The Vienna Test System for pilots, explained

What the Vienna Test System measures

The Vienna Test System is made by Schuhfried, an Austrian company, and was first released in the 1980s; it is now used for millions of tests a year across many fields, not only aviation. For pilot and aeromedical work, Schuhfried assembles an aviation test set covering resilience, memory, spatial ability, sustained attention, sensorimotor coordination, reaction time and decision-making under pressure.

Individual VTS modules that Schuhfried documents include the Cognitrone (COG) attention test, the Visual Pursuit Test (LVT), Two-Hand Coordination (2HAND), Signal Detection (SIGNAL) for sustained vigilance, the Determination Test (DT) for reaction under a heavy multi-signal load, and a simultaneous-capacity multitasking test (SIMKAP). Rather than one fixed exam, an operator configures the battery from these modules for its own requirement.

How the Vienna Test System is structured

VTS is unusual among selection systems in how much it leans on dedicated hardware. Schuhfried supplies proprietary response panels, foot pedals and motor-performance devices used to measure eye-hand and eye-hand-foot coordination and fine motor skills, which a plain browser cannot reproduce. The Determination Test, for example, has you respond to coloured lights and sounds using panel keys and pedals at a pace the system drives.

VTS can run offline on local machines or online, and Schuhfried offers open (remote), proctored (video-verified) and controlled (on-site) administration, so a cognitive screen may be sat remotely with the sensorimotor hardware stage done on site. Scoring is automated and standardised.

Who uses the Vienna Test System

VTS appears most in aeromedical and ab-initio pilot selection rather than as one airline's branded test. Schuhfried's own case studies describe the Aviation Medical Center in the Netherlands, which runs EASA and FAA compliant examinations, using VTS to assess stress tolerance, coordination and multitasking, and the Arctic University of Norway using Schuhfried test sets to screen ab-initio pilot applicants down to its intake. Several national air forces also use it.

So if you are booked for a Class 1 medical or an ab-initio programme in continental Europe, a VTS session is a realistic possibility. Specific commercial airlines rarely confirm using it by name, so do not assume from another operator's example.

SkyStudy is independent and not affiliated with any airline, school or test publisher named in this section. Operator usage changes between intakes and is rarely confirmed publicly, so always verify the current selection process in the operator's own published materials.

How to prepare for the Vienna Test System, honestly

Published research on the psychomotor and attention tasks VTS uses is clear that practice measurably improves performance, and that the improvement keeps going for many attempts rather than plateauing quickly, which is exactly why format familiarity matters. Prior action-video-game and simulator experience also correlates with better psychomotor scores.

None of that means practice predicts a pass on any employer's threshold, so avoid outcome promises. What genuinely helps is rehearsing sustained vigilance, response inhibition, reaction under load and coordination so the demands feel familiar, then treating the on-site hardware session as skill practice rather than a hardware rehearsal. The free SkyStudy exercises below stand in for the attention and reaction side.

Sources

Facts on this page are drawn from the following, checked July 2026. Details change, so confirm current specifics with the publisher or your assessment provider.

• Schuhfried, about the Vienna Test System
• Schuhfried, aptitude testing for flight, rail and road
• Schuhfried case study, selecting ab-initio pilots

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