Susceptibility to Flight-Simulator Induced Runway Width Visual Illusion

The approach to landing and the landing of an aircraft represent one of the most critical phases of flight. Under certain conditions, a pilot's activity in this phase can be influenced by the visual illusion of the runway aspect ratio. In this context, an experiment was designed to determine the impact of the runway aspect ratio illusion on pilot performance based on its objective evaluation. The experiment was conducted on a flight simulator using a virtual reality headset. Flight data, collected during visual flight rules approaches, were subsequently analyzed. The deviation of the descent angle during visual approaches from the optimal angle for visual aircraft landing was examined. Data analysis using the repeated measures ANOVA confirmed the influence of this illusion on pilots during flight in a simulated environment, as indicated by the root mean square error and maximum absolute error.