Flight Testing of Coupled Flight Controls toward Reducing Pilot Workload during Landing in DVE

Landing helicopters in Degraded Visual Environments (DVE) is one of the most challenging maneuvers pilots perform. The U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command, Aviation & Missile Center, Aviation Development Directorate has been working to develop flight guidance and sensor systems to provide the pilot with guidance and pilot cueing to land a helicopter, hover, and take off in DVE. During flight testing of the Brown Out Symbology System (BOSS) on an EH-60L Black Hawk, pilots reported very high workload requiring full concentration on the displays during approaches to landing in brownout. In order to reduce pilot workload, an approach to provide the pilot with a collective tactile cue based on coupling of the output of the approach to landing algorithms to the EH-60L collective trim servo was developed and flight tested. Flight testing of the coupled collective system demonstrated a reduction in pilot workload and increase in the pilot's situational awareness during landing in brownout. To further reduce pilot workload, the pilot cyclic and pedals have been coupled with the guidance symbology to allow for fully coupled landings. Details of the system are provided along with the initial results of flight testing of the system at Felker Army Airfield, Ft. Eustis VA.