Alternate Flight Control Mechanisms: Transfer Effects in Simulated Flight

Competing aircraft and simulator manufacturers are currently incorporating dissimilar flight control systems into commercial aircraft and training equipment. In response to such industry developments, a recently emerging field of aviation training transfer research is examining the distinctiveness of conventional and alternate flight control systems and their underlying transfer relationships. This paper recounts a series of experiments where human skill acquisition in simulated flight was examined to identify differences between transfer effects facilitated by yoke and stick flight control systems. Flight naïve adult participants twice completed a sequence of visual approach to landing trials in a low fidelity fixed based synthetic flight trainer using either a yoke or a stick. Participants either utilised the same control mechanism throughout the study or participants converted between the alternate systems across experimental phases. Assessment phases were conducted one week apart with vertical deviations from a constant 3-degree glideslope being analysed. The collective research provides evidence of positive transfer of training in low fidelity flight training equipment and that a performance difference exists between the stick and the yoke. Results consistently revealed a lower rate of performance error resulted from use of the yoke compared to the stick.