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Embry-Riddle Acquires Mentor Advanced Trainer to Study Hypoxia and Flight Performance

Mentor Device in High-Altitude Lab Daytona Beach, Fla., Oct. 12, 2010 -- Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University has increased the capabilities of the High-Altitude Lab at its Daytona Beach campus with the addition of a new Mentor Advanced Aircraft Training Device from Frasca.

The Mentor, which is approved by the Federal Aviation Administration, replicates the cockpit of a Cessna 172 aircraft equipped with Garmin G-1000 integrated avionics and a Truvision visual system, the platform used in Embry-Riddle’s flight training program.

The Mentor has a sophisticated data recording package that measures and graphically displays a pilot’s performance and deviations while flying. Embry-Riddle researchers will use the new device to measure performance and decision-making by pilots training in a hypoxic environment. Investigators have already completed one preliminary study of pilot performance at altitudes where hypoxia can affect behavior. With about 1,200 students at the campus preparing to be professional pilots, researchers have a sizeable pool of subjects to study.

Embry Riddle created its High-Altitude Normobaric Lab, the nation’s first, in 2009 to teach pilots how to recognize and recover from hypoxia, a shortage of oxygen in the brain and blood. In the normobaric enclosure, a hypoxic environment is created by air machines that extract oxygen from the air, instead of pumps that reduce air pressure.

To learn more about Embry-Riddle’s High-Altitude Lab or discuss potential research, contact Glenn Harmon at glenn.harmon@erau.edu or Dan Macchiarella at dan.macchiarella@erau.edu or (386) 226-6850.

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, the world’s largest, fully accredited university specializing in aviation and aerospace, offers more than 30 undergraduate and graduate degree programs in its colleges of Arts and Sciences, Aviation, Business, and Engineering. Embry-Riddle educates students at residential campuses in Prescott, Ariz., and Daytona Beach, Fla., through the Worldwide Campus at more than 150 locations in the United States, Europe, Asia, Canada, and the Middle East, and through online learning. For more information, visit www.embryriddle.edu.