The influence of radio altimeter errors on pilot performance during the final approach and landing phase of an RPV mission

Due to the fact that remotely piloted vehicles (RPV's) are currently being flown from fixed base control centers, kinesthetic and real world peripheral vision cues are absent. The absence of these cues complicates the piloting task, particularly during the final approach and landing phase of a mission. The pilot's task is futher complicated by errors in the displayed altitude information. To determine the influence of these errors on pilot performance during the final approach and landing phase of a mission, an experiment was conducted in which pilot subjects were asked to fly a fixed base simulation of a Piper PA-30 aircraft, using degraded altitude information. For this experiment, the chevron component of the display configuration was driven by a radio altimeter. Four altimeters were used, each with a different error characteristic, but within the range specified for the Sperry series of radio altimeters. Results indicate that for range of errors considered, there is no significant difference in landing performance that can be attributed to errors in altitude information.