Narrowing of Attention and Functional Field of View for Helicopter Pilots in a Degraded Visual Environment

In an attempt to quantify the change in attentional allocation found during landing in degraded visual environments (DVE) for helicopter pilots, this study imposed a secondary visual task for pilots to complete while landing a simulated CH-53 helicopter. Pilots were tasked to identify visual cues as they appeared on the windscreen while they flew to a landing zone that had varying levels of DVE. It was found that pilots were less sensitive to the secondary visual task and slower to respond when landing in DVE conditions.