Stress and Flight (Heart Rate Variability Parameters in Simulated and Real Flight Stress Situation)

Abstract

Flight is inherently dangerous: in an emergency situation (such as a threat of hypoxia and overload, or in time-constraint) the pilot’s actual physical-mental performance might deteriorate rapidly, accompanied by the imbalance of the vegetative nervous system, that is stress. The increased stress and the consequences (reduced sensorial perception, loss of situational awareness) can lead to erroneous physical acts and responses, itself revoking new stress and momentary incapacitation with a psychic background. Our target is to evaluate the physiological stress in ground-based aeromedical stressor settings (in barochamber simulated hypobaric hypoxia) combined with Virtual Reality as a visualised flight simulation. Furthermore, we accomplish real flight stress assessments, as well on board of Gripen multirole fighter aircraft and during parachute deployment. We evaluate the stress reaction of the heart-brain axis by Heart Rate Variability (pulse variance) parameters produced by Firstbeat Bodyguard 2 and adapted to real flight (aerobatic flight of Gripen and paratrooper’s jump).