Overview of Joint NRC/QinetiQ Flight Trial SNOWGOOSE: A Study of Advanced Symbology using Display Night Vision Goggles.

This paper describes the latest in a series of helicopter flight trials jointly conducted between the National Research Council of Canada and QinetiQ, Farnborough, UK in October/November 2005. The trial was funded by the UK MoD Day Night All Weather (DNAW) Helicopter Operations Research Programme and conducted under the auspices of The Technical Co-operation Programme (TTCP). The trial had three principal objectives: a) the use of advanced conformal symbology in a tactical context, b) the derivation of advanced symbology as an aid to Approach to Hover guidance and c) the usage of Terrain Following guidance optimised for the aircraft dynamics displayed using Display Night Vision Goggles (DNVGs). All assessments were completed in a simulated Degraded Visual Environment (DVE). This was achieved in day Visual Meteorological Conditions (VMC) using an optical attenuator to artificially degrade the Assessing Pilots (APs) vision of the outside world. The first objective builds on work reported at this Forum in 2005 on Pathway in Sky symbology displayed using DNVGs [1]. Trial SNOWGOOSE used similar guidance to enable the pilot to conduct tactically representative flying in the 300ft and 200ft AGL / 80 knots speed regime and to use the system interactively, for example, to identify and designate targets, avoid threats and identify potential confined area landing zones in DVE. The second objective demonstrates how conformal and standard symbology may be used to aid the pilot in controlling speed and attitude in the approach to hover phase. The study concludes that the combination of pathway symbology, a conventional pitch ladder display and a speed error tape provides good speed control cues. Finally, the work reports on the Flight Trials of the QinetiQ Helicopter Terrain Following (HTF) system which is a continuation the simulator based studies presented under the heading of Intelligent Flight Path Guidance (IFPG) at the same Forum in 2005 [2]. This study demonstrated the system in a number of configurations, both as a stand-alone free flight aid and used in conjunction with pre-planned pathway in sky guidance. Flights were conducted in realistic terrain and against synthetic terrain designed to exercise the dynamic range of the guidance algorithms. The study concludes that routes smoothed using the HTF algorithms are easier to fly, particularly when used in conjunction with a Quickened Flight Path Marker.