Effect of G-cueing on Pilot Performance in Centrifuge-Based Simulation of Unusual Attitude Recovery

Abstract

The aim of the collaborative European research project ‘Simulation of UPset Recovery in Aviation’ (SUPRA) is to develop breakthrough simulator technologies for teaching pilots to detect and recover from adverse flight upsets that could lead to unusual attitudes and loss-of-control. In the project, the high-performance research simulator DESDEMONA is utilized, which integrates a flight simulator having a six-degrees-of-freedom motion platform with a sustained acceleration capability up to 3.0g. These characteristics result in improved simulation of motions encountered in upset conditions, compared to conventional fixed base or hexapod simulators. This paper describes a study consisting of two experiments to determine how accurate pilots can judge and reproduce a specific G-level in the DESDEMONA simulator, and respectively, how their control behavior depends on G-forces during unusual attitude recovery. In total seventeen civil pilots, without previous G-maneuvering experience, participated in the study. The results show that pilots without previous G-exposure tend to overestimate G-levels based on their seat-of-the-pants, resulting in performance below the target G-level. With minimum training, their performance instantly improved up to adequate level. However, a retest after six months showed that this improvement did not endure. With respect to aircraft control during recovery from a nose-low unusual attitude, the pilots showed significantly better performance with G-cueing simulation, in terms of deviation from the target G-load, compared to fixed-base simulation in which they tend to ‘over-G’. It can be concluded that G-cueing simulation results in improved upset recovery performance of civil pilots compared to Fixed-base simulation. Hence, simulation of upset recovery with G-cueing may result in more realistic and adequate recovery training.