Recording of Psychophysiological Data During Aerobatic Training

Measuring pilot mental workload can be important for understanding cognitive demands during flight involving unusual movements and attitudes. Data on heart rate, eye movements, EEG, and subjective ratings from 7 flight instructors were collected for a flight including a repeated aerobatics sequence. Heart rate data and subjective ratings showed that aerobatic sequences produced the highest levels of mental workload and that heart rate can identify low-G flight segments with high mental workload. Blink rate and eye movement data did not support previous research regarding their relation to mental workload. EEG data were difficult to analyze due to muscle artifacts.