Current Work
The current focus of the research is 'Recovery From Unusual Attitudes'. A flight test was conducted in August in which the aircraft was set up to give initial angular rate deviations in pitch, roll, yaw or any combination of those axes. The pilot's task was to recognise these motions and to apply the correct control inputs to restore the aircraft to hover in various visual conditions ranging from a good visual environment (GVE) to a degraded visual environment (DVE) with 500ft visibility.
The aim of the testing was to discover if the pilot used any strategy during the stabilisation process and, in particular, if there was any specific evidence that the pilot was using tau to guide the manoeuvre.
The aim of the analysis is to develop guidelines for a synthetic vision display which would provide the pilot with the required visual cues to restore safe flight should the aircraft enter an 'unusual attitude' situation.
Preliminary results have shown that using the Bedford Workload Rating Scale test points in which pitch was an initial axis of deviation yielded generally higher ratings. The graph below shows that test points in which only roll and/or yaw were initially excited axes yield lower ratings than the test points in which pitch was an axis of disturbance.