Spatial Disorientation In Aviation

"Flying an aircraft is a challenging activity that exposes pilots to many potential hazards. One of the most significant of these is spatial disorientation. Spatial disorientation is a condition where the pilot is unable to correctly interpret aircraft attitude, altitude or airspeed in relation to the Earth. The resulting disorientation can lead to a loss of control of the aircraft. [...] The ATSB report explains that the chances of a spatial disorientation event occurring in flight can be reduced by a series of simple preventive measures, many of which can be attended to before flight. These include flying when fit and well to do so, not flying under the influence of alcohol or medications, avoiding visual flight rules into instrument meteorological conditions, increasing awareness of spatial disorientation illusions and planning for their possible appearance at different stages of flight in the pre-flight planning process."--Publisher's website.

A survey of 299 aircrew in current flying' practice was performed at five U.S. Army airfields within CONUS. Respondents were asked a number of questions about their worst ever episode of spatial disorientation (SD) and their worst episode in the 4 months prior to the survey. They also were asked to classify episodes as minor, significant, or severe according to the threat to flight safety. Opinions also were sought on various aircraft types and flight conditions. In the final part of the questionnaire, they were asked about their experience of break-off and giant hand phenomena. Analysis of the data showed that 78 percent had suffered SD during their flying career (8 percent had suffered severely enough to put flight safety at risk). Twenty-two percent had suffered in the 4 months prior to completing the questionnaire (2 percent severely enough to put flight safety at risk). In 33 percent of worst ever episodes, the event had affected conduct of the mission while flying accuracy had been affected in 64 percent. (The figures for the 4-month data were 35 percent and 68 percent.) Brownout, whiteout, and inadvertent entry to instrument meteorological conditions (IMC) were the most easily identifiable source of severe episodes of SD, but they accounted for 13 percent of the worst ever episodes. The leans accounted for 44 percent of episodes. Few other episodes could be linked to well known problems. Aircrew were not initially aware of being disoriented in 43 percent of worst ever episodes (38 percent of episodes when they were looking out of the aircraft cockpit). Experience had no apparent protective effect against either the incidence or severity of episodes.

Vision is the dominant sense used by pilots and visual misperception has been identified as the primary contributing factor in numerous aviation mishaps, resulting in hundreds of fatalities and major resource loss. Despite physiological limitations for sensing and perceiving their aviation environment, pilots can often make the required visual judgments with a high degree of accuracy and precision. At the same time, however, visual illusions and misjudgments have been cited as the probable cause of numerous aviation accidents, and in spite of technological and instructional efforts to remedy some of the problems associated with visual perception in aviation, mishaps of this type continue to occur. Clearly, understanding the role of visual perception in aviation is key to improving pilot performance and reducing aviation mishaps. This book is the first dedicated to the role of visual perception in aviation, and it provides a comprehensive, single-source document encompassing all aspects of aviation visual perception. Thus, this book includes the foundations of visual and vestibular sensation and perception; how visual perceptual abilities are assessed in pilots; the pilot's perspective of visual flying; a summary of human factors research on the visual guidance of flying; examples of specific visual and vestibular illusions and misperceptions; mishap analyses from military, commercial and general aviation; and, finally, how this knowledge is being used to better understand visual perception in aviation's next generation. Aviation Visual Perception: Research, Misperception and Mishaps is intended to be used for instruction in academia, as a resource for human factors researchers, design engineers, and for instruction and training in the pilot community.

This book covers the application of psychological principles and techniques to situations and problems of aviation. It offers an overview of the role psychology plays in aviation, system design, selection and training of pilots, characteristics of pilots, safety, and passenger behavior. It covers concepts of psychological research and data analysis and shows how these tools are used in the development of new psychological knowledge. The new edition offers material on physiological effects on pilot performance, a new chapter on aviation physiology, more material on fatigue, safety culture, mental health and safety, as well as practical examples and exercises after each chapter.

Since the 1950s, a number of specialized books dealing with human factors has been published, but very little in aviation. Human Factors in Aviation is the first comprehensive review of contemporary applications of human factors research to aviation. A must for aviation professionals, equipment and systems designers, pilots, and managers--with emphasis on definition and solution of specific problems. General areas of human cognition and perception, systems theory, and safety are approached through specific topics in aviation--behavioral analysis of pilot performance, cockpit automation, advancing display and control technology, and training methods.