Streamline Training & Documentation: Using Simulation in Flight Training

Wednesday, May 31, 2006

Using Simulation in Flight Training

The four immediately preceding posts discussed some of the ideas civilian organizations can pick up by studying training done in the US Marine Corps, Army, Navy, and Coast Guard. In today's post I want to highlight an area where the Air Force has provided considerable insight, namely the use of simulation to hone skills.

As with civilian airlines, Air Force flight simulators have had a tremendous impact on the effectiveness and efficiency of pilot and crew training. Air Force trainees use simulators to practice procedures for handling both normal and emergency situations; experienced personnel rehearse missions and refresh and refine their skills.

In Air Force simulator training, a wide variety of situations are presented. Normal scenarios include tasks like maneuvering in formation and carrying out mid-air refueling. Emergency scenarios involve such problems as engine failure and avionics malfunctions. In setting scenarios up, the simulation instructors can vary weather and visibility, and they can incorporate enemy action.

When students make mistakes, they can try again as often as necessary to achieve mastery. Needless to say, there are generally no human or equipment casualties sustained in the process.

Other benefits of use of flight simulators include:

The simulator is not constrained by the logistics and cost of scheduling opposition aircraft, range time, warning areas, etc.

A simulator scenario is not constrained by safety, environmental, diplomatic, security, and other real-world limitations.

A simulator scenario does not have to contend with unrealistic physical requirements. For example, when simulated aircraft are shot down, they can be immediately removed from the scenario.

The design of a simulator scenario can be more flexible, which means it can more easily be tailored to situations that are particularly important or to situations that the student is having difficulty with.

The simulator can provide the student with more trials in a given block of time by eliminating tasks that are not central to the training objective (e.g., launching, refueling, repositioning).

The instructor's critique of the student's actions can be more precise because the instructor has an accurate reconstruction of what happened.

The instructor can provide the student with cause-and-effect feedback almost immediately, when it is most effective.

Just as the civilian sector is increasingly using simulations to teach both hard and soft skills, the Air Force is using simulations not only to build its crews' technical skills, but also for strengthening non-technical skills, notably in the areas of strategic thinking and decision making. I will have more to say about non-technical simulations in later posts.

###

Labels: Military training, Simulation

<< Home