Pilot gaze and glideslope control

Abstract

We examined the eye movements of pilots as they carried out simulated aircraft landings under day and night lighting conditions. Our five students and five certified pilots were instructed to quickly achieve and then maintain a constant 3-degree glideslope relative to the runway. However, both groups of pilots were found to make significant glideslope control errors, especially during simulated night approaches. We found that pilot gaze was directed most often toward the runway and to the ground region located immediately in front of the runway, compared to other visual scene features. In general, their gaze was skewed toward the near half of the runway and tended to follow the runway threshold as it moved on the screen. Contrary to expectations, pilot gaze was not consistently directed at the aircraft's simulated aimpoint (i.e., its predicted future touchdown point based on scene motion). However, pilots did tend to fly the aircraft so that this point was aligned with the runway threshold. We conclude that the supplementary out-of-cockpit visual cues available during day landing conditions facilitated glideslope control performance. The available evidence suggests that these supplementary visual cues are acquired through peripheral vision, without the need for active fixation.