Abstract
During their professional career, pilots often experience a change in workplace conditions in the form of an aircraft cockpit ergonomics change. Change of working conditions may impact their perception of flight data or the pilot’s psychophysiological condition, especially in cases of inexperienced pilots. The presented study deals with the influence of cockpit ergonomics change on the performance and pilot workload during a training course. We divided 20 subjects with no previous practical flying experience into two training groups (Gr. A and Gr. B). The flight training was focused on acquisition of basic piloting skills where both groups experienced cockpit ergonomics change in different training phases. The performance (piloting precision) was assessed based on deviations from predetermined parameters of the monitored flight manoeuvres. Heart rate variability qualified the extent of workload. The study showed the influence of the cockpit arrangement on piloting precision, where the transition to other type of cockpit ergonomics did not influence pilots’ subjective workload with statistical significance.
Highlights
Ergonomic flight deck design has become a crucial element of continuous improvement in aviation safety
The paper dealt with the evaluation of cockpit ergonomics impact on workload and psychophysiological response to ad-hoc change in display of flight, navigation and engine data, with respect to performance assessment
Workload was assessed by means of monitoring heart rhythm variability, which reflects the level of autonomic nervous system involvement in reaction to a stressor
Summary
Ergonomic flight deck design has become a crucial element of continuous improvement in aviation safety. Flight deck arrangement plays an essential role in pilot’s ability to obtain flight parameters and control the aircraft. Analog dials had been dominating aircraft instrument panels for many decades. The location of instruments on early aircraft was dictated by manufacturing requirements. Indicators were often installed in the immediate vicinity of measuring probes or sensors. On 1920s aircraft, it was not uncommon to find engine instruments installed on engine cowlings outside of the flight
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