The Perception of Roll Tilt in Pilots During a Simulated Coordinated Turn in a Gondola Centrifuge

Abstract

Flight experience results in an increased ability to perceive the roll tilt during movement along a curved path. That this can be revealed in a centrifuge might suggest that acceleration of the centrifuge constitutes a movement pattern which is similar, from a vestibular point of view, to that of an airplane entering a coordinated turn.

Variability in Perceived Tilt During a Roll Plane Canal-Otolith Conflict in a Gondola Centrifuge

“…Several SP had a remarkably large SVH tilt also by the end of the 5-min 2-G plateau, a phenomenon earlier shown by experienced pilots but rarely by nonpilots. In fact, both mean values and interindividual variability for the SP were very similar to what had previously been found in a group of experienced fi ghter pilots ( 18 ).…”

“…Thus, the fi nal value of SVH is calculated as the mean of the data points obtained during minute 4 and 5. The reason for not using exponential curve fi tting in the present study is the earlier fi ndings that many pilots, in contrast to NP, do not show an exponential decay ( 18 ). However, using data from NP, it was previously determined that exponential curve fi tting and the method chosen here produce very similar values of the initial and fi nal SVH tilts.…”

“…In another recent study, nonpilots were compared with experienced fi ghter pilots and helicopter pilots ( 18 ). The centrifuge was accelerated from stationary to 2 G (gondola inclination 60°) within 10 s. The duration of the 2-G level was 5 min.…”

Use of an Adjustable Hand Plate in Studying the Perceived Horizontal Plane During Simulated Flight

“…Both fi ghter pilots and helicopter pilots had a considerably increased ability, as compared to nonpilots, to perceive the roll angular displacement that occurs during acceleration of the centrifuge with the subject heading forward or backward ( 14 ). As regards the ability to sense changes in pitch angular position, the fi ghter pilots showed considerably higher values than both the nonpilots and helicopter pilots ( 13 ).…”

Human manual control performance in hyper-gravity

“…Other studies have focused on how semicircular canal and otolith cues are integrated for orientation perception during a quick spin up of a gondola centrifuge (Tribukait and Eiken 2005;Tribukait and Eiken 2006a;Tribukait and Eiken 2006b). The conflicting vestibular cues in this paradigm can lead to illusory perception of orientation, though there are differences between pilots and non-pilots (Tribukait et al 2011;Tribukait and Eiken 2012) as well as large inter-individual differences (Tribukait et al 2013).…”