Boeing is evolving its training programs from "chalk and talk" toward "bolt-on" specialty courses that are increasingly on-line and distance learning enabled.
Chief operating officer for training and flight services, Len Weber, says Boeing now addresses operational and safety issues through specialty courses. The airframer's 17 "bolt-on" courses include topics like low visibility Category 2 and Category 3 landings, high latitude polar operations, extended twin-engine operations, required navigation performance and other topics.
"We're restructuring courseware to be more distance learning, with more line-oriented flight training and special purpose training," said Weber during the World Aviation Training Conference in Orlando on 19 April. "For instance, we have scenarios that will challenge pilots on unreliable airspeed, windshear and upset recovery, utilizing the information from the last 10 years of incidents." In addition, he says Boeing is currently going through an instructor calibration program to "try to ensure the grading of students is highly consistent across all of our models".
By taking a "smarter is better philosophy", Weber says Boeing has "dramatically" reduced course lengths. For example a 777 pilot can be certified on 787 in a few as days, and line and base courses for maintainers have been reduced by 30%.
Weber notes that mechanics training to maintain the 787 "can walk away with all the course information and manuals on a single memory stick". A three dimensional version of the aircraft, on which pilots can maintainers can do a virtual walk-around while accessing panels and performing diagnostics, is held on a tablet PC.
Source: Air Transport Intelligence news
