Visual augmentation of deck-landing-ability improves helicopter ship landing decisions

When attempting to land on a ship deck tossed by the sea, helicopter pilots must make sure that the helicopter can develop sufficient lift to be able to safely touchdown. This reminder of affordance theory led us to model and study the affordance of deck-landing-ability, which defines whether it is possible to land safely on a ship deck depending on the helicopter's available lift and the ship’s deck heave movements. Two groups of participants with no piloting experience using a laptop helicopter simulator attempted to land either a low-lifter or a heavy-lifter helicopter on a virtual ship deck by either triggering a pre-programmed lift serving as the descent law if it was deemed possible to land, or aborting the deck-landing maneuver. The deck-landing-ability was manipulated by varying the helicopter's initial altitude and the ship's heave phase between trials. We designed a visual augmentation making visible the deck-landing-ability, and thus enabling participants to maximize the safety of their deck-landing attempts and reduce the number of unsafe deck-landing. The visual augmentation presented here was perceived by participants as a means of facilitating this decision-making process. The benefits were found to have originated from the clear-cut distinction it helped them to make between safe and unsafe deck-landing windows and the display of the optimal time for initiating the landing.