Empirical Research Regarding Effects of Pilot Age and Flight Hours on Pilot Workload and Situation Awareness

摘要

Situation Awareness (SA) can be impaired during mission operationsrndue to excessive workload. This impairment may be especially noteworthyrnin pilots. Empirical data from the pilots were analyzed to find relationshipsrnbetween workload, SA, age, and flight-hours. Real-time SA measurementsrnwere made using the Situation Present Assessment Method (SPAM) for 22rnvolunteer test pilots who were flying along with a checking pilot (CP) fromrna traditional UH-1H helicopter fleet. In addition, before the post-flightrndebriefing, the researcher implemented the Situation Awareness RatingrnTechnique (SART) and the NASA-TLX host-trial subjective self-rating tornverify the SPAM data. Pilots’ mental workload (MWL) data showed twornhighly negative correlations for pilots’ ages and flight-hours. The SA datarnalso showed two positive correlations for the pilots’ ages and flight hours.rnSignificant differences regarding pilots’ ages were found for mental,rnphysical, temporal, and effort workloads. The SA2 data showed arnsignificant difference when the pilots correctly responded to questions andrnlatencies on SA2, which proved that there is a significant differencernaccording to the demands of concentration resources. There were alsornsignificant differences regarding the numbers of flight hours for the types ofrnworkloads, SA1-SA3 correct response numbers, and correct latencies,rnwhich proved there are significant differences for the demands onrnconcentration resources and situation understanding. Multiple regressionrnmodels also found age and flight hours can be used to predict pilots’ MWLs.rnIn particular, mental and temporal workloads can be predicted from highrnand low values of the flight hours variable. The findings make meaningfulrncontributions to future mission scheduling and staff management.