Empirical study of pilot time delay in flight control systems and its safety margin

This paper is concerned with the influence of the pilot time delay on the flight performance. Simulations of a typical flight mission are implemented with a structured pilot model. As comparison, experiments with test pilots are carried out. The results are analyzed with a quantification method which gives a quantitative evaluation of the flight performance. Both of the simulation and the experiment show a negative correlation between the flight performance and the pilot time delay. The results of the experiments verify the reliability of the simulation method and the pilot model. The results also give a safety margin of the pilot time delay.