Is pilots' visual scanning  (2005)

The "See and Avoid" concept is crucial to visual meteorological condition
(VMC) operations. The FAA and other organizations prescribe a specific
systematic out the window (OTW) visual scanning pattern to avoid traffic
conflicts, however little research has been published on what scanning
patterns pilots actually use and how efficient their scanning is. I our
study, commercial pilots flew VFR scenarios in a general aviation flight
training device (GAFTD) equipped with head and eye tracking equipment. We
developed new algorithms to analyze the effectiveness and patterns of visual
scanning. The scanning patterns used by the participant pilots did not
resemble the prescribed patterns.

+ Colvin, Kurt

+ Dodhia, Rahul

+ Flight Cognition

collision avoidance, pilot visual scanning, scanning patterns