The Effect of Pilot Visual Scanning Strategies on Traffic Detection Accuracy and Aircraft Control

This paper describes how twelve pilots flew a high fidelity visual simulation, guided by either a Cockpit Display of Traffic Information (CDTI) or Air Traffic Control (ATC) communications to call out “traffic in sight” on a 135o forward view. Visual scanning was measured and strategies were classified into sweep, sector, central, random or follow-target scan patterns. Results revealed that: 1) Sector scan strategy was associated with more outside viewing (which had been previously correlated with faster and more accurate detection), and also allowed best flight path tracking. 2) The sweep scan strategy was little better in these respects than central or random strategy scanning. 3) All scanning strategies appeared to be disrupted by ATC callouts or CDTI traffic appearance leading to a focus of vision on the area suggested by the auditory or visual traffic cue. 4) The outside/inside scanning ratio is far less than the recommended 2:1 value, but the authors believe that this lower ratio can be considered optimal because of the premium that it places on accurate attitude sampling and flight path control.