25-10-2012, 11:22 AM
Improving the Flight Path Marker Symbol on Rotorcraft Synthetic Vision Displays
ABSTRACT
Two potential improvements to the flight path marker symbol were evaluated on a panel-mounted, synthetic vision,
primary flight display in a rotorcraft simulation. One concept took advantage of the fact that synthetic vision systems have
terrain height information available ahead of the aircraft. For this first concept, predicted altitude and ground track information
was added to the flight path marker. In the second concept, multiple copies of the flight path marker were displayed at 3, 4,
and 5 second prediction times as compared to a single prediction time of 3 seconds. Objective and subjective data were
collected for eight rotorcraft pilots. The first concept produced significant improvements in pilot attitude control, ground track
control, workload ratings, and preference ratings. The second concept did not produce significant differences in the objective
or subjective measures.