Flight Testing of Coupled Collective 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 US Army Aviation and Missile Research, Development and Engineering Center (AMRDEC) has been working to develop flight guidance and sensor systems to provide the pilot with guidance and pilot displays to land a helicopter, hover, and take off in DVE. During flight testing of the Brown Out Symbology System (BOSS) on an EH-60L, 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 symbology display algorithms to the EH-60L collective trim servo has been developed and flight tested. Details of the system are provided along with the results of flight testing conducted at the Yuma Proving Grounds comparing workload from approaches to landing in brownout with and without the collective coupling engaged.