The Volpe National Transportation System Center (Volpe Center), in support of the Federal Aviation Administration's (FAA's) Office of the Chief Scientific and Technical Advisor for Human Factors, AAR-100, conducted a series of experiments to explore human factors issues in depicting terrain on electronic displays. Experiments examined instrument-rated General Aviation (GA) pilots' ability to interpret terrain shown on electronic plan view displays in a flight simulator. The four experiments examined the following electronic display alternatives: the utility of presenting nonthreatening terrain during approaches; effectiveness of showing only terrain features for terrain avoidance; preferences for information density; and the utility of terrain displays paired with visual terrain alerts. Results suggest display designs should incorporate alerts that identify danger and reorient pilots. Electronic displays with terrain that incorporate these recommendations should diminish the number of accidents resulting from a loss of positional awareness, such as controlled-flight-into-terrain (CFIT) accidents.
Terrain Display Alternatives: Assessment of Information Density and Alerting Strategies
1998
56 pages
Report
No indication
English
Avionics , Navigation Systems , Air Transportation , Transportation Safety , Terrain avoidance , Display devices , Navigation instruments , Pilot performance , Accident prevention , Flight safety , Cockpits , Air navigation , Digital navigation , Aircraft instruments , Flight instruments , Tercom , Pilot(Personnel) , Flight paths , Crash landing , Aircraft accidents , Topography , Map matching guidance , Human factors , Formats