Pilot Gain and the Workload Buildup Flight Test Technique: Test Conduction and Evaluation Strategy

Kurzfassung

Handling qualities research largely depends on the understanding of the pilot`s behavior in the control loop. Established pilot models are based on the idea that the pilot tries to achieve target conditions, e.g. a specific attitude. In 2004, Gray introduced a new theory which considers the pilot as someone who tracks away from threatening conditions (boundaries) when they become dominant. It is assumed that the control inputs are then based on the estimated time to boundary impact instead of the perceived control error. This so-called Baundary Avoidance Tracking (BAT) theory covers a new aspect of pilot behavior. This report give a comprehensive overview of the test concept and the evaluation strategy. Chapter 1 explains the rationale and provides an overview of central aspects of the study. Chapter 2 introduces the simulator environment including hardware aspects and the choice of aircraft dynamics and target movements. Chapter 3 covers the test conduction including the responsibilities of the flight test engineer. Specifics for the conduction of all test points are covered in this section. Chapter 4 introduces the algorithms used for automated data slicing after the tests. Chapter 5 presents the evaluation algorithms used for individual pilot data. The focus lies on tracking performance and pilot gain in multiple variations. Chapter 6 shows the evaluation which is performed with all data points from all pilots. This includes validity checks for potential pilot gain measures, the creation of a pilot gain ranking for the participating pilots and detection of their individual pilot gain range. Also, correlation analysis is performed for the potential pilot gain measures and scatter plots are created for all possible combinations of the pilot gain measures.