A New Approach for the Validation of Potential Pilot Gain Measures

Abstract

The term “pilot gain” essentially describes the way the pilot acts on the inceptor during flight. It is a key aspect of handling qualities research and related flight tests. Most test organizations have their famous high and low gain pilots and the term “pilot gain” is understood very well on an intuitive level. However, in spite of its importance for handling qualities flight test, there is no generally accepted verbal or mathematical definition of “pilot gain”. This paper summarizes the approach and results from a validation of 30 different potential pilot gain measures. The validation is based on data from a simulator study which was performed with 12 test pilots and 12 operational pilots who varied their pilot gain/aggressiveness on command during a closed-loop tracking task. The approach is based on the idea that the validity of a potential pilot gain measure is based on its ability to reflect the pilot gain the pilots intended to apply during the tests, its ability to identify known outliers and its consistency in comparison with other valid pilot gain measures.