Low-cost simulation is bringing a new kind of helicopter pilot training to the market, and making it far more widely available. This phenomenon is not unique to the rotary-wing world, but because most helicopter operators are small - flying between one and five aircraft - the cost of simulators and the pilot time away from base needed to obtain such training, have meant that most helicopter pilots do not get any simulator time at all.
This is ironic because there are many emergency-related exercises that helicopter pilots cannot practise in the real aircraft. Canadian simulator and training giant CAE cites loss of tail-rotor effectiveness as a classic example. Also, the International Helicopter Safety Team's Joint Helicopter Safety Analysis Team (JHSAT) has concluded that more helicopter accidents occur during pilot training than in any other area of operation.
Aware of the potential for training improvement throughout aviation that lower cost, but high quality simulation could bring, the International Civil Aviation Organisation is running an international working group trying to ensure that, in reclassifying what various levels of simulator are allowed to do, the world acts together.
At present the proposed categories are based on the fidelity of the simulator cockpit and performance to the aircraft it represents. These range from procedures trainers where no fidelity is required because learning the procedure alone is the objective, through "generic" - single piston or twin turbofan - to "representative" and finally "specific".
Representative means, for example, that the instrument panel may contain working representations of indicators and controls rather than the actual equipment used in the aircraft.
CueSim, the simulation division of UK-based research company Qinetiq, began some five years ago to combine commercial off-the-shelf hardware with its own software, simplified electric motion systems and quality external visual systems to bring flight andnavigation procedure trainers - generically called flight training devices (FTD) - close to the level of full-flight simulators in training value, even if they do not permit zero flight-time type ratings.
In the UK the Civil Aviation Authority has been sufficiently impressed by CueSim's helicopter FTDs that it has reduced the time needed in the actual aircraft to an hour or so, the simulator having given the pilot practice in handling systems and other failures that could not be demonstrated in the air. CueSim also supplies visual databases replicating terrain and landing sites in the pilot's normal areas of operation, making the training more relevant.
One of the anticipated recommendations of the JHSAT's implementation team is that helicopter pilots should be given the advantage of scenario-based training, which they can only get from simulation, plus the simulator's advantages of malfunction training, flight repositioning to repeat exercises quickly, and recording and playback to enable debriefing.
Speaking at the 19-21 September International Helicopter Safety Seminar in Montreal, CAE training manager Tim Dewhurst said this kind of experience "is still valid even if the FAA doesn't give you credits for it".
Talking about affordability, CueSim managing director Robert Coppard says cost has come down to the point where it makes outright purchase for some operators viable because of the savings gained from having on-site training. Where this is not the case, he says, the manufacturer can arrange for several small operators using the same helicopter type to pool resources to make a simulator available locally.
Meanwhile, he says, CueSim is continually upgrading the quality of its visual and motion systems while holding the price at the same level so value improves. But CueSim does not intend to offer a zero flight-time Level D simlator in the helicopter market, but mainly devices ranging from a Level 3 FTD up to Level B FFS, says Coppard.
Source: Flight International
