The Use of Psychological Techniques in Measuring and Critically Analyzing Navigators' Flight Performance

Abstract

Under controlled flight conditions, the distance between a navigator's report of position and his actual position is a criterion of success in dead reckoning navigation. Students' logs were evaluated for five separate missions by comparing the students' entries with standards determined by experts. The reliability of this technique is indicated by the fact that mission to mission intercorrelations of error scores were low, while the intercorrelations between legs of the same mission were moderately high. The intercorrelations between the error scores for the different navigation variables were computed and analyzed by using both factor analysis and multiple regression techniques. Both analyses indicated that a major portion of all dead reckoning error could be attributed to errors made in determining magnetic deviation. As a result of these analyses, recommendations were made for changing the instruction in dead reckoning and alterations in the equipment used were suggested.