Heart rate and respiration responses to real traffic pattern flight.
The purpose of this study was to observe heart rate and respiration responses to real traffic pattern flight. Nine experienced and nine less-experienced military pilots on active flying status participated in four uninterrupted traffic patterns flight missions with F-7 jet trainer. The heart rates and respiration waves were continuously recorded using a small recording device strapped around the chest. As compared with baseline values, significant increases in heart rates of the two groups (for experienced pilots group, F (11, 88) = 4.636, p = 0.000; for less-experienced, F (11, 88) = 4.437, p = 0.000) and mean respiration rates of less-experienced group (F (11, 88) = 4.488, p = 0.000) were obtained during the phases of take-off, final approach and landing. Heart rates of less-experienced pilots were significant higher than those of experienced pilots during the take-off phase (p < 0.05). There were no significant differences in respiration rates between the two groups at each phase of the whole flight. The results show that take-off, final approach and landing are the most mental workload phases in-flight, and less-experienced pilots show more mental workload than experienced pilots in take-off phase in-flight.
Department of Aerospace Medicine, Fourth Military Medical University, 17, Chang Le West Road, Xi'an, 710032, People's Republic of China.
Yong-Jie
YJ
Yao
Yao-Ming
YM
Chang
Xiao-Ping
XP
Xie
Xin-Sheng
XS
Cao
Xi-Qing
XQ
Sun
Yan-Hong
YH
Wu
D000328:Adult; D000337:Aerospace Medicine; D000401:Aircraft; D001143:Arousal; D002681:China; D015716:Electrocardiography, Ambulatory; D006185:Habituation, Psychophysiologic; D006339:Heart Rate; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008889:Military Personnel; D011361:Professional Competence; D012119:Respiration; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted; D016526:Workload; D055815:Young Adult