Increasing flight safety using flight sensory illusions on a spatial disorientation simulator

The paper presents a method for developing illusionary flight profiles situations for practical testing of pilots using the GYRO IPT II spatial disorientation simulator. Standard flight profiles do not use the full capability of the simulator to train pilots for recognition and recovery from illusions appearing unexpectedly. For this reason, there is a need to create new flight profiles so as to demonstrate illusions being implemented into a comprehensive flight task, including a choice of an appropriate type of illusion which is coming unexpectedly. Such demonstrations of flight illusions increase the fidelity and are closer to the real flight conditions under which they may emerge. The main objective of the aforementioned research lies in enhancing pilots' capabilities to recognize an emerging flight illusion and, as a result of their skills obtained in training, to respond to them correctly. This paper presents the procedure, execution and evaluation of the experiments being performed for testing the newly generated flight exercises. The experiments were conducted on a sample of Czech Air Force military pilots in the initial phases of their flight training. The evaluation results identify deviations from the standard flight trajectory caused by an effect of illusions. The system provides a methodology for additional usage of the GYRO IPT II spatial disorientation simulator.