random command signals (rough air) to three GAT-1 flight variables. By using this small computer in conjunction with a second computer program for further processing, 266 flight parameters were measured for each of the 30 subjects (Ss) run through the experiment series. The parameters were means, standard deviations, correlations between variables, and compensatory tracking gains and phase shifts. The experiment series consisted of four tasks of increasing difficulty: a holding task, a holding task with power changes, a five-part flight profile and an ILS landing approach. First, an analysis of variance on each of the 266 variables was used to select the most important ones. Second, these selected variables were entered in a multivariate disciminant analysis to determine which contributed most to differences in pilot experience. Although between 10 and 15 variables sufficed for perfect separation of the Ss into the three experience groups from which they were chosen, 27 variables significantly contributed to the separation. A single criterion variable, a linear weighted sum of these 27 flight parameters, is suggested as a measure of pilot proficiency. (Author)