Using augmented reality to train flow patterns for pilot students - an explorative study

Abstract

Today, just as in the early days of flying, much emphasis is put on the pilot student’s flight training before flying a real commercial aircraft. In the early stages of a pilot student’s education, they must, for example, learn different operating procedures known as flow patterns using very basic tools, such as exhaustive manuals and a so-called paper tiger. In this paper, we present a first design of a virtual and interactive paper tiger using augmented reality (AR), and perform an evaluation of the developed prototype. We evaluated the prototype on twenty-seven pilot students at the Lund University School of Aviation (LUSA), to explore the possibilities and technical advantages that AR can offer, in particular the procedure that is performed before takeoff. The prototype got positive results on perceived workload, and in remembering the flow pattern. The main contribution of this paper is to elucidate knowledge about the value of using AR for training pilot students.