BACKGROUND Currently it is not unusual for general aviation pilots in the United States to continue to fly beyond the age of 70, even into their 80s and 90s. Pilots have regular examinations according to protocols which do not specify special or additional requirements for pilots over 70 yr of age. Additionally, the third class medical reforms passed by the U.S. Senate on 15 July 2016 could pot...

Channel estimation in conjunction with impulsive noise (IN) mitigation using compressive sensing is proposed for OFDM based power line communication (PLC) systems. Compressive sensing (CS) based IN mitigation algorithms use silent-pilots (or zero-subcarriers) to estimate and cancel the IN at receiver. To estimate the channel and IN jointly, non-zero pilots have to be used. However, the usage of...

Measured attitudes regarding cockpit management were contrasted for pilots whose line flying performance was independently evaluated by Check Airmen as above or below average. A highly significant discriminant function was obtained indicating that these attitudes are significant predictors of behavior. The performance of 95.7% of the pilots was correctly classified by the analysis. Implications...

Two Human-in-the-Loop (HITL) simulations were conducted to investigate the concurrent use of Runway Entrance Lights (RELs) and Surface Movement Guidance Control System (SMGCS) stop bars. The first study investigated use by pilots who did receive training on using these lighting systems simultaneously, while the second study investigated use by pilots who did not receive training. A total of 11 ...

This paper explores channel estimation using superimposed pilots for OFDM systems. The pilots are added linearly to the modulated symbol at a fraction of the total transmit power, making the method spectrally efficient. We present a series of receivers in which complexity is traded for performance; in particular, a receiver that achieves the theoretically lowest BER but has high complexity and ...

OBJECTIVES Back pain in Air Force fast jet pilots has been studied by several air forces and found to be relatively common. The objective of the study was to determine the prevalence and degree of the pain intensity in the cervical, thoracic and lumbar spine, subjective risk factors and their effect on the pilots' performance while flying high maneuver aircrafts and the consequences for cogniti...

This paper presents an adaptive system intended to address workload imbalances between pilots in future flight decks. Team performance can be maximized when task demands are balanced within crew capabilities and resources. Good communication skills enable teams to adapt to changes in workload, and include the balancing of workload between team members This work addresses human factors prioritie...

An extensive investigation of the format for head-up display (HUD) instrumentation was conducted in a two-part experiment. First, a pilot’s information requirements for the tasks of approach, landing, and taxi were determined through a survey administered to professional commercial pilots via the world wide web. The results of the survey were applied in the development of two symbology sets, on...

Problems that potential very light jet (VLJ) pilots of the future are having in the aircraft they currently fly, as evidenced in incident and accident reports, were analyzed. Significant problems identified include poor crew/single pilot resource management, low currency, inadequate preflight planning, avionics use difficulties, and cognitive performance issues, among others. Implications for t...

We propose a novel naturalistic decision support system for complex fault management procedures onboard modern aircraft. Two experiments involving 13 civil pilots are presented. The results show that the system proposed improves pilots’ decision accuracy, decision performance and situation awareness, whilst reducing mental workload and complacency to system advisories.