Investigation of the operability of noise-reduced approaches by pilots

Abstract

Aircraft noise threatens air traffic growth, since residents are annoyed or suffer from impairments due to increasing aircraft movements. Low-noise approaches become of particular interest as short- or medium-term countermeasures. However, aircrew performance during such approaches may change, as may their acceptance, and flight safety may be mitigated compared to standard approaches. Therefore, a segmented continuous descent approach (SCDA) was compared to a standard low drag low power approach (LDLP). 40 pilots were tested on an either A320 or A330 full-flight simulator during one LDLP and 3 SCDAs. Due to switching tasks between flying and non-flying pilots, each pilot conducted 8 approaches. Technical, physiological and psychological data were monitored using EEG, EOG, ECG, saliva cortisol, and questionnaires (fatigue, taskload, acceptance). Under the conditions investigated, only small deviations from the planned flight paths were observed, indicating good performance. SCDA was rated rather non-problematic, and workload was acceptable. Taskload, fatigue, cortisol and ECG did not differ between the procedures. However, pilots rated SCDA as being less safe than LDLP. The simulator tests have been a first attempt to investigate noise reduced approaches under high fidelity conditions. Before discussing to introduce them into practice, further studies are strongly recommended, e.g. under real flight conditions.