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Technical Paper

Effects of Digital Altimetry on Pilot Workload

1984-10-01
841489
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.
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