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Impact of Subject Related Factors and Position of Flight Control Stick on Acquisition of Simulated Flying Skills Using a Flight Simulator

Increasing demand on aviation industry calls for more pilots. Thus, pilot training systems and pilot-candidate screening systems are essential for civil and military flying training institutes. Before actual flight training, it is not easy to determine whether a flight trainee will be successful in the training. Due to the high cost of actual flight training, it would be better if there were low cost methods for screening and training candidates prior to the actual flight training.
This study intended to determine if subject related factors and flight control stick position have an impact on acquisition of simulated flying skills using a PC-based flight simulator. The experimental model was a factorial design with repeated measures. Sixty-four subjects participated in the experiment and were divided into 8 groups. Experiment consisted of 8 sessions in which performance data, such as heading, altitude and airspeed were collected every 15 seconds. Collected data were analyzed using SAS statistical program.
Result of multivariate analysis of variance indicated that the three independent variables: nationality, computer game experience, and flight stick position have significant impact on acquiring simulated flying skill.
For nationality, Americans recorded higher scores in general (mean: 81.7) than Koreans (mean: 78.9). The difference in mean scores between Americans and Koreans was 2.8 percent.
Regarding computer game experience, the difference between high experience group (82.3) and low experience group (78.3) is significant. For high experience group, American side-stick group recorded the highest (mean: 85.6), and Korean side-stick group (mean: 77.2) scored the lowest. For the low experience group, American center-stick group scored the highest (80.6), and the Korean side-stick group (74.2) scored the lowest points. Therefore, there is a significant difference between high experience group and low experience group.
The results also reveal that the center-stick position is easier to learn than side-stick position. The difference in performance score between group of center-stick (mean: 82.1) and side-stick (mean: 76.8) is considerable.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:LSU/oai:etd.lsu.edu:etd-0829102-060923
Date04 September 2002
CreatorsCho, Bo-Keun
ContributorsRobert C. Mathews, Thomas Ray, Donald D. Adrian, Michael Welsch, Fereydoun Aghazadeh
PublisherLSU
Source SetsLouisiana State University
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
Typetext
Formatapplication/pdf
Sourcehttp://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-0829102-060923/
Rightsunrestricted, I hereby grant to LSU or its agents the right to archive and to make available my thesis or dissertation in whole or in part in the University Libraries in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all proprietary rights, such as patent rights. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis or dissertation.

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