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A landing-site indicator (LASI) has been devised as a relatively simple heads-up display to show the pilot the magnitude and direction of the airplane's velocity vector superimposed over the pilot's view of the landing area. A total of 160 landings were performed in a fixed-base simulation program by four pilots with and without the LASI display. These tests showed the display to be of beneficial use in making the approaches more consistent. Some inferences were also made that the physical workload would also be less with its use. The pilots generally agreed that the LASI, as represented in the simulation was a useful landing aid. Additional pilot comments from preliminary flight tests of a breadboard LASI display unit tend to confirm the simulator results. The LASI unit might also be useful as a training device for student pilots, however, specific tests would have to be performed to verify this possibility.

A series of VOR-DME landing approaches were flown in the NASA Langley Research Center fixed-base full- workload simulator to evaluate the effects of using a digital altimeter on pilot's scanning behavior and workload. Six pilots executed two sets of landing approaches, using a counter-drum-pointer altimeter (CDPA) on one set and a digital altimeter (DA) on the other set. The DA consisted of five, 7-segment LED digits, 0.28 inches high. Pilot scanning data were collected with Langley's oculometer system. The oculometric data were reduced to dwell percentages, average dwell times, transition matrices, dwell time histograms, and were statistically analyzed. The results showed differences in pilot scanning behavior with the DA versus the CDPA. Although the average dwell time on the DA was slightly shorter, there were more transitions to altitude information with the DA.