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Aviation History
1973
1973 - 2690.PDF
FLIGHT International, 25 October 1973 733 jjjBgaj&as i f Sea King simulator ON NOVEMBER 6, 1972, an injured Russian seaman was winched from a trawler 20 miles north of Trevose Head in Cornwall by a Westland Sea King from the Royal Naval Air Station at Culdrose. The .helicopter was not, as might have been expected, carrying British mark ings, but was one of ten bought by the Royal Norwegian Air Force to provide search and rescue services along the length of the Norwegian coast. Between July 1972 and February 1973 RNoAF air and ground crews were trained at Culdrose by Royal Naval instructors on their own aircraft. In June this year the training of foreign air and ground crews' on Sea Kings was taken over by the Royal Naval Foreign Training Unit. At present the unit's task is to train West German Air Force personnel to operate the 22 SAR Sea Kings currently being delivered. The first crews will be operational in April 1974 and the programme—which is worth some £300,000 per aircrew to the British taxpayer—will be completed by December 1974. Other future cus tomers include Pakistan and Aus tralia, which have ordered six and ten aircraft respectively. While the German aircrews each carry out some 50hr of flying on Sea Kings, a large proportion of their course is spent using the Link-Miles simulator installed at RNAS Culdrose. The simulator consists of two parts, a reproduction of the flight deck, con taining two pilot stations, and a reproduction of the sonar and radar operator's compartment. While the sonar and radar compartment is floor-mounted, the flight-deck is mounted on a three-degrees-of-motion system which provides pitch, roll and heave. Changes in flight path, weapon release, fuel jettison, atmospheric turbulence, buffet and vibration can be reproduced. The simulator is used in two roles: first as an integrated aircraft system where the two instructors combine to reproduce situations to both modules at the same time; and secondly, as two separate simulators in which pilots may practise aircraft handling and navigation in the cockpit section while simultaneous tactical exercises are staged for the benefit of the rear compartment's occupant. During their training on the simu lator West German crews are taught to use the Doppler search radar and the transponder on different exercises. Targets and weather conditions are generated from the instructors' stations from which are controlled the movements of other aircraft and sur face ships. Not only can wind strength Above, German aircraft and aircrew, RN ground-crew and RN Wasp. One of the West German Navy's 22 Sea Kings at HMS Seahawk, the Royal Naval Air Station at Culdrose, Cornwall; and, right, one of the two consoles that make up the instructors' station and direction be controlled, but it is also possible to vary sea state and temperature—although the latter is perhaps more relevant when the simulator is being used to reproduce an anti-submarine warfare situation. The cockpit and motion section provides full reproduction of naviga tion, engine, electrical and hydraulic system displays. The instructors can introduce fault situations of varying complexity as crews progress through their training. Both pilots and crew
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