Transfer of Landing Skill after Training with Supplementary Visual Cues

Abstract

An aircraft simulator with a closed-loop computer-generated visual display, was used to teach flight-naive subjects to land. A control training condition in which subjects learned to land with reference to a skeletal airport scene consisting of a horizon, runway, centerline, and aiming bar, was tested against training with constantly augmented feedback, adaptively augmented feedback, and a flightpath tracking display. A simulator-to-simulator transfer-of-training design showed that adaptively trained subjects performed best in a transfer task that was identical to the control group's training condition. Several subjects attempted six landings in a light airplane after they had completed their experimental work in the simulator. They performed better than another group of subjects that had not had any landing practice in the simulator.