Simulator Sickness in the Flight School XXI TH - 67 Flight Motion Simulator

http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=ADA498150&Location=U2&doc=GetTRDoc.pdf


USAARL Report No. 2009-06

Julie M. Bass
Catherine M. Webb
David M. Johnson
Amanda M. Kelley
Christopher R. Martin
Robert M. Wildzunas

In 2005, the U.S. Army debuted the TH-67 Creek flight motion simulator (FMS). Comments from the first class to use the devices indicated an unusually high number of instructor pilots (IPs) and student pilots (SPs) experienced severe simulator sickness (SS). To investigate the potential problem, a pre-study was conducted using the Simulator Sickness Questionnaire (SSQ) to collect data from three, 5-day class cycles from 73 IPs and 129 SPs. Based on an analysis of these data, along with operator comments, recommendations to reduce SS were provided. The post study was conducted one year later to test the effectiveness of the recommendations at reducing the SS symptoms. SSQ data were collected on 25 IPs and 50 SPs, over one, 3-day class cycle. After the recommendations were implemented, there was a significant reduction in SSQ scores in both IPs and SPs for three of the four SSQ subscales. Overall, IPs reported significantly greater SS than SPs across all four SSQ subscales. The implementation of the recommendations, which were based on previous findings, reduced SS in the TH-67 FMSs.