Comparison of Helicopter Pilots' Gaze Behaviour during different Flight Tasks with different Flight Characteristics

Abstract

In order to perform a flight task successfully, in addition to the task-specific minimum performance helicopter pilots must provide a compensation performance. This compensation performance must remain below a critical limit to guarantee a safe flight condition at all times. This paper introduces the method known here as Visual Action, which enables a statement to be made about the pilot’s compensation performance based on eye movement data. For this purpose, a simulator study was carried out, in which the flight dynamics were varied between the test points. Afterwards the pilots assessed the handling qualities using the CooperHarper rating. The Visual Action method presented here suggests a very good correlation with the handling quality ratings given by the pilots.