The Role of Simulator Scenarios In Learning Low Visibility Procedures In Flight

The continuation of visual flight in meteorological conditions with inadequate visibility accounted for the majority of fatal weather-related general aviation accidents. During practical flight training in the aircraft, the standardization of low visibility procedures training is very limited due to weather variability and regulations restraining from flying below visibility minima. This study describes and evaluates a theoretical briefing and simulator scenarios for low visibility procedures that are practiced by ab initio student pilots and can be used to extend the current syllabus. The simulator scenarios included flying traffic patterns in conditions of degrading visibility (80 km, 8 km, 5 km and 1.5 km), returning or flying through a mountain pass in marginal conditions, and 180° turns out of clouds. The simulator training program was evaluated in a pretest-training-posttest design with ab initio student pilots assigned to a training and a control group. The results show a significant effect of simulator training to improve the performance of student pilots. The research presented in this study addresses improvements of the training methods for low visibility procedures, supporting pilots’ management of weather-related threats and errors and the standardization of the syllabus.