Motion Cueing for Stall Recovery Training in Commercial Transport Simulators

Abstract

Starting in 2019, airline pilots will be required to perform full stall recovery training in flight simulators. Historically, training simulators weren't required to provide training at conditions outside their normal flight envelope. Post-stall aircraft models are generally required to be implemented to simulate the aircraft response after the stall point. In addition, motion cues need to adequately represent this response to ensure the skills learned in simulator training are directly usable in real flight. This paper provides and overview of six simulator experiments conducted at NASA Ames Research Center to develop a motion cueing strategies for stall recovery training in commercial transport simulators. One of the experiments verified an enhanced motion cueing strategy for stall recovery training on a level-D-certified full flight simulator. This study showed that the enhanced motion results in lower maximum roll angles in the stall maneuver, lower minimum load factors in the recovery, lower numbers of secondary stick shakers in the stall recovery, and a lower maximum airspeed in the recovery. These results indicate that relatively minor enhancements to the motion logic of heritage commercial transport simulators can significantly improve pilot performance in simulated stall recoveries, and potentially improve stall recovery training.