March 01, 2010
Computers in the cockpit lighten the burden on pilots and appeal to new passengers and clients. They also train new pilots on the ground. Jeff Decker reports demand for improved training is increasing with the capability of helicopter simulators.
It’s been 30 years since FlightSafety International produced the first commercial helicopter simulator, for a Bell 222, and its descendants are finally getting the attention they deserve in use and development.
Compared with fixed wing simulators, helicopters have always been years behind. But in recent years, leaps in performance have meant computerised flying has been able to offer training challenges and emergency scenarios real flying cannot.
In December 2006 seven people died when a Eurocopter Dauphin 2 crashed into the North Sea. The UK Air Accidents Investigation Branch found the crash might have been avoided if the two CHC pilots had been able to perform simulated nighttime visual approaches in poor visibility.
The UK Civil Aviation Authority quickly accepted that recommendation to use simulators for recurrent training and checking.
Criticism of Helicopter Emergency Medical Services fatal accidents in the US has led to similar proposals for an increased role for simulators, and the industry is already responding worldwide.
A new Eurocopter training facility in Aberdeen, Scotland is using the first UK-based EC 225 Flight Training Simulator. Nearby construction of a new Bristow Group maintenance and training facility will also have an EC 225 simulator.
The heart of Gulf of Mexico flight operations in Lafayette, Louisiana, is home to FlightSafety International’s new Helicopter Learning Center of Excellence. The 77,000 square foot facility is in such demand it operates 24 hours a day.
It began with the first certified S76C++ simulator. Their second Full Flight Simulator mimics the cockpit of an S-92, says George Ferito, director of rotorcraft business development. That center also has an AS350B2 Level 7 Flight Training Device (FTD), one of three sent over by Frasca International, along with a Bell 206B/206L reconfigurable FTD and Bell 407 FTD.
FlightSafety has also partnered with Metro Aviation to build an EC 135 air ambulance training device.
Ferito sees “a willingness by the FAA to allow the use of these devices to a further extent than they previously have,” he says, proven by new guidelines for Level 7 Helicopter FTDs effective with May 2008 revisions to Part 60. “It allows all the Part 135 operators, which includes the EMS operators, to do their training and checking in the device as opposed to the aircraft.” There is no Level 7 certification standards for fixed-wing FTDs.
The Helicopter Group of the International Working Group could push this frontier further as it considers common standards for helicopter simulators within volume 2 of ICAI 9625 Edition 3.
That proposal looks for common ground, says Mike Phillips, a member of the training subgroup and senior manager for helicopter business development for Frasca. “All of us are going to have a place to start,” he suggests. “A considered approach to what might be realistic training credits to offer, based on these levels of simulation.”
In the US, the introduction of Level 7 FTDs meant checking credits could be earned in FTDs for the first time. Phillips says those new roles, and the modest price compared to full simulators, enable smaller operators and smaller aircraft to be included. “A Level D Full Flight Simulator is going to run you anywhere in the range of $8-$12 million. These FTDs cost between $1-$3 million.”
Affordable computers come with more and more processing power. In 2007 that enabled Frasca to include highly detailed satellite data in recreations of airports and routes around the world in their first Level 6 Helicopter FTD. Pictures from the ground are worked into that digital world for further realism.
Projectors and screens are constantly presenting better images with more data in larger fields of view. “150 degrees x 40 was a standard ten years ago which was a pretty good visual system,” recalls Phillips. “Today it’s very common to see 220 degrees laterally by 60 degrees vertical, and I’ve even heard of them going to 80 degrees.” That counts for a lot with helicopters. “We need more peripheral and visual cues to operate VFR.” Better technology brings better scenario training, according to Kent Dekerlegand, director of training at Bristow Group’s New Iberia, Louisiana, operations centre. “The role has definitely changed,” he says.
Flying through blinding weather is more realistic in their Bell 206 and Bell 407 FTDs than with the “hood” traditionally worn to mimic clouds and fog. “In the aircraft if you want to cheat a little bit, it’s easy, you just turn your head and look outside,” he explains. In the training device, “You can give somebody a minor emergency, up to and including a catastrophic failure, which you can’t do in a real aircraft. The potential is unlimited as far as what you can do.”
Those FTDs may eventually be upgraded to Level 6 or 7, but manage to fill essential roles regardless. “Typically, new-hire pilots at Air Logistics (a Bristow company), are going to fly around 20 hours total. That’s around 8 hours in a FTD and about 12 hours in the actual aircraft.” Efficiency counts, Dekerlegand adds. “A FTD is a lot cheaper to operate than an actual aircraft. You have a captive audience. You have a block of time in which you can introduce any type of scenario or emergency you want.”
Having that control in an educational setting is why Anthony Stein, managing partner of Helicopter Simulation Industries, says simulators have benefits beyond flight training.
Their Model E-1 Turbine Start Sequence Procedures Trainer offers limitless repeats of the complicated startup process. Starting just once per actual flight, he says, is “really bad from a training viewpoint. You don’t retain things as well. You don’t practice the good behaviour either.” And a mistake, he points out, can lead to insufficient air flow and a burned-out engine. “I can sell you one simulator for less than the cost of one hot start.”
