Heart rate is a parameter describing activity of human heart and its psycho-physiological character based on sympathovagal balance of autonomic nervous system, which could be instrumental for indicating stress in aircraft pilots. The assessment focuses on transition from the airplane's analog presentation of flight data to digital visualization (glass cockpit). The main objective was to examine heart rate of pilots according to the change of flight data imaging during proposed training program, using flight simulator (TRD40 type) and aircraft (DA40 type). Another aim is to interpret stress during different flight tasks and define its influence on pilots' performance. A group of ten healthy pilots with the same level of experience participated in a seven week training program. A custom designed system consisting of non-complex units was used for measuring procedures during every recorded flight. Heart rate was recorded using a commercial chest belt made by Garmin ^® . Spectral analysis of the measured signal has provided the status of sympathovagal balance based on Lomb normalized periodogram. Variation of mental stress according to the values of low to high frequency ratio LF/HF was proven according to the course of training. Results show that the transit from analog to digital visual presentation of avionic data induces stress among pilots and heart rate could be an appropriate parameter defining the actual stress condition.

During their professional career, pilots often experience a change in workplace conditions in the form of an aircraft cockpit ergonomics change. Change of working conditions may impact their perception of flight data or the pilot’s psychophysiological condition, especially in cases of inexperienced pilots. The presented study deals with the influence of cockpit ergonomics change on the performance and pilot workload during a training course. We divided 20 subjects with no previous practical flying experience into two training groups (Gr. A and Gr. B). The flight training was focused on acquisition of basic piloting skills where both groups experienced cockpit ergonomics change in different training phases. The performance (piloting precision) was assessed based on deviations from predetermined parameters of the monitored flight manoeuvres. Heart rate variability qualified the extent of workload. The study showed the influence of the cockpit arrangement on piloting precision, where the transition to other type of cockpit ergonomics did not influence pilots’ subjective workload with statistical significance.

Psychological discomfort and stress may negatively affect various work activities especially in professions that are directly responsible for the lives and health of human beings. We can find these kinds of professions mainly in civil aviation, specifically the profession of a pilot. Analysis showed, that the legislative requirements for the qualifications of a pilot, require only the competence for a particular aircraft but they don't take in account the ergonomics of the cabin and the visualization of the basic flight data (analog, glass-cockpit). That's the reason why this paper assesses the influence of flight, navigation and engine data visualization on psychophysiological state of the pilot. In this paper we used the measuring of the heart rate as the main indicator of stress. Spectral analysis was used for the assessment of stress levels with main focus on the activity of the autonomic nervous system. The evaluation was based on twenty subjects in flight training, which were divided into two groups. Each group had different methods of training based on flight data visualization. The results show that the group with the more extensive glass-cockpit training exhibit lower values of psychophysiological stress. These findings may contribute to the increase of aviation safety and the description of human-machine interface in aviation.

Flying an aircraft requires a significant degree of coordination of upper and lower limbs. Such movements tend to be rather uncoordinated in the case of inexperienced pilots which results in inaccurate piloting. The aim of this study is to prove or disprove the dependence of the upper limb activity in relation to the aircraft steering during various actions which are required for precise maneuvering. We also deal with the design of a method to determine the degree of correlation between the movement of the hand and the airplane. The study was conducted on 8 subjects with the same level of experience during 11 hours of flight training on the simulator of type TRD40 and aircraft of type DA40. Subjects performed 14 maneuvers in total. Between takeoff and landing a recurring cycle of four maneuvers has been carried out by the subjects. Repeated maneuvers were in the order from the straight-and-level flight, horizontal turn by 360°, ascend turn by 180°, and descent turn by 180°. Recorded data except for basic flight data (magnetic course, banked and altitude) have been variables depicting the activity of the pilot's upper limb. The activity was measured using triaxial accelerometer located on the dorsal side of the distal end of the forearm. The correlation coefficient proved relationship between the upper limb movement and aircraft steering both at bank and altitude. It testifies that change of bank and altitude of aircraft is directly connected with upper limb movements. Resultant activity standard deviation relation correlation coefficient is 0.7.