Citation

Palmer E. Proc. Hum. Factors Ergon. Soc. Annu. Meet. 1983; 27(9): 757-761.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1983, Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, Publisher SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/154193128302700901

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This experiment investigated the benefits and liabilities associated with pilots use of a cockpit traffic display to assess the threat posed by other air traffic, and if necessary, to make small maneuvers to avoid situations which would otherwise result in collision avoidance advisories. The main experimental variables were the amount of and quality of the information that was displayed on the intruder aircraft's estimated future position. The crew's task was to fly a simulation of a wide body aircraft along a straight course at a constant altitude. Intruder aircraft appeared on a variety of converging trajectories. When the intruder was 60 seconds from the point of closest approach, the pilots were to maneuver so as to maintain a horizontal separation of at least 1.5 nm or a vertical separation of 500 ft. With this separation a CLIMB or DIVE collision avoidance advisory would not be triggered. As a secondary objective, the pilots were instructed to attempt to stay within 500 ft and 1.5 nm of their assigned route. The results show that the pilots could usually make maneuvers that would provide the specified separation but that in doing so they often made course deviations greater than 1.5 nm or 500 ft.

Language: en