Objective:To propose a preliminary method for real-time assessment of pilot situational awareness based on assessing pilot′s visual gaze behavior during spatial orientation flight simulation.Methods:Fighter pilots who met the criteria were randomly selected by drawing lots. An eye-tracker was used to collect eye-track feature data from pilots in a flight simulator. The lightweight YOLOv8n model was used to detect the area of interest (AOI) in the training to construct the AOI gaze sequence feature data. The pilot′s illusory experiences and recovery from complex situations were recorded, and those were scored by the situation awareness global assessment technique to obtain such 3 situational awareness assessment levels as excellent, good, and fair which were used as labeled data. A transformer and inception module fusion situation awareness (Ti-SA) model was developed to extract and learn the features of eye-tracking time-series data and AOI gaze time-series data and was compared with other commonly used models in the field of multidimensional time-series classification.Results:Thirty fighter pilots were enrolled, all male, aged 23-38 years old, with flying hours of 300-2 200 h, were included in the study. Nineteen temporal features of pilots′ eye movement trajectories were obtained by eye-tracker. By situation awareness global assessment, 12 pilots were scored to excellent level, 15 to good level and 3 to fair level. When Ti-SA model was applied to the experimental dataset, the accuracy was 92.18%, the precision was 92.95%, the recall was 95.49%, and the F1 score was 94.20%, which were better than other commonly used models in the field of multidimensional time-series classification.Conclusions:The study indicates that the proposed dataset construction method and Ti-SA model can effectively assess the level of pilot situational awareness in spatial orientation flight simulation.

Objective:To provide data support for optimizing aeromedical support to transporter flying personnel by comparing and analyzing the composition and variation of the medical grounding disease spectrum of them.Methods:The health profile data of transporter flying personnel who were grounded by the assessment in Air Force Medical Center from January 1, 2003, to December 31, 2020 were collected. They were grouped by grounded year (2003—2008, 2009—2014 and 2015—2020) and by post (pilot and air combat personnel). The age at the time of grounding, flying hours and grounding disease spectrum were statistically analyzed.Results:A total of 186 transporter flying personnel were enrolled, including 135 pilots (72.58%) and 51 air combat personnel (27.42%). The median grounding age of pilots was 34.0 (31.5, 39.0) years old, and the median grounding age of air combat crew was 43.0 (41.0, 46.0) years old. The top 4 system diseases in all flight grounding personnel were neurological diseases (21.51%), mental and psychiatric disorders (16.67%), cardiovascular system diseases (13.98%) and motion system diseases (10.75%). The difference in the component ratio of grounding diseases between the pilots and air combat personnel was significant ( P=0.039), and the grounding ratio of digestive system diseases in pilots was lower than that of air combat personnel ( χ2=5.40, P=0.020). The grounding ratio of motion system diseases in 2009—2014 group was lower than that of 2003—2009 group ( χ2=6.70, P=0.010). The grounding ratios of mental and psychiatric disorders in 2009—2014 and 2015—2020 group were higher than those of 2003—2008 group, with significant differences ( χ2=8.80, 7.33, P=0.005, 0.007). There were 76 types of diseases that caused transporter flying personnel grounding, and the top 3 diseases were hypertension, vascular headaches and lumbar disc herniation. Conclusions:The neurological diseases, mental and psychiatric disorders, cardiovascular system diseases and motion system diseases contribute most to the grounding of transporter flying personnel while the neurological diseases and mental and psychiatric disorders have resulted more and more groundings. As the higher flying training strength and time endurance required, the further disease spectrum analysis, as well as the corresponding prevention and treatment should be strengthened.

Objective:To propose a preliminary method for real-time assessment of pilot situational awareness based on assessing pilot′s visual gaze behavior during spatial orientation flight simulation.Methods:Fighter pilots who met the criteria were randomly selected by drawing lots. An eye-tracker was used to collect eye-track feature data from pilots in a flight simulator. The lightweight YOLOv8n model was used to detect the area of interest (AOI) in the training to construct the AOI gaze sequence feature data. The pilot′s illusory experiences and recovery from complex situations were recorded, and those were scored by the situation awareness global assessment technique to obtain such 3 situational awareness assessment levels as excellent, good, and fair which were used as labeled data. A transformer and inception module fusion situation awareness (Ti-SA) model was developed to extract and learn the features of eye-tracking time-series data and AOI gaze time-series data and was compared with other commonly used models in the field of multidimensional time-series classification.Results:Thirty fighter pilots were enrolled, all male, aged 23-38 years old, with flying hours of 300-2 200 h, were included in the study. Nineteen temporal features of pilots′ eye movement trajectories were obtained by eye-tracker. By situation awareness global assessment, 12 pilots were scored to excellent level, 15 to good level and 3 to fair level. When Ti-SA model was applied to the experimental dataset, the accuracy was 92.18%, the precision was 92.95%, the recall was 95.49%, and the F1 score was 94.20%, which were better than other commonly used models in the field of multidimensional time-series classification.Conclusions:The study indicates that the proposed dataset construction method and Ti-SA model can effectively assess the level of pilot situational awareness in spatial orientation flight simulation.

Objective:To provide data support for optimizing aeromedical support to transporter flying personnel by comparing and analyzing the composition and variation of the medical grounding disease spectrum of them.Methods:The health profile data of transporter flying personnel who were grounded by the assessment in Air Force Medical Center from January 1, 2003, to December 31, 2020 were collected. They were grouped by grounded year (2003—2008, 2009—2014 and 2015—2020) and by post (pilot and air combat personnel). The age at the time of grounding, flying hours and grounding disease spectrum were statistically analyzed.Results:A total of 186 transporter flying personnel were enrolled, including 135 pilots (72.58%) and 51 air combat personnel (27.42%). The median grounding age of pilots was 34.0 (31.5, 39.0) years old, and the median grounding age of air combat crew was 43.0 (41.0, 46.0) years old. The top 4 system diseases in all flight grounding personnel were neurological diseases (21.51%), mental and psychiatric disorders (16.67%), cardiovascular system diseases (13.98%) and motion system diseases (10.75%). The difference in the component ratio of grounding diseases between the pilots and air combat personnel was significant ( P=0.039), and the grounding ratio of digestive system diseases in pilots was lower than that of air combat personnel ( χ2=5.40, P=0.020). The grounding ratio of motion system diseases in 2009—2014 group was lower than that of 2003—2009 group ( χ2=6.70, P=0.010). The grounding ratios of mental and psychiatric disorders in 2009—2014 and 2015—2020 group were higher than those of 2003—2008 group, with significant differences ( χ2=8.80, 7.33, P=0.005, 0.007). There were 76 types of diseases that caused transporter flying personnel grounding, and the top 3 diseases were hypertension, vascular headaches and lumbar disc herniation. Conclusions:The neurological diseases, mental and psychiatric disorders, cardiovascular system diseases and motion system diseases contribute most to the grounding of transporter flying personnel while the neurological diseases and mental and psychiatric disorders have resulted more and more groundings. As the higher flying training strength and time endurance required, the further disease spectrum analysis, as well as the corresponding prevention and treatment should be strengthened.