|
   |
 |
                 
|
ADTO # 86 - November 12, 1998 PART 1: Upcoming Chats UPCOMING CHATS
QuestChats require pre-registration. Unless otherwise noted, registration is at: http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/aero/chats/#chatting Friday, November 19, 1999 10 AM - 11 AM Pacific Ray Oyung, Research Coordinator for the Fatigue Countermeasures Program Ray Oyung is part of a team that tries to find ways of reducing the effects of fatigue, sleep loss, and disruptions to the body's internal clock on flight crews during flight operations. Read Rays' biography at http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/aero/team/ray.html SPECIAL EVENT
The Aerodynamics of Things That Spin A WebCast /Chat from NASA Ames Research Center featuring Dr. Earl Duque and Joe Jordan Wednesday, December 1, 1999, 10 AM PST Join us for a fun-filled hour of demonstrations, videos and explanations about things that spin. You can ask questions in the chat room and Earl and Joe will answer them. Dr. Duque is a research scientist who uses computers to study the aerodynamics of helicopters, rotorcraft, and wind turbines. They will discuss how nature and humans have designed spinning devices to fly through the air, generate energy and dry your hair. Go to http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/aero/events/spin for more information on this event. [Editor's Note: Ray Oyung, is a researcher here at NASA Ames Research Center, studying how to keep pilots from getting too sleepy. Read his biography at http://quest.arc.nasa.gov/aero/team/ray.html ] WARNING! YOU'RE GETTING DROWSEY...TAKE CORRECTIVE ACTION!by Ray Oyung October 21, 1999 Our group just completed the data collection phase of another study in a Boeing 747-400 simulator. For those of you who have been following along with me, this study is similar to the night time study that our group completed last year...and you know what that means. [alarm sounds] "Whoa, 4:00 pm. Time to wake up and have some breakfast. I think I'll make a sandwich and grab some Campbell's Chunky Chicken Noodle soup for my lunch at midnight." (people tell me I think with my stomach but I don't think so ;-) For those of you who are just tuning in, our program conducted a study with commercial airline pilots to determine if having five breaks during a long overnight flight would help keep pilots more alert than pilots having only one break. The answer seemed obvious enough and preliminary results showed that breaks do seem to help, but prior to our study, reports have only been noted on what pilots say they feel during these types of trips. We used electrode sensors (no I don't have a hunched-back helper named Egor), fill-in the answer type questions, reaction time tests, and other devices to determine if multiple breaks during a flight really help. For more background on this past study, you can review these articles from my journal, Alertness Measures Effectiveness Study, July 4, 1998 and Planning a Simulator Study, February 11, 1998. Our study this year looked at how well an alertness monitoring device works with pilots on the flight deck. Wouldn't it be nice to have someone talk to you or remind you to do something when you were tired and might forget something you needed to do? We had the opportunity to find out if this type of device might help pilots while they were flying for long periods at night. The system is camera based, and a computer would watch the pilot and see if he/she is tired. If the computer thinks the pilot is tired, it will give the pilot an indication on a lighted panel or by voice command through the headset that pilots wear while flying. The device we used was in its early stages of being so we're not sure what to expect. Do you think something like this would help pilots? Stay tuned to find out... Wow...10 days till Halloween! Have fun, but be safe and watch out for things that go "thump" in the night...boo! :-) |
||
|
|
|
