The Role of the Helicopter Pilot in Terms of Relevant Requirements for Helicopter Takeoff

Abstract

Currently, the German Aerospace Center performs research on assistance systems for helicopters that help pilots to perform their missions even in bad weather conditions. One part of the assistance system is the navigation system with automatic flight path planning. The objective of this article is to clarify if pilots perform the planning of flight paths in the same way. An interview with 68 participants was conducted to evaluate essential differences between the pilots’ cognitive processes and build a basis for the user-centered design of the navigation system. The interview assessed user-specific requirements that can be used as input for the path planning algorithms. The results recommend the usage of individual pilot requirements for path planning applications. With individually adjusted navigation systems, the potential mismatch between pilots’ expectations and the actually computed flight paths is expected to be minimized.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The organization of the face-to-face interviews required a large amount of time and contact data for potential participants. This part was assisted by Thorsten Strohmaier (Airbus Helicopter), Uwe Göhmann (German Aerospace Center), and Herbert Kistler (Airbus Helicopter). The interview itself would not have been possible without the participants. We thank all the pilots who participated voluntarily in the interview and we also thank their employers who made those interviews possible.