Assessing the Effect of Sensor Limitations in Enhanced Flight Vision Systems on Pilot Performance

Abstract

Enhanced Flight Vision Systems (EFVS) enables approaches to altitudes closer to the runway that would otherwise be precluded due to low visibility ceilings. EFVS in flight cockpits has the potential to augment the safety in flight operations and enable improved crew performance during approach and landing phases of flight irrespective of the visibility conditions. EFVS utilizes imaging sensors capable of penetrating through obscuring weather conditions, thereby providing forward vision of the runway environment in real-time for display on a heads-up display (HUD). As EFVS potentially moves into use in general aviation operations, it is necessary to evaluate the associated human performance implications, especially during off-nominal conditions as most of the previous studies were primarily limited to nominal cases. The study of off-nominal cases was limited to only HUD failures. The objective of this paper is to present a detailed experimental plan, with preliminary results, to evaluate the human factors implications in using the EFVS under off-nominal conditions. A human-in-the-loop experiment will be conducted in a fixed-base simulator modeled with EFVS. Evaluation pilots will fly six different experimental trials with two visibility levels and three levels of information quality: No-EFVS, EFVS with correct information, and EFVS with degraded information. Measures of performance include approach and landing performance, visual performance, workload, and decision-making.