A Multimodal Framework for Assessing Fitness to Fly in Flight Training

Flight safety depends on a pilot’s flight performance as well as their cognitive fitness. However, a pilot’s internal state cannot be comprehensively measured directly, or in real time, due to the disconnect between existing methods including surveys, physiological measures, and flight performance metrics. To address this gap, we propose a multimodal framework for developing a Fitness-to-Fly (F2Y) score, an operational construct that integrates a pilot’s heart rate with flight performance metrics to estimate their internal state of fitness. We define four F2Y states: Relaxed Controlled, Stressed Controlled, Relaxed Uncontrolled, and Stressed Uncontrolled. In a flight simulator study with thirty-two pilots, we observed how pilots transition between the F2Y states. Prolonged duration in a stressed state may eventually impact flight performance and safety. The results of all the pilots in an aggregated analysis showed the disconnect between psychophysiological measures and flight performance which the F2Y is designed to address. Unlike individual methods, the F2Y score provided a holistic assessment of the pilot’s internal state of fitness.