Major Causes of Spatial Disorientation and the Role of Visual Training Systems

Spatial Disorientation (SD) has been a problem since the beginning of aviation, and is still a problem today. There have been numerous attempts to find the best training to combat SD and several researchers have examined the possibility of using visual-only simulators. The goal of the current study was to obtain the opinions of subject matter experts (SMEs), in the area of spatial disorientation, regarding the feasibility and usefulness of visual-only flight simulators for SD training. It is believed that a high fidelity, visual-based simulator could play an important role in SD training. Twenty-three spatial disorientation SMEs completed surveys which asked the following questions: 1. List what you feel are the top three SD-induced flight events that contribute most to aviation mishaps; 2. List what you feel should be the top three goals of SD training; 3. List three things that you feel a high fidelity visual-only flight simulator could be used for in SD training; and 4. On a scale of 1-10, how useful would a visual-only flight simulator be for SD training? Responses received to the above questions suggested that there is a place for a high fidelity, visual only simulator in SD training. Though many SMEs felt that motion was necessary for SD training, they seemed to concur that there were several needs that could be met by a visual-only simulator. Visual-only simulators could play a pivotal role as part task trainers to supplement SD training.