Approaching Under Low-Visible and Windy Conditions: Analyzing the Correlation Between Pilot’s Attention Allocation and Flight Path Deviations

Approaching in low-visible and windy conditions is dangerous. Pilots typically perform an instrumental approach (IA) and sometimes need to transition to a visual approach (VA), requiring effective attention allocations to ensure safety. This study investigates the associations between pilots’ attention allocation and flight path deviations during IA and VA under no wind, crosswind, and tailwind conditions. Flight path deviations include horizontal and vertical deviations. Then, a Bayesian Gamma regression incorporating principal components is employed to model flight path deviations. The results show that under no wind conditions, fixating on the heading indicator (HI), artificial horizon (AH), and external views result in both smaller horizontal and vertical deviations during IA. For crosswind conditions, increasing fixation on the AH reduces vertical deviations. For tailwind conditions, increasing attention to the external views, HI, and airspeed reduces horizontal deviations during VA, while monitoring altimeter leads to smaller vertical deviations.