CAT 1/2022

T H E

J O U R N A L

F O R

C I V I L

A V I A T I O N

T R A I N I N G

Volume 33

•

Issue 1/2022

S H O W

I S S U E

halldale.com

SUSTAINABLE AVIATION

Positively Electrifying

CORPORATE EVOLUTION

FSI: Executive Transfusion PILOT, MTX PRIMERS

A/M/V/XR as Training Disruptors CABIN CREW TRAINING

Duct Tape & Other Sticky Scenarios ISSN 0960-9024 | US $17/£8.50

IMMERSIVE TECHNOLOGY

The experience gained in our simulators will empower you with an unwavering calm and composure needed for all situations. We do this by mirroring real-world situations as accurately as possible. This level of reality replication minimizes risk—and can only be provided by the best in the industry.

FSI. Nothing short of excellence.

Call +1.201.584.8262 today or visit FlightSafety.com

ISSUE 1.2022

EDITORIAL COMMENT

Queue the Pilots I’ve always thought it odd when advertising portrays potential customers as ignorant, or at least oblivious to the obvious. Similarly, businesses which blame their patrons for their problems.

An executive of an unnamed airline in an unnamed Southern Hemisphere country recently attributed exceedingly slow airport security lines on passengers who “forget they need to take out their laptops (and) take out their aerosols.” An airport manager piled on: “Travellers are inexperienced after two years of not travelling.”

Really? It’s the passengers’ fault? Perhaps the airline industry should initiate ‘Be a Pax, Not a Pox’ training before you’re allowed to buy a ticket.

This same airline also blamed school holidays, as if they weren’t aware of this annual event.

As well as an influx of new screening personnel.

Might that also explain the exceedingly slow customer service phone queues at their outsourced call centres? Perhaps people are rusty at using the telephone to resolve complaints?

Airline management, and governments worldwide, handled the pandemic abysmally. In a crisis which called for calm and consistency, the rules for border crossings were chaotic and confusing.

It seems they’re not handling the path to recovery much better. Thousands of flights have been cancelled in recent months, some for weather, of course, but also for IT issues and often because of a shortage of trained, healthy crews.

An unnamed pilot for an unnamed Middle East airline claimed he and his colleagues were overworked to the point of exhaustion. “I fell asleep during the descent with 400 passengers on board,” he said, but did not report the incident.

In the US, pilots for one unnamed major carrier walked the picket line to protest scheduling practices. Evan Baach of the Air Line Pilots Association said, “Our pilots are tired and fatigued… We're concerned that the staffing on the pilot side is just inadequate.

We’re picking up and working record amounts of overtime, we're working longer days...”

Pilots and cabin crew at another unnamed American airline even posted a Rick Adams, FRAeS Editor in Chief brief video online to highlight their frequent schedule-change frustrations and the negative impacts on family life.

Though some choose to deny it, there was a pilot shortage before Covid burst on the global scene – 62% of flight operations leaders cited it

“A flight

schedule…

cannot be

restarted

quickly.”

as a risk. There’s a pilot shortage now, particularly in US regionals – 83% are finding it challenging to recruit talent. (The ill-advised and unsubstantiated FAA 1500-hour rule continues to haunt.) And there may be “a global gap of 34,000 pilots by 2025,” according to Geoff Murray of analysts Oliver Wyman.

In the early days of the pandemic, airlines rapidly shed personnel, including early retirement packages for some of their most experienced people, plus furloughs for most. There was an expectation of returning to ‘normal’, initially during the peak-travel summer months in 2020, only to be pummeled by repeated waves of virus variants. Eager to recover lost revenue, airlines aggressively reopened routes to travellers eager to escape after months of lockdown, only to cancel thousands of flights for lack of crews.

By the time vaccines kicked in, many former aviation professionals had found other jobs, perhaps less stressful, and opted not to return. “We are depleting the ranks faster than we can get new hires ramped back up,” admitted American CEO Doug Parker.

Don’t blame the pilots.

A flight schedule is a process that cannot be restarted quickly. Even with regulatory waivers.

Crews must be requalified, particularly in full-flight simulators, which themselves were mostly mothballed, by instructors who also need to recalibrate.

United and other airlines are attempting to resolve the longer-term pilot pipeline by launching their own flight schools or affiliating with established training providers. But that’s a severalyear solution, not weeks or months. “The root of the problem is that it costs over $100,000 and takes five or more years to obtain all the training to become eligible to fly for a major airline,” said United CEO Scott Kirby. There needs to be a broader, industry-wide approach to flight school cost than one-off signing bonuses and a few scholarships.

The ‘pandemic pause’ was a perfect time to re-think and revise the long-outdated system of preparing airline professionals. It didn’t happen.

Can it still?

Rick Adams, FRAeS Editor in Chief, CAT Chair, WATS

e rick.adams@halldale.com CAT MAGAZINE 1.2022

03

CONTENTS

ISSUE 1.2022

06

34

22

Editorial Editor Rick Adams, FRAeS

rick.adams@halldale.com Group Editor Marty Kauchak marty.kauchak@halldale.com US Affairs Chuck Weirauch

chuck.weirauch@halldale.com Industry Reporter Amanda Towner

amanda.towner@halldale.com Production Editor Fiona Greenyer fiona.greenyer@halldale.com

Advertising Business Holly Foster Manager +1 813 994 0191 holly.foster@halldale.com Business Jeremy Humphreys Development +44 (0)1252 532009 Director jeremy.humphreys@halldale.com Sales Melissa Day Administrator melissa.day@halldale.com

38

Operations Design & David Malley Production david.malley@halldale.com Distribution & Stephen Hatcher Circulation stephen.hatcher@halldale.com

Halldale Media Group Publisher & Andy Smith CEO andy.smith@halldale.com

03 Queue the Pilots. Airline management and governments worldwide handled the pandemic slowdown rather poorly. How are they doing with the recovery?, asks CAT Editor-in-Chief Rick Adams, FRAeS.

06 FlightSafety: Executive Transfusion. The 71-year-old training company has a new leadership team and headquarters. Robert W. Moorman explores recent changes to the house that Ueltschi built and Buffett bought.

10 Induced Coma. Travel restrictions and cost are stimulating new FSTD technology options. Rick Adams spoke with some industry innovators.

12 22 Challenges to Airline Pilot Supply... and a Call to Urgent Action.

The extended grounding of airliners with no one to fly them is exacerbating airline recovery. Capt. John Bent, FRAeS, suggests mitigation is still possible.

18 Positively Electrifying. Electric-powered aircraft are now viewed as a viable platform for pilot training and air transport. Robert W. Moorman looks at the rapidly evolving sector.

On the cover: Will electricpowered aircraft be flying regional routes within the next 5 years?

Image credit: Heart Aerospace.

Group Content Chris Lehman Director chris.lehman@halldale.com UK Office Halldale Media Ltd. Sentinel House Harvest Crescent Fleet, Hampshire GU51 2UZ, UK

+44 (0)1252 532000 US Office Halldale Media, Inc. 4300 W Lake Mary Blvd, Suite 1010 #343, Lake Mary, FL 32746 USA

+1 407 322 5605 Website www.halldale.com

22 AR/MR/VR/XR as Training Disruptors. Halldale Group Editor Marty

Kauchak surveys the latest virtuality hardware developments and applications in civil aviation pilot training.

28 Still Seeking to Gain Traction. While there is active collaboration between

suppliers and maintenance schoolhouses to expand A/M/V/XR’s reach into curricula, Marty Kauchak reports there are perceived technology gaps and other challenges.

31 BizAv Boom Stresses Training System. Covid-fueled business aviation demand is creating shortages of aircraft, as well as qualified pilots and maintainers. Chuck Weirauch spoke with industry leaders about the training community’s response.

www.halldale.com

Also produced by The Halldale Group:

34 Duct Tape and Other Sticky Scenarios: Taming the Unruly Passenger.

Bite-size info bits, realistic training equipment and self-defense lessons. Rona Gindin explores some growing parts of cabin crew training.

38 SATCE Closes the Fidelity Gap. An emerging AI-based technology for flight simulators offers a virtual traffic environment and fully automated synthetic ATC services, enabling a flight crew training experience that is significantly closer to real-world operations, reports Aimée Turner.

42 The Roles of Aviation Organisations in Training. Naveed Kapadia

sketches the remits of several of the groups who collaborate on standards, guidance and best practices.

46 “We’re Looking at the Whole Training Journey” - CAT Leadership

Interview. Editor Rick Adams had a conversation with Robin Glover-Faure, VP Sales & Marketing, L3Harris Commercial Aviation – about FFSs, FTDs, pilot shortage, VR, data analytics, and eye tracking.

04

CAT MAGAZINE 1.2022

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise – especially translating into other languages – without prior written permission of the publisher. All rights also reserved for restitution in lectures, broadcasts, televisions, magnetic tape and methods of similar means. Each copy produced by a commercial enterprise serves a commercial purpose and is thus subject to remuneration.

CAT Magazine (ISSN No: 0960-9024, UPS No: 022067) is published 2 times per annum (April & October) by Halldale Group.

CORPORATE EVOLUTION

FlightSafety: Executive Transfusion

The 71-year-old training company has a new leadership team and headquarters.

Robert W. Moorman explores recent changes to the house that Ueltschi built and Buffett bought.

F

lightSafety International (FSI) remains a leading training solutions provider, serving the civil and military aviation sectors. But there are a few changes afoot.

Not least of which is a change of address. Since its founding in 1951, FSI had been headquartered in the Marine Air Terminal at New York’s LaGuardia Airport. In July 2021, the company announced it would relocate its headquarters to Columbus, Ohio, alongside aircraft fractional ownership company NetJets. Both are wholly owned subsidiaries of Berkshire Hathaway, led by investing legend Warren Buffett, which acquired FlightSafety in 1996 from founder A.L. Ueltschi for US$1.5 billion and Executive Aviation (NetJets) in 1998 for about half as much.

FlightSafety seems to have settled into an almost wholly new management team after some uncertainty following the 2018 death at age 85 of Bruce Whitman, President from 2003.

After a short-term stint of Co-CEOs, David Davenport and Ray Johns, then Davenport as CEO/President-Commercial and Johns as President-Government and Manufacturing, the company in February 2020 brought in Brad Thress, a 27-year veteran of Textron Aviation.

FSI leadership now has a decidedly business aviation flavor with Thress, one-time Cessna SVP; Michael Vercio, SVP Simulation Systems, also Textron as GM of Able Aerospace and McCauley Propeller System; Kelly Reich, SVP Strategic Operations, from Honda Aircraft Company; plus D. Richard Meikle, EVP Safety and Regulatory Compliance; EVP Sales and Marketing Nathan Speiser; and Mindy Drummond, Chief Administrative Officer, all of whom moved over from NetJets.

Other new blood includes FSI Defense President Daniel Davis 06

C AT M A G A Z I N E 1 . 2 0 2 2

(Lockheed Martin, Cornerstone Consulting) and EVP General Counsel Marie Batz Martin (Dentons Cohen & Grigsby in Pittsburgh).

Brian Moore, SVP Operations, and Rich High, President and CEO of FlightSafety Textron Aviation Training, are the only holdovers from the previous FSI leadership group.

John Frasca, President of Urbana, Illinois-based Frasca International, which FSI acquired at the end of 2021, rounds out top management. The Frasca acquisition formalized a partnership between the two companies that dated back six decades with the friendship between the founders of Frasca and FSI, Rudy Frasca and Ueltschi.

The Frasca acquisition made good business sense. FSI has years of experience in producing Level D full-flight simulators and training pilots for business aircraft and commercial airliners, while Frasca’s forte is building flight training devices for general aviation aircraft, ab initio flight training schools and airlines.

Amalgamating both into one unit sets the stage for a larger, full-service, global provider of training products.

Above The core of FlightSafety International’s business is the instructor and training technology.

Image credit: FlightSafety International.

FSI today provides training for pilots, aircraft maintenance technicians and others from 167 countries and independent territories, with an enormous fleet of FFSs and FTDs at training centers worldwide. FSI has 30 active training centers plus satellite locations worldwide and is gearing up to produce new training solutions at its Broken Arrow, Oklahoma manufacturing center to fill the growing demand.

BizAv, Regionals, Defense CAT magazine interviewed Thress and other senior team members recently on a range of subjects. While their responses were, shall we say, somewhat guarded, the principals indicated the company is evolving on various fronts.

“Our biggest source of business remains business aviation,” said Thress.

“That is very strong for us now, driving double-digit growth across our civil training revenues.”

He added: “The second biggest piece of our civil business is regional airlines, which has rebounded very nicely. We are growing at such a pace that we need to build significantly more regional airline simulators to fulfill demand.”

The defense training business is growing as well, Thress noted. The primary source of military business revolves around the US Air Force’s C-17 and KC-46 tanker aircraft.

The company is also making inroads with the helicopter sector. In September 2020, FSI won a contract to provide TH-73A Aircrew Training Services (ATS) in support of the Advanced Helicopter Training System. FSI is supporting efforts of the Naval Air Systems Command and Naval Air Warfare Center Training Systems Division. FSI/Frasca is providing Contractor Instructional Services (CIS) on 18 Level 6 and 7 flight simulation training devices, image generators, visual databases, projectors and two central control stations. FSI manages and maintains the training devices.

Thress said FSI hopes to penetrate the “unmet, yet undefined” virtual reality business with the military, adding that the company is actively engaged with experimentation development in VR. On the civil side, FSI has for years developed virtual- and mixed-reality capabilities.

Above Variability of flight paths into Teterboro runway 1, representing risk of unstable approach. The yellow line shows a possible flight path for an Area Navigation Visual Flight Procedure (RVFP) in development as part of FSI’s partnership with GE Digital.

Image credit: FSI/GE. Left Brad Thress, President and CEO of FlightSafety International since Valentine’s Day 2020.

Image credit: FlightSafety International.

FSI’s chief put growth of FSI’s defense sector in perspective: “It is not like we’re going to acquire a defense business. Our growth in defense will be a series of baby steps as we slowly grow the aggregate of our business.”

An example of how FSI is expanding its military business through technology is the development of the Evolution 360 simulator display system. The system provides a 360-degree horizontal, 135-degree vertical field of view and is considered an effective training tool for specialized training in fighter aircraft, tactical rotorcraft and other aircraft types requiring a wraparound view.

The growth of FSI has been steady since its inception in the 1950s, but not without missteps. The company’s attempt to operate a shuttle in the 1990s between New York airports and Manhattan failed almost immediately (eVTOL aspirants, take note). So too, did its foray to move outside of aviation, in training nuclear power and maritime bridge officers. UPS contracted FSI to train pilots of UPS’ new aviation division, but that plan was cancelled.

FSI’s Vero Beach Flight Academy did well for a while, providing ab initio pilot training for international airlines mostly.

But then the school’s graduation rates in 2016 and 2017 plummeted. The school lost its accreditation in August 2019 for two years, then regained it. But then the pandemic hit, leading to the sale in 2021 to Skyborne Aviation, a UK-based flight school.

Airline, Cadet & eVTOL Training?

Much has been written on major airlines forming or enhancing their own pilot training academies in light of the projected pilot shortage. Which begs the question: Will FSI tap into the airline pilot training business?

“That’s an interesting question for us,” said Thress. “The primary customers in that business (major airlines) do their own training and buy and own their own simulators. We’ve found this to be a crowded space. We’ve built a couple of 737 MAX and A320 neo simulators. But this will be a niche market for us.”

While not training major airlinebound pilots, FSI is selling training solutions for ab initio instruction. The United Aviate Academy, a unit of United Airlines, C AT M A G A Z I N E 1 . 2 0 2 2

07

CORPORATE EVOLUTION ordered seven Frasca flight simulators as part of its expanding training program.

The devices include five Cirrus SR20 Advanced Aviation Training Devices (AATDs) and two Piper Seminole AATDs. Five of the AATDs will have 220-degree wraparound visual displays.

"We're investing in flight education as we train the next generation of United Airlines pilots, who are the future of our airline," said Bryan Quigley, Senior Vice President for Flight Operations for United Airlines.

While the majors are not part of its strategic growth plan, FSI is “capitalizing” on new Low-Cost Carriers coming into the market, such as Breeze Airways.

Which Thress described as a “good fit for us.” In October 2021, FSI was selected

by Breeze to provide Airbus A220 and Embraer E190 FFSs and FTDs. FSI will also maintain the devices for the LCC. Another area in which FSI sees growth potential is the eVTOL and eCTOL sectors. “It is an extraordinarily dynamic space now,” said Thress. “It reminds me of the auto industry at the turn of the century with numerous automobile manufacturers.”

In February, NetJets announced plans to add up to 150 Lilium eVTOL jets to its fleet; NetJets will likely operate the aircraft in central and south Florida and elsewhere. FSI will provide pilot and maintainer training services for the Lilium Jet. The six-passenger, batterypowered Lilium Jet has 162nm range and cruise speed of 151kts. The aircraft is equipped with a wing-mounted, ductedfan propulsion system.

FSI and Frasca continue to provide training aids for Boeing, Airbus, Embraer, Bombardier, Cessna, Eurocopter, Gulfstream, Piaggio Aero and other aircraft.

A New ‘Green’ Level D FSI’s simulations systems expert Vercio said FlightSafety is beefing up its research and development unit, including a new Level D simulator in production that is slated for delivery in late 2022.

“Our next Level D simulator is a much more green machine,” said Vercio.

“It takes far less power than previous fullmotion simulators.”

The device will provide a 40%+ reduction in power requirements. The 08

C AT M A G A Z I N E 1 . 2 0 2 2

new sim increases the operating temperature thresholds by more than 125%, expending the environmental envelope it can operate in. Yet the enhanced electrical architecture reduces heat generation by more than 40%.

As part of its growth plan, FSI is considering a whole host of new technologies for training. “Our customers have asked for biometrics and various improvements in air traffic control capabilities.”

In October 2021, FSI and GE Digital, a software provider with safety analytics expertise, launched a partnership that uses flight data to reduce flight risks through training. GE Digital provides data-driven C-FOQA (Corporate Flight Operations Quality Assurance) analysis to FSI, which uses the information to enhance training and ensure pilots know of potential threats in advance. More than 300 operators and 1,000-plus aircraft are part of the GE Digital C-FOQA community.

In March 2020, GE Aviation announced the integration of C-FOQA with Polaris Aero’s safety management system – Vector SMS. Frasca will have a larger role under the FSI banner. Frasca’s founder was a flight instructor for the US Navy, which built the company’s first flight simulator in his garage. Ueltschi was a pilot for Pan American World Airways and personal pilot for Pan Am Founder Juan Tripp.

Frasca will continue operating under the Frasca International name and will retain ownership of Frasca Field in Urbana.

John Frasca was asked how the ab initio division would evolve under the FSI umbrella: “We want to change as lit-

Above Artist’s depiction of Frasca’s FTD for the Epic Aircraft E1000 GX. Image credit: FlightSafety International/Frasca.

tle as possible, but we also want to take advantage of things not available to us in the past,” he said. “The product base and technologies today are much better. Some of these technologies can float down to us.”

Push for Diversity & STEAM Diversity in pilot and AMT training has become increasingly important to major and regional airlines, business aviation and independent training schools. FSI is working closely with high schools, colleges and universities on opening up programs to women and minorities.

“This is an important, essential part of our business,” said Thress, adding that it is the right thing to do. And with the pilot and AMT shortage, these job slots are becoming available. “More needs to be done and diversity is part of it,” said Thress.

According to the US Department of Labor, 94% of commercial pilots and flight engineers are white, 3.4% are Black, 5% are Latinx and 2.2% are Asian.

The total number of female pilots is 5.6%, with fewer than 1% being Black women.

In January 2022, FSI and NetJets jointly pledged $225,000 to the nonprofit Ohio Air & Space Hall of Fame and Learning Center (OAS). OAS is involved in a multi-million dollar fundraising campaign to renovate the original Port Columbus air terminal and tower into its home.

The Enduring Legacy of A.L. Ueltschi The joint gift unlocks a $550,000 state matching grant that allows OAS to begin construction of phase one of its plan, which includes the renovation of the 1920s-era 12,000-square-foot, three-story structure center at the southeast corner of John Glenn International Airport (CMH).

When completed, the OAS Center will feature two FSI flight simulator stations. One station will be open to the public. The second station will serve the aviation-themed Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math (AvSTEAM) youth center on the second floor of the OAS. FSI will assist in the operation of the simulators.

In March, FSI pledged its financial support to the National Intercollegiate Flying Association (NIFA) for naming rights to the SAFECON National Championship. NIFA is a forum where collegiate pilots can expand their studies beyond the college curriculum. More than 80 colleges and universities compete in NIFA’s regional and national competitions.

“We look forward to supporting students’ passion for aviation through this partnership and further promoting the many exciting career paths available,” said Speiser.

FSI also is developing a partnership with the RedTail Flight Academy, based at the Stewart International Airport (SWF) in New Windsor, NY. Founded by a group of volunteer aviators, the Academy’s name was chosen to honor the legacy of the Tuskegee Airmen, who were part of the all-African American 332nd Fighter Group in World War II. FSI has committed to a “substantial donation” to RedTail, said USAF Lt. Col. (Ret.) Glendon Fraser, former Executive Director of the school and a 36-year pilot for United Airlines. Efforts by major airlines to enhance diversity in the cockpit are laudable, said Fraser. But more needs to be done.

The 332nd were known for protecting bombers during missions. Bomber crews would ask for the 332nd specifically because of their flying and air fighting skills. Famous Tuskegee aviators include Generals Benjamin O. Davis and Chappie James, Jr.; James, a USAF fighter pilot, was the first African American to reach the rank of four-star general.

Quality and Safety Mindset In addition to seeking growth opportunities, FSI today embraces a new mindset in the delivery of training services that emphasizes quality over quantity and safety over speed and cost.

“We need to get away from this mindset that training is a regulatory event that may or may not include safety elements,” said Meikle. “Training is a safety event that will meet the regulatory requirements in the process.”

Meikle said some trainer providers promise to deliver pilot training “faster and cheaper than anyone else,” he said. “We don’t want to be the fastest. We want to be the best.” He reminded: “Safety is expensive until you need it. And then you will pay anything for it.”

As for Thress’ leadership style, he is likely to embrace a conservative, yet steady growth strategy, with new ideas and a more modern way of managing the company, according to those who know his history. Ueltschi, who died in 2012, and is considered by many to be the father of modern flight training, would likely be pleased that his house is in good hands. cat

Long before FlightSafety International began, A.L. Ueltschi, the son of a Franklin County, Kentucky farmer, wanted to fly. His heroes were legendary pilots like Charles Lindbergh, Roscoe Turner and famous World War II air commander Jimmy Doolittle.

Ueltschi’s enthusiasm for airplanes and those that flew them never waned, as he described in The History & Future of Flight Safety, written by long-time aviation writer and editor William Garvey: “My ambitions were sealed in 1927, when Charles Lindbergh flew the Atlantic… My ear was glued to our vacuum-tube RCA radio, listening for every scratch-sounding news report on the progress of his flight. When the bulletin came announcing that he had landed in Paris and was carried off the field on the shoulders of thousands of cheering Frenchmen, I was hooked.”

Ueltschi’s drive and talent were seen early on. He soloed in an OX-5-powered Waco at 16. At 23, he was the chief pilot for Queen City Flying Service, a Cincinnati, Ohio-based flight training company.

In 1935, Ueltschi borrowed $3,500 against his business, Little Hawk burger stands, to buy a Waco 10 aircraft. Six years later, Pan American Airways hired Ueltschi, who later became airline founder Juan Tripp’s personal pilot.

In 1951, FlightSafety was incorporated and began operations out of the Marine Air Terminal at New York’s LaGuardia Airport. The company had one employee, Ueltschi.

Those who knew and worked with him described Ueltschi as a hard-charging visionary with a colorful vocabulary. His business skills, too, were noteworthy. Annual revenues in 1970 were $9 million. Six years later, they rose to $43 million. By 1986, revenues had exceeded $110 million.

FSI’s business improved significantly with the arrival of the business jet that would replace the propeller-driven aircraft like the Beechcraft 18s, Douglas DC3s and Convairs, which were the executive jet fleet of the time. These jet aircraft were fast, pricey and technologically advanced. Using FSI’s advanced simulators and training solutions to provide initial and transition training for pilots would boost FSI revenues and add a whole new dimension to its business.

Ueltschi and his management team convinced insurance companies that they would assume a huge financial risk by insisting that pilots train in the actual airplanes. Getting the insurance companies on board helped the company’s fortunes. By 1996, FSI operated more than 100 simulators for 50-plus types of aircraft at 36 Learning Centers worldwide. In 2001, FSI celebrated its 50th anniversary and Ueltschi was enshrined in the National Aviation Hall of Fame.

C AT M A G A Z I N E 1 . 2 0 2 2

09

FSTD TECHNOLOGY

Induced Coma

Travel restrictions and cost are stimulating new FSTD technology options.

Rick Adams spoke with some industry innovators.

W

ith two-thirds of the world’s commercial airline fleet parked on taxiways, training centres and simulators also went dormant for months. Training equipment and service providers used the crisis to refine product offerings which enabled streamlined device installation, reduced costs, and enhanced effectiveness.

“Coming out of Covid, there is acceptance of learning remotely. Now the thinking is, how do I recreate the classroom?” said Sanjay Kaeley, Head of Product Solutions for L3Harris Commercial Training Solutions in the UK. “Our customers are saying, we like what you've got, but where there's a desktop-based tool, how do we get it onto an iPad? How do we bring a virtual classroom together? And how do I make sure that dynamic isn't lost?”

Kaeley admits the interest in full-flight simulators “did pull back quite massively”; however, “coming out of Covid, we've seen the interest in the full-flights coming back.” Nonetheless, “the full-flight simulator has now become a commodity. Our focus now is not so much developing the core simulator.”

(Industry leader CAE, which sold 49 full-flight simulators in FY20, which ended in March 2020 just as the pandemic began, fell to just 11 sims in FY21, but has rebounded to 33 in the nine months from April to December 2021. CAE’s training centre utilisation, in a 65-70% pre-pandemic range, had dropped to 33% in spring 2020. For the latest global data for all active FFSs, consult CAT’s comprehensive Full Flight Simulator Census: www.halldale.com/census.)

Nacho Navacerrada, Sales Director for Madrid, Spain-based flight training device developer Entrol, said travel restrictions and quarantines created great difficulty for pilot currency. “Before the pandemic, if a Japanese wanted to remain a pilot, he had to go to Italy for his checks or a Chilean pilot had to go to Miami. So instead of relying on full-flight simulators located in other countries, many operators, public and private, are thinking of having 10

C AT M A G A Z I N E 1 . 2 0 2 2

a simulator in their own control, in their own facilities.”

Quadrant Simulation Systems Technical Director Andrew Reeves said the severe revenue drain on the airlines has led to more interest in upgrading older simulators. “They're not necessarily making a significant investment on a new simulator. They'll update their simulator visual system and keep the simulator operational that extra two or three years.”

From VR to VC “There's a lot of talk now about blended learning,” said L3Harris’s Kaeley. “A lot of our training through L3Harris Airline Academy went virtual. We're using internally similar kinds of tools that we sell to our customers. We've got building blocks today that we're testing and applying in creating more remote learning tools and tools that are inclusive of the instructor and the student.”

As are most training companies, L3Harris is evaluating possible applications of virtual reality. “Sometimes people see VR as a solution to everything.

I'm trying to work very closely with the training organisation and understand how a tool can be most effective,” Kaeley told CAT. “I'm an engineer, and I love all of these toys and stuff. But we end up

Above The Entrol en-4000x reconfigurable FNPT II MCC/ AATD simulator is designed for SEP, MEP and A320 JET training - IR, ATPL and APS MCC courses in a single device.

Image credit: Entrol.

Opposite (top) Quadrant’s NUQLEUS “magic box” offloads software from the host computer, dramatically reducing the amount of time needed onsite to implement a simulator update.

Image credit: Quadrant Simulation Systems.

Opposite (below) “We were able to navigate quite effectively for our customers, getting into some of the countries that were locked down”.

- Sanjay Kaeley, L3Harris.

Image credit: L3Harris.

sometimes when you’re too engineeringfocused trying to find a problem to throw at it. We have to understand the problem.

Is it the right solution?”

In the maintenance training space, L3Harris has been exploring the Microsoft HoloLens. “We've been able to present to one customer a full-size engine in a large space where they can actually ‘work’ on that engine.”

For pilot training, “we’re now at a point where you could actually put on a reasonably priced headset and be able to read cockpit displays and the lettering beneath switches. They sound like simple things, but they’re quite important. A lot of these headsets have just not been at the resolution or fidelity that you need for some of that kind of training. And you end up almost with negative training because there are quite high expectations from pilots and from cadets in terms of what they expect to see, especially the PlayStation and Xbox generation. You've got to be so careful as you move forward.”

Kaeley said L3Harris is trialling technology for the urban air mobility market, but he’s concerned about “an expectation that you can just throw someone with a couple of hundred hours of flying time onto these vehicles, and that’s going to be it. They are discovering that is not the reality. The FAA and EASA are making it very clear that it’s all ultimately about safety. And if someone thinks they’re just going to walk onto these vehicles and fly passengers, the concept of an Uber taxi driver becoming an Uber - I don’t like to call them pilots - operator... that’s not the reality we're seeing.”

L3Harris has formed a partnership with capital venture company Shield Capital, which specialises in “frontier technologies” and whose senior advisors include former US Secretary of Defense Ash Carter, former US National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster, and former Director of the National GeospatialIntelligence Agency Tish Long. Kaeley explained, “It’s allowing us to basically leverage technology start-ups, looking at some of the innovation, discover technologies that we could very quickly acquire and apply within this space. This venture gives us a great opportunity to accelerate insertion of new technologies.”

ics (which can be certified as an FNPT II MCC, FTD Level 2 and FTD Level 3); and a virtual-reality approach for search-andrescue training, SimulSAR. In SAR missions, Navacerrada explained, you have the pilots, the doctor, the flight nurse, the landing coordinator.

“But they don’t have the possibility to train together. So most of the incidents happen because of a lack of communication.” With Entrol’s SimulSAR, “they can all be together on the same training scenario, communicating with each other, practicing the phraseology, so when they go for the real mission they already have that experience.”

Shifting Emphasis

Training Goes Local Entrol, a family-run company started in the proverbial garage, now with about 45 employees, is closing in on the sale of their 100th fixed-based simulator. Navacerrada said “2020 was, of course, a difficult year for everyone, but last year we saw a restarting of the engine and we managed 8 to 10 simulators. Now the situation is again a little strange with the war and because of fuel costs.”

“Many operators, many schools, they are thinking, okay, we should have a simulator in our school, in the country, because they haven’t been able to train for one year and it has been a nightmare for them to organise their training,” he added.

“The difficult thing in this business,” Navacerrada noted, “is that customers don’t only evaluate the simulator, they also evaluate you as a company. They are all afraid that you will go bankrupt. They want to make sure you will be there for the next 10 to 15 years.”

Entrol’s solutions have been to launch a very flexible trainer, the en4000x, which addresses the APS MCC requirement introduced by EASA in 2017; a simulator based on the five-blade H145 D3 with Helionix integrated avion-

Quadrant used the pandemic period to refocus their business on systems engineering, software engineering, and electrical mechanical hardware design capabilities. They sold their Quadrant Pilot business, including the ATO which had been certified in 2019, and four-bay simulator facility to Air One Aviation Limited in April last year. In March 2022, Texas/ Florida-based RSi acquired Quadrant’s flight simulator relocation business.

“Our primary focus is based on simulator updates and providing products to the industry to help with those,” Reeves told CAT. Using NUQLEUS, an embedded computer platform initially focused on visual system upgrades, Quadrant has branched out to avionics upgrades: TCAS, FMS, GPS. “Rather than constantly fighting with the legacy computer and its intricacies and quirks, we have a known platform that we can take to site, knowing that it will work with the new visual system, irrespective of whose simulator was there originally and which visual system we were putting onto that simulator. NUQLEUS is a very flexible platform to use,” Reeves noted.

Despite pandemic restrictions, Quadrant undertook projects in China, Italy, Germany, and the US “without actually leaving the country”. With travel options improving, Reeves said, “We'll probably retain some of the remote working aspects, mainly because it keeps the cost down. Our customers tend to be quite technically capable themselves, especially when it comes to the testing.” cat C AT M A G A Z I N E 1 . 2 0 2 2

11

PILOT PIPELINE

22 Challenges to Airline Pilot Supply... and a Call to Urgent Action

The extended grounding of airliners with no one to fly them is exacerbating airline recovery from the pandemic.

Capt. John Bent, FRAeS, suggests that some mitigation is possible if immediate action is initiated.

A

fter 22 months of pandemic, I believe that the global training industry is grossly underprepared to meet the training demands of airlines post pandemic.

Last year, some investors subscribed to the concept of a global chain of newgeneration flight schools with a strong competency-based training syllabus, aimed at wider inclusion, new-generation learning styles, new training technologies, and reduced emission equipment.

The idea was to use pandemic downtime for the development phase, during which it was expected that the volume of active global training resources would shrink, as it has. The assumption was based on supply-and-demand data, that on exit from the pandemic training demand would surge. I joined the project steering group with enthusiasm.

After nine months of detailed work, including business plans, investor subscriptions were not converted to funding, and the project was put on hold. Advice from the financial industry suggests that investors had moved away from the pandemic-ravaged aviation industry towards ‘new sustainability projects’ with even 12

C AT M A G A Z I N E 1 . 2 0 2 2

higher projected returns. Nonetheless, project engagement with the investment community continues.

Although projections do not show a recovery to 2019 levels of airline activity until 2024, it takes at least 2-3 years for newstart Approved Training Organisations (ATOs) to graduate CPLs/ ATPs, and the window remains open to do this, but only just.

Recovery Projections and Threats Impressive projections published by ICAO, IATA and other aviation bodies have helped us understand the commercial impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and to assess potential recovery cycle scenarios.

Pre-pandemic, the aviation industry supported $3.5 trillion (4.1%) of Global GDP. This contribution from a safe and efficiently functioning airline industry will be vital to governments in the pandemic recovery. Every airliner which remains grounded due to lack of pilots could further drain operators by US$300,000 to US$1,000,000 per month.

But it seems harder to find commentary or assessment of the safety risks during airline recovery, due to potentially weakened pilot competencies, supply and training.

The professionals at the coal face of our industry, managing crisis after crisis, will understandably argue that, after decades of safety program enhancements from technological solutions and training programs, we are now seeing that the critical 'humanware' part of the safety system is under severe attack from the effects of pandemic fatigue.

To recover safe airline operations, we need many ingredients, especially these three:

Above Failure to address these challenges could impact safety, sustain disruption, reduce airline revenues, add many millions in the future costs of training, and slow global economic recovery.

Image credit: Shutterstock/ Vadim Georgiev.

Fully Serviceable Airliners Airline Recovery Resources 3. Competent Pilots Some of the 17,000 airliners that were grounded by mid-2020 are gradually reentering service using well-understood maintenance inspections of systems, function, and procedures. Provided these actions are properly provisioned, executed, and overseen by regulators, this hardware part of the equation should be the least difficult to execute. But most airlines have no spare financial recovery resources for new initiatives.

This commentary concentrates on the supply of competent pilots to restart airline operations.

1.

2.

Post-Pandemic Airline Challenges Airlines drive professional pilot training demand all the way back to ab initio training, which tends to be outsourced nowadays. Pre-pandemic, there were approximately 400 global commercial airlines; 70% had slowed or suspended operations by mid-2020.

But in the primary training field, many of the approximately 2,200 ATOs engaged in the training of professional pilots lost most of their students during the pandemic and some were unable to stay in business. Estimates suggest that 30-40% of ATOs have closed. ATOs received no government support, though airlines have; yet in 2020, airline closures still occurred, and today airline failures are estimated upwards of 60 (15%+).

Airlines face significant challenges as they emerge from the pandemic: 1. Absence of a historical model. Outside major wars, the Covid pandemic has been an unprecedented crisis in this fragile industry. There is no ‘recovery model’ to cut and paste. Almost all components of the industry have been deeply disrupted and the effects could linger for a decade or more. More system thinking may be needed beyond the immediate challenges.

2. Many have been on financial life support, which governments are unlikely to be able to continue.

3. Debt repayments to governments will

impact bottom lines for surviving airlines.

4. Short cuts. The temptation may exist for airlines to use minimum regulatory standards to get airliners back in the air, with potential safety outcomes. Bandaid training regulation for pandemic emergence is being tested at State levels but is not yet fully proven and incidents seeming to relate to the pandemic have already occurred.

5. New-start airlines are benefiting from reduced leasing rates, and are able to leverage reduced staff and crew costs made available by the closed airlines.

Free of government debt, these new operators present serious competition to surviving airlines.

6. Rising airline costs. Oil prices are up. Crew costs, trimmed during the pandemic, are likely to rise again in response to increasing pilot shortages.

7. Short-termism. Industry leaders are overwhelmed with immediate challenges and may not have time or resources to look further forward.

8. Regulatory lag. Slow production rates for new regulation are understandably

C AT M A G A Z I N E 1 . 2 0 2 2

13

PILOT PIPELINE caused by prudent ‘due process time’. But if this pilot supply and training challenge is to be met, this time does not exist.

The industry cannot afford to allow the safety of the travelling public to be compromised during the re-emergence of air travel. Solutions are actionable but only if regulators are vigorously engaged in the driving seat. For this to happen the challenge must be recognized and acknowledged.

9. Lost expertise and experience.

Many thought leaders in the training industry have passed on or are no longer active. As often happens with successive generations, much of their advice may have gone with them.

10. Reduced average piloting experience. Piloting is an experience-dependent profession, where experience is a key ingredient for successful management of abnormal situations. But average experience levels are shrinking due to: a. A surge of on-schedule retirements during the pandemic (particularly in the US). b. An abnormal volume of early retirements taken by experienced pilots who may have chosen alternative careers to provide for families. c. Loss of career interest from grounded pilots seeing experiences of active pandemic pilots; ie, impacted mental health with international crews locked in hotel rooms under quarantine, and then isolated from family on return to home base, which could become a career norm ‘living with Covid’. d. Further experience contraction as fresh graduates (if they can be found) refill the gap after the grounded pool and traditional sources have dried up.

11. Pilot shortages will not be replaceable from military and general aviation alone. Replacement will eventually have to come from primary ATOs. 12. Pilot poaching with be initiated by those airlines able to pay more. One major operator is already trawling globally for experienced pilots by offering good remuneration packages.

13. Staffing and standards will be impacted in the ‘poached’ airlines.

14. Increased training demand will result from increased pilot mobility and type changes, all from a depleted supply base.

14

C AT M A G A Z I N E 1 . 2 0 2 2

Inadequate ATO supply. Due to legacy expectations from airlines that the ‘market’ would supply qualified pilots from primary training ATOs, airlines may not see in time the impact from the closure of an estimated 30-40% of pre-pandemic ATOs, which will have closed without students and revenues. When traditional sources have dried up, the inevitable demand surge around 2024 and beyond will have to come from surviving ATOs, whose organic growth is unlikely to fill the sizeable gap. So after direct sourcing is exhausted, ATO supply to commercial aviation will be inadequate and recovery will become stunted. The supply deficiency alone will need 2-3 years to address.

16. Output relevance, quality, and variable standards. Supply alone is not the only challenge. The experience loss demands that pilot training be more effective. Students should be inculcated with lasting competencies relevant to modern airline operations. The door must be closed to early inappropriate training which can inadvertently insert latent pathogens and risk into a piloting career. Pre-pandemic, there were already large variations in the quality and relevance of primary pilot training around the world; this is widely recognized. Primary students, many of whom progress to the airlines, continue to be trained by instructors without experience of airline operations. To standardize ATO output, there has been no identified body with the resources to audit 2,000+ ATOs, so this is a challenge without a current solution.

17. Development time. New-start ATOs have the opportunity to add relevance and quality but will require 2-3 development years to graduate new professional pilots.

18. Reduced career interest in piloting careers among young people may be an effect of the pandemic, dissuading many, and reducing the supply of motivated applicants feeding into the selection and training system.

19. A damaged system. The big question to ask. Is the prepandemic safety net of human professionalism and competencies fit for purpose during the emergence from this ‘100-year’ pandemic event?

20. Airline resources are thin. And understandably focused 15.

Above Airbus and the French Civil Aviation University, ENAC, co-developed an ab initio Pilot Cadet Training Programme to be used by a worldwide network of partner flight schools.

Image credit: Airbus.

on short-term survival. Airlines may not wish to use any of their extremely limited resources to mitigate longer-term risk, relying on the market to correct itself.

21. Investors are less interested in anything ‘aviation’ and more excited about new-start sustainable businesses.

22. Safety risk. Pre-pandemic, the airline industry had achieved remarkable levels of safety. The factors described above combine to form an almost perfect storm which must be avoided if safety levels are to be maintained and protected.

The conundrums present both challenge and opportunity, but opportunity time is evaporating fast. The challenges of supply and training standards must be addressed now for the airline industry to recover to pre-pandemic activity levels by 2024.

Regulators are the only effective drivers to help secure the resources for industry action in the limited time available.

What do we have?

1. Still enough experience and common sense to build the solutions quickly.

2. New training technologies and sustainability solutions to raise training impact and save considerable cost and time.

What do we not have?

1. Much time left to execute new-generation training solutions to fill the gap ahead.

2. Regulatory support. Obvious assurance that the challenges are understood.

What do we need?

1. Regulators need to be lobbied to fully understand the training supply shortage ahead. There are bound to be differences by region, but from the global perspective, primary pilot training is where the critical shortages will apply.

Competent surviving ATOs may say ‘but we are working hard within our regulatory constraints to correct current training deficiencies’. Indeed, for many regions and organisations this is true, but probably in the minority.

2. Recognition that there is a pilot supply problem ahead so that industry can be organised to muster resources; mitigate risk to ensure a safe and efficient postpandemic recovery.

Where do we go from here?

To the top - ICAO. The controlling agencies in aviation include ICAO, FAA, EASA, supported by respected and vested associations such as IATA, A4A, FSF, RAeS. Aviation regulators have a tough job in an industry which has developed so fast and been subject to so many globally disruptive events.

While there is no ‘world government’, the United Nations remains the highest body engaged by the international community to develop solutions to global challenges. The International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) is the UN aviation body with the responsibility to Member States to help meet looming global challenges; in this case, pilot supply and training. ICAO does not have legal teeth to enforce its Standards and Recommended Practices (SARPS); this is the responsibility of States; but ICAO does have a contract signed by 193 States around the world with the commitments excerpted below.

Chapter VI - International standards and recommended practices Article 37. Adoption of International Standards and Procedures Each contracting State undertakes to collaborate in securing the highest practicable degree of uniformity in regulations, standards, procedures, and organization in relation to aircraft, personnel, airways and auxiliary services in all matters in which such uniformity will facilitate and improve air navigation. To this end the International Civil Aviation Organization shall adopt and amend from time to time, as may be necessary, international standards and recommended practices.

ICAO Survey - An Immediate First Step Any doubts which may exist about capacity to train sufficient new professional pilots for the emerging airline industry could easily be dispelled by the use of a simple ICAO survey of contracting States asking two questions about the ATOs under their regulatory oversight: 1. Summarise the ATOs supplying Commercial Pilots which have closed during the pandemic with approximate graduation rates lost.

2. Summarise (a) active ATOs supplying Commercial Pilots with approximate maximum annual graduation rates; and (b) Standards of training applied under ICAO SARPS and local regulation.

It is possible that the actions above are already in play, and if so, these should be publicised as reassurance to the training industry.

ICAO is the only body which could reasonably demand answers to these questions. Any competent State regulator should be able to answer these simple questions within a short time period. The results of this survey should immediately show the size of primary ATO supply challenges around the world in terms of volume and quality, enabling precise, focussed action.

Urgent Action is Possible There is an understandable expectation that ‘proper legal process takes time’; usually years; but rapid responses at the UN and State levels are possible in crisis situations.

Two examples of response to global threats: 1. After 9-11, impressive resources were unleashed worldwide, demonstrating that, no matter how enormous challenges seem, with fortitude and determination a crisis can be overcome. The whole industry mustered together on a common cause.

2. The new Covid-19 vaccines were produced in periods shorter than previously imaginable because the virus respected no borders, threatened human life, and governments literally threw resources at the pharmaceutical industry, facilitated by accelerated approval processes from the World Health Organisation (WHO).

While the projected shortfalls of pilot supply and primary training may be seen as a small issue compared to these examples, the investment needed to address this challenge is tiny compared to the many billions of dollars expended on 9-11 and the pandemic.

After three years of work by a broad international working group of industry SMEs, ICAO published Document 9868 (Multi-Crew Pilot License - MPL/Training SARP) in 2006; the first new licence since the 1940s. For a variety of reasons, the adoption of MPL training at State C AT M A G A Z I N E 1 . 2 0 2 2

15

PILOT PIPELINE levels has been poor, yet MPL requirements include many of the agreed ingredients of modern primary training required by airlines and the safety industry, most notably a move away from prescriptive box-ticking processes to competency-based training. Anecdotal results from the performance of MPL graduates in airline service have been excellent.

Published requirements for MPL include higher standards for instructors, a multi-crew training environment (using more flight simulation training devices tasked to training aims), embedded competency-based training, evidence-based training, upset prevention and recovery, and simulated ATC environment, the latter now at the level of maturity fit for purpose. Many of these components have been added to legacy CPL frameworks as ‘modules’ (tick box = done), where better practice suggests continuously embedded requirements in the syllabus.

Enhancements include the wider application of new technologies such as learning and training management systems (LMS/TMS), AI and VR/AR/MR, all aimed at enhancing learning and saving time and cost. It should not be a bridge too far for regulators to adopt existing ICAO SARPs under Doc 9868 plus the enhancements now available.

The Challenge Getting airliners back into the air.

Twenty-five months ago, two-thirds of the world’s airliners were grounded. The cost of maintaining and financing these grounded aircraft for the past 25 months, each with a value in the range of US$60300 million, is unfathomable from any ordinary perspective. For operators facing almost weekly disruption via State border closures, it is therefore imperative to regain airliner productivity in the air the instant that the opportunity arises.

But without the volume of qualified pilots needed, airliners will remain grounded, as already seen in the US. ICAO and State regulatory actions are needed now. To enable 2024 to be the year of recovery to 2019 activity levels we must act on the primary pilot training supply issue now, or airliners could be grounded without pilots for much longer, 16

C AT M A G A Z I N E 1 . 2 0 2 2

bleeding finances up to US$1,000,000 per month per airframe.

If the ‘same-old-same-old’ legacy training processes are applied by surviving ATOs, there is no assurance of the protection of future safety margins.

The content of training programs must be upgraded to meet the needs of the emerging airline industry. Most of the SARPS covering this are already published by ICAO and need adoption and execution by all contracting States.

Pre-pandemic there was already a large variation in the quality and relevance of primary pilot training around the world; State requirements varied, restrained by local legacy process, and the challenges of auditing 2,000+ ATOs. Apart from plugging capacity, quality and harmonisation must be priorities.

The challenges should not be underestimated as this pandemic is a seminal event; and the supply-and-demand rebalancing process could take a decade or more without immediate corrective action.

While there will be obvious public interest in aviation safety, there are many other parties with vested interests in safe and efficient air travel, including governments, airline associations, the tourism industry, and supply chain participants.

Outcomes of inaction: Failure to address these challenges could impact safety, sustain disruption, reduce airline revenues, add many millions in the future costs of training, and slow global economic recovery.

The Task Ahead To provide regulatory support for the launch of a standardised batch of newgeneration ATOs, using the same greenfield opportunity to utilise new training technologies, new instructor and competency-based training processes add training relevance for modern airline operations and reduce the time and cost of training.

Launching a batch of new-generation ATOs aimed at graduating new-generation commercial pilots in 2-3 years’ time should meet at least some of the expected supply gap in the post-pandemic surge. Resources for this will only be likely under regulatory decree.

We can use the same supply opportu-

nity to raise the relevance and quality of primary pilot training, an industry-wide concern for decades. Primary training must be aligned with the needs of modern commercial aviation post pandemic, to address the threats, and to accommodate the learning needs of new generations entering the industry.

A few airlines have already seen the challenges and have acted by developing their own training organisations. But this still leaves a gaping supply hole to fill. For an initial batch of new-start ATOs to kickstart this process, only regulatory mandates will unlock the relatively small investment needed.

The investment needed for an initial batch of ATOs is estimated at US$10-20 million, a relatively small sum which will generate strong returns from the demand ahead. Safety returns from reduced risk of serious incidents and accidents will be a parallel outcome. But only strong regulatory support will drive action and attract the investment necessary.

State regulatory mandates, driven by ICAO, should unlock investment for this relatively low-cost project, but time is pressing. cat About the Author Capt. John Bent, FRAeS, recently completed a contract with Fiji Airways as Project Executive, Fiji Airways Aviation Academy, the first of its kind in the Pacific Islands. Capt. Bent has been flying and training pilots since 1961 in the RAF and for five airlines. With 13,000 hours across 28 types, his achievements at Cathay Pacific Airways included the first train-the-trainer programme; the first crew performance marker system (which led to LOSA); the first electronic training reporting system, CRM LOFT and automation policy; crew training policy development, training management for the launch of an Airbus fleet (A340 and A330); and the first airline mixed-fleet flying. John is a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society (FRAeS).

Editor's note: This article has been peer reviewed by four very experienced subject matter experts, one with a long and distinguished career in aviation safety and three from extensive training and operations management backgrounds.

28 June to 1 July 2022

Istanbul, Turkey

Are you facing challenges with addressing critical aviation recovery priorities and rebuilding capacity?

The pandemic and the current economic uncertainty have created severe turbulence for the aviation industry. Airlines, airports, air navigation service providers, regulators and international organizations need to work together to adapt to the new normal. A new normal focused on making aviation safer, more secure, and sustainable. The symposium will feature interactive panels and workshops higlighting how ICAO can support your global, regional and national aviation plans through innovative implementation support and training activities.

Join us at the ICAO’s Global Implementation Support Symposium. It is our first in-person event since the onset of the pandemic. From 28 June to 1 July 2022, Istanbul, Turkey, is the place to be!

For more information and registration visit

www.icaogiss2022.com

SUSTAINABLE AVIATION

Positively Electrifying

Electric-powered aircraft are now being viewed as a viable platform for pilot training and air transport.

Robert W. Moorman looks at the rapidly evolving sector.

M

akers of hybrid- and electric-powered fixedwing aircraft, independent pilot training houses and airlines are investing heavily in what was once considered a wishful niche market.

United Airlines Holdings and its regional partner Mesa Air Group announced last year they would buy up to 100 19-seat electric-powered ES-19 regional airliners from Gothenburg, Sweden-based Heart Aerospace. Certification of the high-wing, fourmotor electric aircraft is slated for 2026. With a projected range of 250 nm, this fixed-wing aircraft will complement the fleet of 50-seat regional jets flown by various regional partners of United.

Finnair, which is part of the Nordic Network for Electric Aviation, last year announced plans to acquire up to 20 Heart Aerospace ES-19s. Like other European airlines, Finnair wants to reduce its CO2 emissions by 50% by 2026.

In mid-June 2021, Anchorage-based Ravn Alaska, an intrastate regional airline, placed a soft order for 50 nine-passenger hybrid- and all-electric powered planes from Airflow, a San Francisco-based developer eSTOL electric aircraft developer. The aircraft will provide short-haul service to a dozen communities in Alaska. In a related, but separate action, Ravn in mid-July 2021 agreed to purchase five of Universal Hydrogen’s conversion kits for existing and new Bombardier Dash 8 aircraft.

Dumping Avgas Englewood, Colorado-based Bye Aerospace offers three allelectric powered aircraft for varying use. The eFlyer 2 is a twoseat primary trainer, powered by an 80-kilowatt electric motor.

The company applied for type certification in April 2018 under FAR Part 23; certification is planned for sometime in 2024.

Hourly flight operating costs of the eFlyer 2 are one fifth that of 18

C AT M A G A Z I N E 1 . 2 0 2 2

avgas-powered trainers, according to the company. Base price for the eFlyer 2 is $489,000. Base prices for a Cessna 172 Skyhawk can range from $360,000 to $432,000, depending on the avionics package, according to Cessna.

Despite the price differential, the eFlyer 2 and other electric trainers could one day supplant the Cessna 172, Piper Archer and the Diamond DA-40 as primary pilot trainers, in part, due to the projected lower DOCs (direct operating costs) of electric aircraft and environmental benefits.

[Note: In October 2021, Diamond announced the development of the allelectric powered eDA40. Cessna is also planning an electric 172.]

Bye is working with unaffiliated flight schools on developing training programs.

Said company Founder and CEO George Bye: “We are also working with airlines, which have their own ab initio programs, such as KLM Royal Dutch Airlines. We see this as an emerging trend.”

The eFlyer 4, a four-seat advanced trainer and air taxi, will follow certification of the eFlyer 2 by 12-18 months. The eFlyer 4 has a projected extended range of 220 nm range due to the twice-aslarge battery compared to the eFlyer 2.

Above Sweden’s Heart Aerospace expects to deliver the first ES-19 electric airliner certified for commercial flight within four years.

Image credit: Heart Aerospace.

The eFlyer 800, a twin-engine, eight-seat aircraft, is similar in size to the twin-engine Beechcraft King Air. A high-density, 12-passenger configuration is being considered. Launched in late 2021, the company projects a four- to five-year path to certify the 800. Powertrain for the eFlyer 800 will be Safran’s dual ENGINeUS 500 electric motors and GENeUSGRID system. Greensboro, North Carolina-based Jet It and JetClub, a charter operator based in Mexico City, are the launch customer for the eFlyer 800.

Bye has a backlog of 900 units for all eFlyer models, of which 732 are paid deposits.

Two limiting factors of the current crop of electric-powered aircraft are range and speed. Bye Aerospace is meeting the challenge by matching the aircraft to the mission and combining proven and future technology.

“The conventional airplane wing, a classic proven design, has a tremendous advantage over a vertical lift (eVTOL) configuration in terms of aero efficiency,” said Bye. “The eFlyer’s lift-to-drag ratio is 18 as compared to a small fraction of that for a typical eVTOL. Therefore, the eVTOL design requires significantly more energy overall but particularly for the comparatively high-thrust takeoff and landing phases of flight.”

Long-haul electric-powered commercial flights are not possible presently.

Yet that could change. Lithium-Sulfur batteries, now being tested, could provide a significant boost in range.

“Lithium-sulfur batteries are a real game changer,” said Bye, “providing another 100 to 200 watt hours per kilogram. “We’re working with battery providers on testing these batteries.”

Accredited universities are coming around to accepting and acquiring zeroemission training aircraft. The Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne last year acquired its first electric trainer, a Pipistrel Velis Electro. The $190,000 aircraft, paid for by a grant from the Emil Buehler Foundation, is being used to train pilots and maintenance techs.

In June 2020, Ajdovšcina, Sloveniaˇ based Pipistrel’s Velis Electro, a two-seat trainer, became the world’s first electricpowered aircraft to achieve a type certifi-

Above KLM Flight Academy has ordered six eFlyer 2 aircraft (pictured) and eight eFlyer 4.

Left “The conventional airplane wing… has a tremendous advantage over a vertical lift configuration in terms of aero efficiency.” – George Bye. Both images: Bye Aerospace.

cate (EASA.A.573 TCDS). The achievement has not gone unnoticed in the aviation community. The quiet (60 dBa) aircraft is powered by two battery packs, one in the nose of the aircraft, the second behind the cabin.

Pipistrel electric aircraft in development include the Nuuva V300, a long-range, large-capacity autonomous eVTOL air cargo aircraft. Eight batterypowered Pipistrel E-811 engines power the V300. The aircraft is aided by a tripleredundant Honeywell flight control system. The smaller Nuuva V20 is a lightweight freighter for carrying loads up to 20 kg (44 lbs).

Pipistrel too is developing a surveillance aircraft, the Surveyor platform, which can be configured for piloted or autonomous operations. High-altitude and longer-range flights will be capable with the Surveyor.

Pipistrel still produces the two-seat, piston-powered Alpha trainer and the two-seat Taurus two-seat Electro self-

launching glider, which the company claims was the first electric aircraft built.

[Note: Textron is in process of acquiring Pipistrel and plans to form a new business segment, Textron eAviation, focused on the development of sustainable aircraft] H55, a Valais, Switzerland-based company co-founded by engineer and pilot André Borschberg, designed the BRM Aero Bristel Energic all-electric two-seat trainer. The aircraft, which is in flight trials, will be commercially available by late 2022. If Borschberg’s name sounds familiar, it is. He, along with Bertrand Piccard, a pilot and psychiatrist, flew the sun-powered Solar Impulse 2 around the world over 14 months in 2015 and 2016, a 25,000-mile journey.

The aircraft was painfully slow, with a 30mph cruise speed. Yet the flight was a seminal event in the advancement of zero-emission aircraft and propulsion systems.

C AT M A G A Z I N E 1 . 2 0 2 2

19

SUSTAINABLE AVIATION With origins in Israel, Arlington, Washington-based Eviation is offering a twin-engine, nine-passenger, all-electricpowered aircraft. The “Alice” has a projected range of 440 nm and a 250 kts top speed.

First unveiled at the June 2019 Paris Air Show, the Alice has since been redesigned with a T-tail configuration, replacing the V-shaped tail. In addition, Alice’s two MagniX electric propulsion units (EPUs) are now mounted at the rear fuselage. Initial design had the engines mounted on each wingtip. FAA type certification is slated for the end of 2023.

Launch customer DHL Express, a unit of German logistics concern Deutsche Post, has ordered 12 cargo-configured Alice aircraft. Deliveries will commence in 2024.

CAT asked Eviation for an update on its pilot and AMT training programs and received a terse official statement: “Eviation is not disclosing details of its pilot training program at this time.”

Other schools have not yet made the leap into electrics. Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) continues to use avgas-powered models. At present, ERAU has 74 training aircraft at its Daytona Beach campus, 45 at the Prescott, Arizona site. Asked why it is staying with conventional-powered trainers, ERAU provided CAT this statement: “The technology is not ready to support our operation (up to six two-hour activities per day, per aircraft - 12 total hours, with 30 minutes between each flight). Battery strength and recharging is not suitable yet.”

FlightSafety International and NetJets, a charter and fractional ownership company, in March signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Munich-based Lilium GmbH that gives NetJets the right to purchase up to 150 Lilium all-electric eVTOL jets. FSI would provide pilot training and training solutions to support Lilium Jet operations.

The Columbus, Ohio-based company continues to form training alliances with universities and trade schools regarding electric aircraft.

L3Harris’ offices in the United Kingdom told CAT that it did not have any firm plans to introduce electric aircraft into its training fleet.

20

C AT M A G A Z I N E 1 . 2 0 2 2

Amping Up the Batteries Commercial engine and aircraft manufacturers are investing in electric power. Rolls-Royce is using speed to help advance the business and environmental benefits of electric-powered aircraft.

In November 2021, the engine maker’s single-seat, all-electric powered “Spirit of Innovation,” part of the Accel (Accelerating the Electrification of Flight) private/public partnership, broke the speed record for emission-free aircraft, achieving a top speed of 345.4 mph.

The Spirit of Innovation is based on the Sharp Nemesis NXT (Neoteric Experimental Technology) sport kit-built aircraft. Much of the funding comes from the Aerospace Technology Institute, in partnership with the UK government’s Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and Innovate.

Rolls-Royce also is building propulsion systems for a fourpassenger eVTOL aircraft for the advanced urban air mobility market and a commuter aircraft for Norwegian regional airline, Widerøe. The engine maker is partnering with technology company Electroflight and YASA, a manufacturer of electric motors, part of Mercedes-Benz AG, to produce the powerplants. RollsRoyce plans to invest $105 million in its electric propulsion business over the next decade.

Boeing and its subsidiary Aurora Flight Sciences are flighttesting a hybrid electric propulsion system using a modified Saab 340B aircraft and CT7-9B turboprop engines.

Earlier, GE Aviation and NASA launched a new research partnership to develop a megawatt-class hybrid electric propulsion system for single-aisle aircraft. Ground and flight tests will commence in the mid-2020s. The $260 million program is part of NASA’s Electrified Powertrain Flight Demonstration (EPFD) project. Which includes investments from GE Aviation, NASA, Boeing and other partners over five years.

Above An all-electric ‘Spirit of Innovation’ aircraft by RollsRoyce broke two world speed records.

Image credit: Rolls-Royce.

Opposite The two-seater, zero-emissions Bristell Energic is being developed in the Swiss Alps

by Solar Impulse 2 pilot André Borschberg.

Image credit: H55.

Increasing Training Interest Some training houses worldwide have acquired electric-powered training aircraft and are developing pilot and maintenance training programs.

CAE is investing C$1 billion in R&D over the next five years around green technologies and the electrification of flight. The Montréal-based trainer and training solutions provider is looking to electrify part of its own training fleet as well. “We are looking at all elements of training on electric aircraft, beginning with a training needs analysis,” said Simon Azar, Vice President of Strategy, Marketing and Adjacencies.

Industry experts voice concern that while electric aircraft developers move toward certification, they have yet to develop pilot and aircraft maintenance technician training programs. Typically, pilot and AMT programs are developed in tandem with aircraft development. As the electric aircraft nears certification, these training programs are completed and delivered to the customer/operator or designated trainer. That doesn’t appear to be happening this time.

“I agree,” said Azar. “You need to have a training curriculum certified before the aircraft is delivered. And then you will need to have pilots who have

gone through training before you start commercial operations.” He added: “Typically, the lead-time is quite long. It could be two to three years to develop and certify the training program.”

CAE has training partnership agreements with a few electric aircraft makers.

Those involve Volocopter and its VoloCity electric aircraft; Beta's Alia eVTOL aircraft; Jaunt Air Mobility’s eVTOL aircraft – CAE will lead in the design and development of the Jaunt Aircraft Systems Integration Lab (JASIL); and Joby Aviation to develop and qualify flight simulation training devices that will be used to train the future pilots of Joby's all-electric aircraft.

As part of these training programs, CAE will share its’ advances in artificial intelligence, virtual reality and mixed reality, as well as data analytics. Augmented and mixed-reality training helps “resolve challenges facing these pilots, such as large fields of view,” said Azar.

“It is also a way to have a more efficient training program while keeping the same level of fidelity and quality of simulation.”

Skellefteå, Sweden-based Green Flight Academy, which bills itself as the “most sustainable flight academy,” has two training facilities, one in Skellefteå University, the other at the same-

named local airport. The academy offers a 20-month EASA-certified Airline Transport Pilot License (ATPL). Students go through 750 hours of instructor-held ground school and 250 hours of flight and simulator training. Much of the initial pilot training is done in the Pipistrel Velis Electro two-seat aircraft. Advanced flight training is done in the diesel-powered Piper Archer DX. OSM Aviation Academy, which has training facilities in Sweden, Norway and Florida, ordered 60 Bye Aerospace eFlyer 2 electric aircraft. Quantum Air, which has ordered 22 eFlyer 4s and two eFlyer 2s, plans to launch an air taxi service in Los Angeles. The carrier chose OSM Aviation Academy as a preferred pilot training partner.

Gloucestershire, UK-based Skyborne Airline Academy provides a host of pilot training courses. They include: the CAAapproved integrated ATPL Flight Training; Cabin Crew; Renewal and Ratings; Advanced Upset Prevention and Recovery; Military Conversion; and Train the Trainer training programs. In July 2020, Skyborne ordered six eFlyer 2 and four eFlyer 4 for initial and advanced flight training, respectively.

Fribourg, Switzerland-based AlpinAirPlanes’ training fleet consists of the EASA-certified, two-seat Pipistrel Velis Electro aircraft. The company offers a broad portfolio of training solutions, ranging from basic flight and instrument training, cloud-based, computer-based, UPRT and simulator training. Developed for Pipistrel’s Alpha Trainer and Alpha Electro aircraft, the X-Alpha simulator uses a virtual-reality headset instead of monitors, allowing the pilot a 360-degree view of the cockpit and landscape.

Iceland’s Reykjavik Flight Academy continues to expand its training fleet with the announced purchase last year of three electric Bye Aerospace eFlyers, with options on two additional Bye planes. The company’s principal officer, Hjörvar Hans Bragason, seemed to sum up for the industry the principal reason behind these acquisitions: "Investment in electric aircraft for training is a major step, both in the history of aviation in Iceland in general and as part of environmental initiatives that are currently taking place.” cat C AT M A G A Z I N E 1 . 2 0 2 2

21

IMMERSION HARDWARE

AR/MR/VR/XR as Training Disruptors

Halldale Group Editor Marty Kauchak surveys the latest A/M/V/XR hardware developments and applications in civil aviation pilot training.

T

here are few instances when CAT and MS&T writers use the words ‘transformational’ and ‘disruption’ across the broadening simulation and training industry. But these are among the descriptors to convey the developments in augmented, mixed, and virtual reality. In use cases where ‘eXtended realities’ are being brought to bear, the plate tectonics of instructional design are shifting, with evidence of increased student performance and other returns on investment.

It’s also necessary to manage expectations for this still nascent, emerging technology space. While some ATOs and other end users are beginning to use A/M/V/XR-enabled learning, others have simply not invested in content and systems designed to deliver this mode of instruction. At the same time, content suppliers are continuing to bend the laws of physics and make other adjustments to overcome technology challenges and other impediments to support a wider use of A/M/V/XR* tools in customers’ programs.

Training Domain Limitations Current capabilities for instructional design and other learning practices vary, are evolving and in some instances merging in the domains of pilot, maintenance technician, and cabin crew training.

Rick Parker, Co-Founder and CTO of VTR (Visionary Training

Resources, Woodlands, Texas) observed that his team has “found that AR still has too many device-physical limitations to make its use practical for airline pilot training, yet there is real potential for this to change in the future. VR and MR have already demonstrated their value in military pilot training. The choice between the two really depends on the training objective.”

Thor Paulli Andersen, CTO at VRpilot (Lystrup, Denmark), said his company’s focus is VR, rather than MR or AR, as both require a physical environment to interact with. “With VR, everything is represented virtually, not requiring, e.g., a physical cockpit, which would reduce flexibility and increase cost of a training system,” he said and continued, “The immersiveness of VR is also much greater than AR, which gives a better training experience. From a hardware standpoint, the AR technology is still in its infancy with VR being mature for professional training use.”

* To represent the spectrum of “realities,” CAT and our sister publication MS&T will use the shorthand ‘A/M/V/XR’.

22

C AT M A G A Z I N E 1 . 2 0 2 2

Above An emerging opportunity for the A/M/V/XR industry is to enable training of the new cadres of eVTOL pilots.

Image credit: Volocopter.

VRpilot’s main product is VRflow, a collaborative cockpit procedure training platform. Andersen added, “We create aircraft- and operator-specific training scenarios for ab initio training, MCC courses, type ratings and recurring training.”

Democratization-Enabling Tools While the S&T industry is fielding a cascade of A/M/V/XR products and enabling technologies, there is nothing less than a technical transformation occurring in HMDs and other content. Unit prices for these articles are decreasing to permit a “democratization,” or increased affordability, of this content for more organizations, and the suppliers of these products are expanding technology envelopes. As HMDs and other articles become less ‘klunky’ and easier to use, industry is improving other aspects of the user experience – reducing eyestrain and other impediments limiting equipment usage.

The following is a snapshot, certainly

not a definitive list, of products available to pilot training enterprises.

• Varjo VR-3, XR-3 and Aero. John Burwell, Global Head of Simulation and Training at Varjo (Helsinki, Finland), said his company’s VR-3 HMD is a preferred choice for VR training as it provides human-eye resolution so pilots can see cockpit displays and objectives as they can in the real world. He added, “Mixedreality training is enabled using Varjo’s XR-3, which combines the human-eye resolution of the VR-3 with high-resolution digital cameras that seamlessly blend video of the outside world with computer-generated content. This enables tactile feedback so pilots can see their hands and feel the stick and throttle and buttons/switches that populate the crew station.”

Varjo announced in October the release of Varjo Aero. Burwell offered that, where Varjo has traditionally focused on demanding, enterprise-class customers that require the highest image quality available, the Aero is “our first device offered for more value-conscious cus-

tomers who still want the high quality, but at a lower price point.” Accordingly, “The Varjo Aero fits into this ‘prosumer’ class offering the highest image quality and field of view at a price point under $2,000. This is an ideal device to support much of the basic flight and maintenance training that must be accomplished across the industry.”

• Pico Neo 2 Eye/Neo 3 Pro Eye. Pico deferred CAT queries about its offerings to the commercial pilot training market to VTR’s Parker. The executive explained VTR’s FlightDeckToGo 737-800 product is currently in use with VA Airline Training in the UK for APS MCC students, using the Pico Neo 2 Eye. More significant, “We are in active discussions with numerous airlines and training providers in the EU and United States. We are currently transitioning all our content to the Pico Neo 3 Pro Eye” – as VTR has found “the Pico Neo 3 Pro Eye currently offers the most effective training platform for the early-stage airline pilot curriculum due to its fully mobile capabilities, allowing the pilot to train anytime and almost

Shall we go to the next level?

New H145 FTD simulator

FNPT and FTD helicopter simulators www.entrol.net

Since 2005

C AT M A G A Z I N E 1 . 2 0 2 2

23

IMMERSION HARDWARE anywhere.” The Pico website notes, beyond Tobii eye tracking, the headset is “the world's first XR platform that unites 5G and AI.” • Microsoft HoloLens. Camille Elmenhurst, Microsoft Media Relations Team Member, noted in one use case, “Using Microsoft HoloLens, Japan Airlines has developed two solutions to provide supplemental training for engine mechanics, and for flight crew trainees who want to be promoted to co-pilot status. With HoloLens, they have a detailed hologram in front of their eyes that will display cockpit devices and switches that they can operate themselves, with visual and voice guidance provided through HoloLens.”

• HP Omnicept platform & HP Reverb G2 Omnicept Edition VR headset.

Conor Driscoll, HP spokesperson, noted the company’s offering provides VR with biometric insights and a cost-effective approach to immersive flight simulation, which may be paired with platform inertia mechanics or not, depending on level of immersion and realism being sought.

He added, “The most significant benefit will be after-action review. Being able to understand cognitive load in context of important actions and decisions that must be made in the moment during a simulation exercise. Being able to review afterwards and remember the stress or complexity of influence and how it relates to mental load provides opportunity for critical insights and learning. This combines with eye-tracking information, so attention and focus are documented along with level of mental exertion.” The HP Store website noted the VR headset costs an attention-getting $499.

• JVCKenwood HMD-VS1W. The HMD-VS1W head-mounted display reportedly allows users to view virtual images while operating actual equipment through MR, which combines the real and virtual worlds. This MR-capable HMD is further said to enable applications including simulators. Two of the HMD’s attributes to bring state-of-the-art technology to learning scenarios is its 5K total horizontal resolution and 120x45 FOV.

Tools Beyond Headsets Articles beyond headsets are helping to more fully immerse training audiences in scenarios.

24

C AT M A G A Z I N E 1 . 2 0 2 2

Amanda Bentley, Senior Director of Sales and Business Development, Tobii Technology, noted A/M/V/XR-enabled pilot training has seen fast-growing interest and called attention to the adoption of eye tracking. “A good training experience depends on an insightful evaluation, a powerful VR/AR/XR headset, and an immersive training experience,” she noted, and offered two examples of leveraging Tobii eye tracking in pilot training are Cineon Training and VTR. In one instance, Tobii eye tracking allows developers to verify effectiveness before content development, and focus on content that drives results. Trainers are empowered with analytics and insights from eye tracking to evaluate and enhance the training and performance of trainees.

Tobii is casting a wide net for hardware and other partners to expand its business ecosystem. Bentley noted Tobii eye tracking allows for a high-performing headset without compromise in rich content or higher frame rate requirement through foveated rendering, and added, “It also helps standalone devices to run longer sessions with better battery life. The mainstream enterprise VR devices in the market, like HP Reverb G2 Omnicept Edition, Pico Neo 3 Pro Eye and Neo 2 Pro Eye, and Vive Pro Eye, are all integrated with Tobii eye tracking.”

Best Practices: Flight Training VRpilot strongly believes that VR is a powerful tool to increase the quality and flexibility of pilot training. “It also holds the potential of big cost savings, both on simulator and instructor resources and travel expenses as remote training is possible,” Andersen emphasized. “EASA is supportive of the emergence of immersive technologies in flight training, and various working groups at EASA are working on how to credit training tools like these in the future.”

Andersen pointed out this is a powerful training technology that enables faster learning and better knowledge retention.

He added, “Using VR training will prepare the pilots better for simulator passes or real flying, as many learning objectives may

Above JVCKenwood’s new HMD-VS1W capabilities include 5K total horizontal resolution and 120 x 45 field of view.

Image credit: JVCKenwood.

Opposite VRpilot's scenarios include multi-crew training for the A320.

Image credit: VRpilot.

be trained in a flexible and cost-efficient manner with VR, increasing the quality of the time spent in FSTDs or the real aircraft. Self-training VR scenarios have proven to save instructor resources as students are able to learn procedures, cockpit layouts, callouts, etc. by themselves.”

VRpilot’s current customers include military, ab initio schools and airlines. He noted, “We are expanding our customer portfolio to include training centers, such as BAA Training, with whom we signed a contract during EATS.” They also signed Sunclass Airlines at Halldale/CAT’s EATS 2021 in Berlin. Sunclass will be using VRflow to support its A320s. The Copenhagen-headquartered carrier’s chief pilot and trainer, Nicolai Bondo Rasmussen, initially explained his airline will use Pico VR goggles and VRflow: “The setup will be used in a competency-based approach, where we want to improve the application of procedures, knowledge and leadership and teamwork, to allow for a cognitive spare capacity when the crew enter the fullflight simulator.” The airline was expecting to recall a group of pilots who have been absent from flying for almost two years. “VR will allow the pilots to train and rehearse in the virtual flightdeck.

We believe this will prepare the pilots for a smooth transition back into the flightdeck and eventually result in better usage of the simulator time. We expect to

see less need for extra training with this preparation.”

Rasmussen pointed out VR can support and instruct the pilots performing their procedures and flows. “We have an embedded instruction that will highlight the correct sequence in procedures and flows, tailored to both PF and PM. The pilots can enter the same virtual flightdeck from their respective homes, and thereby train together in both roles. We will assign an instructor to some of the sessions to support them and also to assess the level of competence before and after the use of VR.” An oft-noted observation CAT has heard is that A/M/V/XR will, for the foreseeable future, complement, and not replace, full-flight simulators. Rasmussen emphasized, “The backbone of our high safety standard is the use of the full-flight simulator; however, I see a huge potential in the use of VR in a competency-based training approach,” and noted, “I believe we should have a talk about the right tool for the right task, e.g., cockpit preparation in a full-flight simulator occupies a substantial amount of time and forms a costly training environment. I further believe this could be performed in VR, allowing the pilots to make better use of the full-flight simulator. Low-visibility training could also be performed or some special airport training, where the focus is on local knowledge and awareness.”

VRpilot observed that despite the

enormous training potential of A/M/V/ XR, it doesn’t believe that it will replace full-motion Level D simulators. Andersen noted they expect immersive technologies to fulfill a significant part of the learning objectives of a type rating, with authorities (FAA, EASA) recognizing and crediting hours spent using these devices. “As the AR technology matures, we expect this technology to be a supplement in the actual simulator where visual aids and training guidance may be overlaid on the physical cockpit.”

VTR’s Parker elaborated that the most compelling value-add of VR is in the early stages of new hire pilot and new aircraft transition training. He pointed out this stage involves aircraft systems and routine task training to bring pilots up to a minimum knowledge and proficiency level necessary to function and learn more advanced skills in an FSTD with a flight instructor. Parker added, “We can now train a pilot in actual systems operations, routine normal and non-normal procedures and validate their procedures proficiency in the flight deck before they arrive at their first simulator event. All this training is delivered anytime and anywhere on a fully mobile, untethered, no computer or internet required, virtual reality device.”

Parker emphasized the value-add is, “We can deliver an entire month of this new training capability, in most cases, for less than the cost of a single four-hour full-flight simulator period and collect almost any KPI data that airlines need.”

Training Device Provider Perspective Randy Gawenda, Business Development Manager at Frasca International (now part of FlightSafety International), thinks there is some growing demand in this sector, which is somewhat paced by the advancement in technology of various HMDs. “Some of that demand also depends on the size of the operator and the throughput, or quantity of student pilots needing to be trained at any given organization in conjunction with the rest of the training system. As the civil/commercial training experts on Halldale’s XR webinar pointed out, this realm is approaching these types of devices as supplements or enhancements to the C AT M A G A Z I N E 1 . 2 0 2 2

25

IMMERSION HARDWARE more traditional training tools, not as substitutes or replacements. If lowerlevel tasks of orientation and familiarization can be done via a cheaper, yet effective method, then there is certainly value there. Those organizations can help streamline and become more efficient, potentially, by a thought-out, deliberate application of these newer training aids.”

Frasca reports it has delivered 10 “pure VR devices” that it modified to become more type-specific to the customer’s aircraft. “This included adding a high-fidelity flight model, main panel instrumentation relevant to the aircraft type, and added visual elements for the training area for the customer. We are close to finalizing a contract for another group of devices, this time with a mixedreality solution.” Gawenda added, “By early 2022, we will have experience with both VR and MR types of training devices.”

Challenges and Limitations While the commercial aviation training community’s demand signal trends upward for more A/M/V/XR-enabled learning solutions, challenges and limitations remain.

Burwell first noted Varjo has invested “a tremendous amount into building HMDs that reduce or eliminate cyber sickness,” pointing out recent studies have shown that an improperly adjusted interpupillary distance (IPD) is the cause of 40% of all cyber sickness, so Varjo headsets come standard with a built-in eye tracker that automatically adjusts the IPD every time a user puts on the device.

A second human performance issue involves eye strain, which can be caused by forcing the visual system to integrate low-resolution scenes, especially when the content is displayed close to the eye.

“Varjo devices minimize the effects of eye strain by displaying scenes at humaneye resolution,” the executive added.

Elsewhere, mixed-reality visual systems that rely on video captured by cameras can create visual anomalies, including double imaging and mis-matched scenes with virtual content. Burwell noted the Varjo video-pass-through capture system provides synchronized video to the GPU (graphics processing unit) in less than 20msecs, enabling the seam26

C AT M A G A Z I N E 1 . 2 0 2 2

less integration of real and virtual content. In addition, Varjo devices support time-warp capabilities to compensate for graphics systems that generate new frames less than 60Hz, reducing the effects of lag and increased transport delay.

Finally, Varjo headsets are said to all come with a built-in fan that circulates air away from the eyes to eliminate fogging.

From its OEM vantage point, Frasca still sees a limitation in resolution in certain HMDs and headsets, as well as a limited FOV, in some cases, both direct FOV as well as peripheral.

Gawenda: “However, I think the training community is getting much better in understanding these limitations and applying the tool to only the training tasks that the tool best supports. In pure VR, the tactile operation of knobs and switches is either lacking or requires special gloves and haptic sensors to help simulate operation of the knobs and switches. There are also limitations in terms of avionics functionality, especially glass flight decks with integrated PFDs, MFDs, FMSs, and AFCSs.” The OEM has observed when they move to MR applications, this mitigates some of these issues. However, the quality of the HMD can still present some limitations.

Tobii is working on a next-generation eye-tracking platform that addresses the challenges of future hardware form factors.

Bentley concluded, “We are also working on OpenXR, which is an open, royalty-free standard for access to VR and AR platforms and devices.”

Not Only for Aircrews The commercial aviation learning enterprise is stepping up its pace to integrate VR and AR training products into its aircrews’ curricula. The technology envelopes for these products are expanding, providing an opportunity for more onboard tasks to be offloaded from the supported aircraft and even FFS onto lower-level training devices. As costs for these articles continue to decrease, and they become more capable with AI and other enablers, more ATOs and other organizations will invest in these products. At the same time this market and other adjacent S&T markets are due to rapidly expand with the stand up of eVTOL carriers and their supporting training organizations. cat

Above Tobii eye tracking is used in (TACET) Training Aircrew Competency using Eye Tracking by UK company Cineon.

Image credit: Tobii.

WHEN WAS YOUR L AST WATER L ANDING? TRY IT AT WATS - BOOTH 404

IMMERSE YOUR CREW, TRAIN THEM BET TER

A/M/V/XR MTX TRAINING

Still Seeking to Gain Traction While there is active collaboration between industry suppliers and maintenance schoolhouses to expand A/M/V/XR’s reach into curricula, Group Editor Marty Kauchak reports there are perceived technology gaps and other challenges.

T

here is a brisk pace of research and development, and related early lifecycle activities in this learning technology sector. Given the current, but evolving, maturity levels of the A/M/V/XR technology bases, end users and their suppliers are tending toward VR solutions for aspiring and current maintainers.

Shantanu Gupta, founder and managing director, Tecknotrove Systems (Mumbai, India), explained VR presents a highly immersive form of training which is cost effective and impactful at the same time. The executive noted during the Covid-19 pandemic, teams have been away from their work environments, often for a long period of time, and hence are disconnected from regular operations. Refresher training is therefore becoming increasingly important to help the workforce become productive. “VR plays a critical role to achieve these training goals by teleporting the trainee into an environment that’s close to real. Complete immersion in the environment allows the trainee to focus on the task and learn better. The in-built voice instructions intelligently guide the trainee to identify faults and take the correct course of action.”

When compared to AR, VR immerses people into a completely virtual environment – sometimes employing multiple senses (sight, smell, touch, sound). “On the other hand, AR which works on mobiles or tablets could be distracting as it merges with your real environment. Once the trainee puts on the VR headset, we have his or her full attention. In addition, with VR, we are able to design step-by-step training modules that allow our users to safely interact with not only the object but also the surrounding environment,” Gupta explained.

28

C AT M A G A Z I N E 1 . 2 0 2 2

Tecknotrove provides a performance report generated at the end of each module that determines the training effectiveness and training gaps. Gupta said, “It has been studied and observed that people take training more seriously when immersed completely. Hence, we have noticed that virtual reality is preferred over AR by the industries, especially for critical training applications.”

This part of Tecknotrove’s portfolio has included work with airports, airlines, ground handlers and MROs. A partial list of the firm’s expanding customer roster includes SIA Engineering Company, Qatar Airways, Indira Gandhi International Airport, Çelebi and Dubai International Airport. Gupta noted his company’s training solutions have helped its customers to train their staff on critical applications under complete safety.

“Leading companies from around the world are using TecknoSIM VR solutions to train their engineers on ramp safety and aircraft inspection – post-arrival and pre-departure. VR training is designed for a complete range of narrow- and widebody commercial aircraft. VR puts the trainee in front of a virtual aircraft and

Above While LTT does not use any A/M/V/ XR applications during its training sessions, the company “is constantly working on prototypes and are testing various use cases.”

Image credit: Lufthansa Technical Training.

allows them to learn and master their skills in maintenance, repair and overhaul of an aircraft.”

Tecknotrove has set up simulationbased training centers for its aviation customers around the world. “These training centers offer training for multiple functional areas including line maintenance, MRO and ramp operations. Training is further localized by recreating custom airsides, regional languages and by incorporating the operations challenges.

TecknoSIM Simulation Training Centres have helped clients move from conventional analog training methodology to a digital experience-based training. This adoption of digital training has helped in reducing total training time substantially and at the same time improve the training effectiveness.”

While Tecknotrove uses VR headsets from HTC and Oculus, Gupta noted, “We are continuously updating our software to ensure their compatibility with the latest VR hardware available for training.”

Attention-Getters for Instructional Designers As VR is delivering instances of maintenance training, it’s also critical to manage expectations for the broader community. Several training organizations have invested in these learning capabilities and continue to do so in pilot projects.

Yet, other major businesses and training enterprises are waiting for additional returns on investment from A/M/V/XR before using them in their instructional designs. And still other prospective end users have outright decided not to embrace these capabilities at this time.

Of added significance, while organizations ponder using A/M/V/XR, they continue to use other enabling learning technologies as bridges to support their next-generation training constructs.

One end-user perspective was provided by Panagiotis Poligenis, head of Business Development, Strategy and Innovation at Lufthansa Technical Training (Frankfurt, Germany), who noted for the time being his organization does not use any A/M/V/XR applications during its training sessions. “Nevertheless,” he added, “we are constantly working on prototypes and are testing various use cases. We have demonstrated our capa-

bility to provide customized state-of-the-art training solutions for many use cases and this is part of our ‘DNA.’” According to the LTT executive, the key principle has always been to develop high-quality training for its clients based on contemporary training methods, efficiency and providing the right level of skills and knowledge for the participants. “Having said this, we have experienced a number of advantages by applying a well-balanced mix of different media during our training sessions and focusing on alternate modes.”

In one instance, LTT deploys, in almost all its type-training sessions, customized and internally developed 360° panoramic viewer tools based on high-resolution photos. Poligenis reported this is not only reducing the time for practical training at the aircraft – by transferring practical tasks into the classroom session – but also is being used by students to familiarize with the entire aircraft outside the training session. “This has proven to be a cost-efficient solution and is providing a more realistic user experience than a digital simulation that would be deployed via VR/MR/AR,” he emphasized.

Poligenis added, “This does not necessarily mean that we are not experimenting and prototyping applications for mixed reality. To the contrary, we believe that VR/MR/AR can be a great method to enhance practical training elements and to improve the entire learning experience. However, it can be only one part of a complete and integrated training concept.”

LTT views these emergent technologies as “excellent” for providing procedural training for certain elements during engine run-up. “It is definitely an ideal solution to allow training participants a familiarization with the environment and specific procedures without necessarily occupying a full-flight simulator that comes at a cost.”

Poligenis’s critique of the current A/M/V/XR technology baseline should provide a vital datum point for S&T industry suppliers and developers, as he observed the use of immersive virtual environments has other limitations: “Especially when it is crucial for a learning objective to have a certain ‘touch and feel’ of components or activating a button in the cockpit, the technology is not there yet. Or in other words, developing virtual

Above Tecknotrove's Shantanu Gupta noted with VR-based courses, “employees are trained up to four times faster and more effective than traditional training.”

Image credit: Tecknotrove.

C AT M A G A Z I N E 1 . 2 0 2 2

29

A/M/V/XR MTX TRAINING training sessions including kinesthetic and/or tactile haptic feedback is quite expensive,” he said. “We trust that the technological progress will support the development of cost-effective and realistic solutions in the near future. We are working constantly on developing the right cost-effective training solutions with a well-balanced mix of methods.

We believe in immersive virtual environments as enhancement of hands-on training whenever there is an excellent cost-benefit ratio.”

Another end-user insight on the emerging potential of A/M/V/XR in maintenance training was offered by Zilvinas Lapinskas, CEO at FL Technics (Vilnius, Lithuania), who emphasized the organization believes virtual reality to be a breakthrough technology for MRO companies. “FL Technics has been exploring AR, VR and XR solutions since early 2017 focusing on four key areas of operations – virtual reality training, support of augmented reality, drone inspection and automated NDT [non-destructive testing], and predictive maintenance.”

The company’s digital training solutions, including AR/VR/XR, at this stage are tailored to initial training and induction, since the material and courses for a higher level of education (e.g., engineers, certifying staff) need to be aligned and approved by the regulators (national and global).

Since it involves OEMs, the process is time-consuming and is currently on hold due to the pandemic. Lapinskas continued that modernizing basic training for maintenance mechanics and support staff (e.g., warehouse logisticians and others) is a good starting point, “and FL Technics’ experience with innovative technologies is a great proof of potential in the MRO business, while our pilot projects using AR/VR/XR technologies really appeal to the younger generation of specialists.”

FL Technics provided yet another vital insight for the developers of A/M/V/ XR gear, when its CEO pointed out current activities bring up the “key challenge” – a gap of quality/precision, etc., when it comes to applying A/M/V/XR in practice, especially in base maintenance, non-destructive testing, and similar cases, where new technologies still need 30

C AT M A G A Z I N E 1 . 2 0 2 2

However, airBaltic’s Corporate Communication Unit (Riga, Latvia) told CAT, “airBaltic does not currently use AR/VR/ XR technologies for maintenance personnel training. The company has tested some solutions in the past, however has no specific plans of introducing them.”

A Regulator’s Policy Position

Above "We are excited to see what is out there for this next generation of training, and VR, AR and XR are definitely on the table to look into.” - Josh Rawlins, Epic Flight Academy.

Image credit: Epic Flight Academy.

to be adapted and developed to meet the highest standards of quality.

Lapinskas concluded FL Technics has a sharp vision and strong focus on digitalization, based on its best practices in MRO and LEAN-driven processes.

“Thus, we aim to get back on track with the development of these technologies in near future and do hope our input will allow us to certify and approve the AR/VR/XR with relevant regulators and organizations.”

Josh Rawlins, COO and Board member at Epic Flight Academy (Edgewater, Florida), told CAT his organization has always invested in technology for its flight training program with new model glass-cockpit aircraft as well as working with a top simulator manufacturer (Frasca) to custom-build a full-motion training simulator.

“This generation has grown up surrounded by technology, and that is what they respond to. We plan to follow the path with our aircraft mechanic training program. We will be attending the ATEC [Aviation Technician Education Council] conference, and we are excited to see what is out there for this next generation of training. VR, AR and XR are definitely on the table to look into.”

From a regulatory perspective, the US lags behind EASA in encouraging and even qualifying A/M/V/XR in aviation training devices, with EASA having qualified its first VR-based flight training device in Spring 2021.

In terms of the FAA and, more specifically, advancing the maintenance training technology baseline, an FAA spokesperson told CAT, “FAA regulations do not address the use of virtual reality, mixed reality or augmented reality in aviation maintenance training. The FAA is not currently proposing a regulation for this technology. A training organization can ask the FAA for authorization to incorporate this technology as part of its training curriculum.”

Other S&T companies, and in particular the suppliers of professionalgrade VR-headsets, declined invitations to provide insights. An attention-getting response, provided on background, from one major headset supplier, noted there was a sufficient lack of activity in the maintenance training market that precluded them from providing meaningful contributions.

One of the reported efforts to expand the technology baseline for A/M/V/XR enablers will occur at Tecknotrove. The company will build content for critical training areas for the aviation sector during “the next 12-24 months that will be integrated to our cloud-based training management system to offer ‘asset-lite’ VR solutions for our clients. Thus, making training cost effective and impactful at the same time,” said Gupta. Over the coming months, Tecknotrove will also be expanding its list of modules to cover the full scope of maintenance training.

As the demand for A/M/V/XR increases for pilot training, there are certain to be synergies and other demands creating a pull for these technologies to cross over into the maintenance learning enterprise. cat

BUSINESS AVIATION

BizAv Boom Stresses Training System

Covid-fueled business aviation demand is creating shortages of aircraft, as well as qualified pilots and maintainers.

Chuck Weirauch spoke with industry leaders about the training community’s response.

T

he business aviation market is currently taking off like never before in its history, mainly due to travelers shunning commercial flights during Covid-19 and choosing private flight options. While the aviation community welcomes this comeback from the darkest days of the pandemic in 2020, this trend is creating some previously unforeseen challenges for the industry.

The increasing demand for business aircraft, in particular from firms that had previously not considered such a purchase, is putting a strain on both aircraft manufacturers and resellers as well in their efforts to meet this new trend. Business aviation training providers are also feeling the squeeze, as they struggle to schedule new business aircraft crews for training via a limited number of training programs and training devices, particularly for some older aircraft types. And most training aircraft are older legacy types, with few if any available.

22.78% from the previous year. For 2021, the publication reported a major increase, a total of 5,099,528 of such operations.

That number reflects an increase of 45.65% in operations in just one year, an overall record.

It's early days to determine the impact on business aviation from the fallout of the war in Ukraine, but impacts certainly include oil prices and supplies of titanium and other materials used in aircraft production. Closure of Russian airspace impacts routes between the US and Asia-Pacific countries, adding up to five hours flight time for the detour.

Aircraft Demand Spiking

Tight Market Expected for Months

According to the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA) 2021 General Aviation Aircraft Shipments and Billings Report released recently, “overall, when compared to 2020, all aircraft segments saw an increase in shipments and preliminary aircraft deliveries valued at $25.2 billion, an increase of 10.2 percent.” (Turboprop aircraft deliveries increased by 19%, business jet deliveries by 10.2%).

The FAA Business Jet Report for February 2022 also reflects these trends in business aviation. The document shows a total of 3,501,192 business jet operations conducted in 2020, a decline of

The training community leaders who spoke with CAT confirmed the rapid growth of business aviation and described how this trend will impact the industry.

“We certainly see this trend of moving to flying private continuing for 2022 and 2023, for sure, and likely beyond,” said Richard Meikle, Executive Vice President for Safety and Regulatory

Above FlightSafety International provides the ground school portion of its recurrent training programs online through the instructor-led LiveLearning training system.

Image credit: FlightSafety International.

C AT M A G A Z I N E 1 . 2 0 2 2

31

BUSINESS AVIATION Compliance for FlightSafety International; Meikle also represents FSI-Textron Aviation Training. “As a result, the new aircraft market has gotten very tight, and the used aircraft market has gotten even tighter.”

Jeff Wofford, Director of Aviation and Chief Pilot for network infrastructure provider CommScope and Chair of the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) Safety Committee, described the trend as “going gangbusters, with business aircraft inventory going lower than perhaps it has ever been before.

Vance Ontjes, Director of Sales and Customer Service for TRU Simulation + Training, a Textron company, noted that based on what we know today, the demand for business aviation travel can be anticipated to grow over the next decade. This will naturally result in more demand for business aviation training needs, he added.

Stress Test for Trained Personnel The need to train more business aviation pilots and maintainers is stressing training providers in their efforts to meet the demand.

“We have a number of our devices running full capacity 20 hours a day, and some of these airframes are in the legacy category,” Meikle reported. “So there is no question that there is a bit of a constraint out there. And unfortunately, what this is driving some people to do is play training in the aircraft instead of a simulator, and that does not give you anywhere near the same level of ability to train pilots and the technical maneuvers.”

Instructor availability has always been an issue for providers, and that situation is becoming more of a challenge.

Ontjes noted that increasing demand for business pilot training will further increase the need to recruit and retain high-quality simulator instructors.

“I think the biggest challenge is that with all of the airplanes on the market, both new and legacy, operators will have a hard time getting training scheduled,” Wofford added. “For example, now you can’t get additional training slots for the Challenger 300 and 350 platforms because the simulators are all booked up.”

32

C AT M A G A Z I N E 1 . 2 0 2 2

Threat to Air Safety?

The consensus is that the shortage of qualified pilots and maintainers is the most significant challenge to air safety. NBAA Safety Committee chair Wofford is responsible for overseeing the committee’s many safety-related education programs for the association’s membership. The primary emphasis of these programs is the improvement of pilot training.

“I think that one of the primary safety issues for this year and for the near future is the fact that we are in the middle of a pretty severe pilot shortage,” Wofford emphasized. “With the rapid expansion of business aviation, we are going to wind up with an influx of new pilots. If we are not careful about how training is implemented for them, we are going to see some issues with the newer guys and gals in the system. If I could get anything across, it’s that training truly is the key to improving our safety record and making sure that we are building better pilots and maintainers.”

Meikle also feels that the aviation industry needs to make sure that new-entry bizav pilots, some from other categories of aviation, are meeting the high levels of training standards advocated by the industry during the tightening pilot supply for business aviation.

“It’s not unusual to see pilots with lower hours in this category than before going into training,” he pointed out. “They may be used to glass cockpits, but we need to be sure that we are targeting the training to the right entry level. The other thing that we need to acknowledge is the learning style that people are used to. Not only are all pilots not the same, they don’t learn the same way either.”

AMT Shortage, Too, Maybe Worse The shortage of aircraft maintenance personnel is as much a threat to safety in the business aviation arena as it is for commercial aviation, according to Wofford and Meikle.

“The pilot shortage is critical, but the AMT shortage will be catastrophic if we don’t do something,” Wofford emphasized.” It doesn’t matter how many pilots we have to fly these airplanes

Above “The AMT shortage will be catastrophic if we don’t do something.” - Jeff Wofford, Chair, NBAA Safety Committee.

Image credit: TAG Aviation.

Opposite CAE and Beta Technologies have formed a strategic partnership to develop pilot and maintenance training programs for the Alia eVTOL aircraft.

Image credit: Beta Technologies.

AAM/eVTOL Training Emerging

if we don’t have the people to maintain them. This is something we really have to work on.”

“As you know, the shortage of maintenance technicians is likely to be as high or if not worse than the pilot shortage,” Meikle agreed. “I think that the maintenance training space is under-emphasized by many operators, since it is not as critical to them as pilot training. In response, we have been focusing quite aggressively on the maintenance training side.”

cited the success of FSI’s latest effort in this category: its online instructor-led LiveLearning concept employs simulation, but the student and instructor are in different locales during training sessions. Meikle also cited the company’s new partnership with GE Digital to bring actual Corporate FOQA (C-FOQA)-based flight data into its corporate jet flight training simulators to enhance business aviation training and reduce risk.

Advanced Technologies More Affordable Simulation a Solution?

To meet the demand for more business aviation pilots, there is a need for more simulation devices to be available in more convenient locations at more affordable prices than those charged when employing traditional full-flight simulators, Ontjes said. He pointed out that this notion has been advanced by ICAO 9265, an internationally recognized set of FSTD evaluation guidelines.

“We believe the future of flight training includes advanced, more economical devices, so we’re investing in developing the best business aircraft FTDs that balance cost without sacrificing quality,” Ontjes added.

Another means to provide lowercost training across a wider domain is distance learning, a training delivery mechanism that has more than proved its worth during the pandemic. Meikle

With advanced technologies such as virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and extended reality (XR) technologies becoming incorporated into flight simulation, CAT asked these training experts just how much value they might add into corporate flight training. While all encourage the integration of emerging technologies into training devices, Wofford and Ontjes disagree as to which might be the best for business aviation training.

“It appears that AR is likely better suited for type-rated pilot training than VR,” Ontjes said. “VR has a bright future for initial license training for new pilots or in very specific scenarios. However, it appears limited in its use for experienced business aviation pilots.”

Wofford feels that the potential for VR application in aircraft training “is phenomenal.” With VR, you can build a generic airplane cockpit and do all kinds of training, he stated.

While not quite ready for prime time, it’s clear that aircraft and systems in the emerging Advanced Air Mobility (AAM) category will play a major role in the future of business aviation. In response, training providers such as FSI, TRU and CAE are getting ready to play a significant role in training for these systems.

CAE seems to be a bit ahead of the game by promoting an AAM pilot training program, citing a coming need for a “sizeable amount” of electric Vertical Takeoff and Landing (eVTOL) aircraft pilots in the near future. The Canadian training provider has formed a partnership with Vermont-based Beta Technologies for the development of a pilot and maintenance training program for its Alia eVTOL aircraft. CAE also has training arrangements with eVTOL developers Volocopter, Jaunt, and Joby.

According to Ontjes, Textron is involved in many aspects of AAM, and TRU is engaged with the teams leading these efforts to determine how training fits into the equation.

Earlier this month, FlightSafety and NetJets, the largest private aviation company in the world, signed an MoU with Lilium for a proposed strategic partnership.

Meikle told us that the FSI organization has a team focused on business development of all aspects associated with AAM. “This is an interesting space, and one of the challenges that we are still trying to figure out is the direction that this is going to go,” Meikle summarized. “Namely, how are the regulators going to certify the AAM devices as airplanes, VTOLs, helicopters, or vertical lift systems. Everything is a bit out there right now.”

Boost to Simulation Regardless of what amount or levels of pilot or maintenance training will be required for any business aircraft platforms, the industry is sure to see much more simulation to help meet the need for qualified personnel, Wofford stated.

“This is where simulation technology can come in and help bolster the training,” he concluded. “With simulation, you are really going to be able to improve the number of people that you put through the training program.” cat C AT M A G A Z I N E 1 . 2 0 2 2

33

CABIN CREW TRAINING

Duct Tape and Other Sticky Scenarios Bite-size info bits, realistic training equipment and self-defense lessons.

Rona Gindin explores some growing parts of cabin crew training.

7

50 for Eurowings! 400 at Virgin Atlantic! 1,100 at easyJet! Headlines around the world shout out demand for cabin crew employees as airlines fill thousands of jobs.

Once the candidates are hired, they learn to serve beverages, put out fires … and handle, for example, the disruptive gentleman yelling in 14C. Now more than ever, aviation recruits must become adept at diffusing out-of-control customers. It’s crucial.

Otherwise, a situation can escalate so badly that a flight attendant needs to bop the troublemaker over the head with a coffee pot. #truestory #notfunny How? It takes a fresh approach combined with tried-andtrue classic techniques.

Who’s Getting Trained?

Airlines are filling loads of cabin crew spots after pandemic-era furloughs and layoffs. They’re also looking toward the massive growth they’d expected before travel shut down. In all, commercial aviation will hire up to 886,000 cabin crew members over the next 20 years, according to a Boeing forecast, ‘Pilot and Technician Outlook 2021-2040’. Add in refresher courses for employees returning to their airline or another after a lapse, plus standard annual recurrent training, and the need for training sessions spikes yet more. “Regulatory requirements, attrition replacement and business model differentiation will drive strong cabin crew demand across the industry,” the forecast concludes.

As a result, airlines are busy-busy with two related efforts: 1. Recruiting and training unprecedented numbers of cabin crew employees, and 2. Synthesizing newish technologies such as app-based learning, virtual classrooms and realistic simulators with traditional “practical” cabin crew training methods.

34

C AT M A G A Z I N E 1 . 2 0 2 2

Here’s what stands out:

The ABCs of De-escalation Yelling, drinking, sparring about politics, refusing to buckle up, attempting to enter the flight deck… passengers on commercial airline flights have acted unruly throughout the decades. During the first two years of the Covid-19 pandemic, though, the numbers surged – up to nearly 6,000 flyers were reported as unruly in 2021, according to the US Federal Aviation Administration. Incidents often started when passengers refused to wear face masks, then got nasty when flight attendants insisted. Mask mandates are less common now, yet seat belt resistance, inebriation, mental illness and even potential attempted hijacking cause behavior that ranges from unpleasant to unsafe.

Enter de-escalation training. Some airlines have increased their focus on teaching cabin crew how to calm passengers down. In addition, the FAA published best-practice guidelines at year-end 2021 explaining the “common elements of de-escalation” as “(1) the attempt to reduce the use of heightened, disproportionate, or harsh responses to perceived conflict, and (2) the attempt

Above The Crew Member Self Defense Training program teaches airline personnel how to protect themselves from physical attacks.

Image credit: TSA.

to reduce heightened negative emotions present in the situation.”

Airlines sometimes bring in outside experts to teach de-escalation skills in depth. The goal: influence behavioral change. A class of cabin crew members listen to a speaker, watch videos, analyze what they saw in the videos, then role play in de-escalation workshops

by Empower Communications Group of Boston. The founders are two police officers (one retired) who share communication strategies that law enforcement officers use on the job. Their techniques are modeled on law enforcement deescalation best practices.

Flight attendants are taught subjects such as how to assess emotions, for example, anger versus rage. Then they’re shown how to de-escalate. Suggestions include establishing a rapport with the passenger, says Empower co-owner Jose Alfonso, and demonstrating empathy by saying you feel similarly. Use statements like, “I don’t want to wear my mask [or seat belt] either, but government regulations require it.”

Body language matters. Alfonso suggests approaching challenging passengers who haven’t become physically violent by standing or crouching face-forward, with hands in front of the body in a non-threatening manner for protection if needed. “You should never cross your arms during the de-escalation process because it can be perceived as if you are not interested in what is being said and may escalate the situation,” he says. When passengers remain belligerent, flight attendants might invite a coworker to step in, because sometimes the newcomer’s personality won’t clash in the same way. Also: explain calmly that, upon landing, the passenger will be greeted by law enforcement officers.

Assess if there might be a medical reason for the unruly behavior. “A person with low blood sugar can mimic appearing intoxicated,” notes Richard P. Gomez, Vice President of Aviation Products and Management for Phoenix-based MedAire, which runs training modules and has doctors on-call for inflight cabin crew. Cabin crew are ˇ instructed to inquire when the passenger last ate, and also to ask a traveling companion if this behavior is unusual, if

there is an allergy history, and/or if the person is on medication. This is crucial, he emphasizes, in case the passenger needs medical treatment.

Above EDM’s VR Door trainers enable cabin crew to learn safety and emergency procedures for aircraft doors in an immersive virtual environment.

Image credit: EDM.

Them’s Fightin’ Words Now and then altercations get physical.

That’s when the experts defer to each airline’s written policy. Most airlines include short bits on self-defense in their annual recurrent training, says Michael M. Massoni, 1st Vice President and Operational Safety Chairperson of TWU, the Union of Southwest Airlines Flight Attendants.

He points out that more intense training is available in the United States by the Transportation Services Administration. Since 2004, the TSA has invited cabin crew to its Crew Member Self Defense Training (CMSDT) program.

Participation is free and open to all crew members, but airlines don’t always pay for their cabin crew to attend, Massoni notes. “Right now it’s a voluntary program, but we believe there will be a big push to make it mandatory and we support that.”

CMSDT is a four-hour program run by certified instructors and held around the country. “CMSDT teaches the basic fundamentals of self-defense, which include the stance and movement techniques, target areas of the body, personal and field expedient weapons that can be used, power-generating techniques, and

mentally preparing yourself for a confrontation (mindset),” says Max Weitzner, a TSA spokesperson. “The training also includes various upper and lower body strikes, how to protect yourself from strikes being thrown by using blocks and cover techniques, and also how to defend yourself against any hand-held weapons that could be brought aboard the aircraft.”

More than half of the 21,000 people who attended CMSDT since its inception did so during the last six years, Weitzner notes – and that’s with a 16-month pause early in the pandemic.

Blended Tech Teaching Methods Initial and recurrent cabin crew members increased their studying, and pretesting, on assorted personal electronic devices during the pandemic. In-person training was nearly impossible, after all.

Now handhelds join desktops and inperson gatherings in a permanent mixymatchy blend of ways to study skills. The programs keep getting better. For example, the Calgary-based Inflight Institute, which delivers online content allowing C AT M A G A Z I N E 1 . 2 0 2 2

35

CABIN CREW TRAINING trainees to learn skills virtually before attending in-person training sessions, recently added full-motion videos showing 360-degree views inside a cabin interior. Trainees can watch an evacuation including passengers, simulated smoke, and cabin crew operating doors and giving commands.

At Air France, Franck Euzet, Cabin Crew Safety Training & Safety Pro Level Manager, said an optional app made a big difference. Using neuroscience, artificial intelligence and big data, the company designed an app on which cabin crew members can study for new or recurrent training assessments. They learn in chunks, repeat lessons often – especially those they fail – and ultimately retain information longer because of this assessment-based microlearning method. They use the app on their own time, on their own devices, and receive reminders when it’s time to repeat a lesson. Those notifications are based on data about when crucial knowledge declines. The pattern is different depending on how each person performs, making this an adaptive learning tool.

Virtual reality is increasing its presence in the cabin crew training arena.

Millennial and Gen Z recruits are already comfortable with VR technology, notes Mark Rivers, Head of Training for the EDM Aviation Training Academy in Manchester, UK. His company has seen a large uptick in VR interest by airlines in recent months. With VR, trainees wearing special goggles can view realistic images of an aircraft’s interior and perform tasks using either controllers or haptic gloves. “They can see where pieces of equipment are, or go through a decompression scenario,” Rivers explains. VR offers a less expensive way to try and re-try tasks than practical training does, he emphasizes. “The only way cabin crew learn is by getting it wrong when actually doing something and learning from the mistakes.”

Simulation Gets More Realistic Once trainees show up in person, they have access to cabin trainers with more realistic simulation effects than ever, says Hajati Treacher-Moley, Head of Cabin Crew Training for the UK’s Sky36

C AT M A G A Z I N E 1 . 2 0 2 2

borne Aviation. “Now, you sign in on an iPad and you can see the take-off through the window. The aircraft actually moves and has engine noises. It might sway left to right on a big suspension. Big wheels move in,” she says. The aircraft are shells of actual planes held in large warehouses, and the fire training elements are especially convincing. “We can train with fire extinguishers filled with hot air. We see pretend fires, heavy black smoke or white smoke.

We can choose where the fire starts – behind panels, in the toilet waste paper bin or in the oven. This helps drill the lessons of safety drills into the flight attendants. It’s as close as possible to hands-on training.”

Manufacturers are stepping up their replicas to provide realistic hands-on experiences. In response to airline requests for fire simulators better than, essentially, a backyard barbecue grill, Flame Aviation in The Netherlands began making dedicated fire trainers in 2015.

The company’s V9000 Commander, housed in a trailer cabin such as those used as portable offices, lets students practice learning or reviewing fire-training basics. Some sit on a bench in a tribune to watch their peers through a transparent wall. On the other side is a replica of an aircraft with true dimensions, including a galley, rows of seats, overhead storage compartments and a lavatory in the rear.

In the simulator, fires might break out in a laptop or portable power bank, or in an oven, lavatory trash can or overhead bin.

Trainees assess the kind of fire, then take appropriate actions: pull circuit breakers? Use a fire extinguisher (which works for only 10 to 15 seconds, as in a real aircraft), water or both? Are gloves and personal breathing equipment necessary? Who should grab the extinguisher or water and put out the fire, who should stand by with a spare, and who should communicate with the flight deck, and what should that person say?

The number of inflight fires is on the rise because personal electronic devices (PEDs) are causing most of them, says Flame Founder and CEO Robin Pijnaker. “The lithium-ion batteries in smartphones, tablets, laptops and power banks are the biggest reasons for fire on aircraft,” Pijnaker explains. “And most pas-

Above In-flight fires are on the rise because of PEDs. Image credit: Flame Aviation.

Opposite Inflight Institute turned to smartdevice training during the pandemic.

Image credit: Inflight Institute.

sengers carry four of those items.” He reports increased orders for trainers by North American airlines even though authorities don’t require such detailed fire training.

Outsourcing and Virtual Teaching It’s expensive to buy trainers, hire instructors, fly in cabin crew and house them for training, so some airlines are outsourcing initial and/or recurrent training to facilities built just for that purpose. In the UK, EDM has been making trainers for 50 years yet just opened its 20,000-square-foot Aviation Training Academy in 2021. “We can provide this training for cheaper than most airlines can in-house, so I believe there will be a shift toward using third parties,” Rivers says, explaining that his company’s “onestop-shop” now takes on the training for some airlines instead of selling the airlines EDM’s door and slide trainers, and similar products. “Over five days of initial training, 70 percent is done practically,” he adds. Trainees put out real fires, are surrounded by real smoke, open real doors and even slide five to six meters out of the cabin.

No one will ever say cabin crew can learn how to perform CPR in an online classroom better than in person. Yet trainers are introducing clever ways to make off-site training more effective. “E-learning reduces time in the classroom,” says Gomez of MedAire, which trains hundreds of cabin crew and pilots every month from over 130 different aviation operators around the world. He says that at-home options with adapted teaching methods are still effective.

In six short weeks early in the pandemic, MedAire came up with an online version of its eight-hour first aid course that includes all the equipment needed: an inflatable mannequin, a CPR monitor to wear on the wrist, an SAM splint and a medical kit content card. With the kit, trainees can still learn, say, specifically what to do when a doctor says to get the nitroglycerin out of the pouch, including how to wear the gloves and how to administer the product.

How to Better Retain Knowledge Aircraft are safest when cabin crew not only pass tests, but retain deep knowledge about safety issues. In Europe, competency-based training and assessments, or CBTAs, are being implemented widely.

“It’s not necessarily a big thing in North America yet, but it certainly is in Europe,” says Ivan Noel, President of the Inflight Institute. Pilots have benefited from CBTA techniques for a few years, he says, and now airlines are upping their usage for flight attendants.

With competency-based training, software congregates data.

The goal is to crunch numbers to assess which of several “core competency” areas might be responsible for low scores in a certain area. For example, if students uniformly score poorly during performance tests for putting out an in-flight fire, CBTAs might discover why. Using comments by those who assess the trainees, CBTA might discover that testees struggle with knowledge, communication or workload management. The other options are adherence to procedures, problem solving/decision making, situational awareness, and leadership and teamwork. Airlines will use the results to refine training procedures, making them more effective.

It’s no secret that it’s less expensive to retain existing personnel than recruit and train new staff members. For that reason, one cabin crew instructor encourages bringing more of a human element into classroom and virtual training. “Cabin crew can feel burnt out, and feel they’re not being heard,” says Juliana Oliveira, a Netherlands-based flight attendant and cabin crew instructor with Vueling Airlines of Spain.

One way to “humanize” the recurrent training, she suggests, is to have crew members do some of the peer training. “Maybe have one person set up the room, or teach a certain topic,” she says. “That would motivate them and make them feel that they matter.” For initial training, she proposes that experienced flight attendants share their experiences and provide tips on how to survive the first week.

Touch and technology, in-person and online, in realistic trainers as well as virtual worlds... As the aviation industry staffs up again, all options are in play. cat See Them at WATS 2022: Mark Rivers, EDM Aviation Training Academy; Juliana Oliveira, Vueling; Ivan Noël, President, Inflight Institute; Robin Pijnaker, CEO, Flame Aviation; and Richard Gomez, MedAire will be speaking in the WATS Cabin Crew Training Conference, 3-5 May 2022, in Orlando, Florida. The Cabin Crew program is led by Dan Duren – Projects & Continuous Improvement, Southwest Airlines University, and Stefanie Coppedge – Director, Inflight Standards & Training, Frontier Airlines.

• www.wats-event.com/cabin-crew-conference/ C AT M A G A Z I N E 1 . 2 0 2 2

37

REGULATORY COLLABORATION

SATCE Closes the Fidelity Gap

An emerging AI-based technology for flight simulators offers a virtual traffic environment and fully automated synthetic ATC services, enabling a flight crew training experience that is significantly closer to real-world operations, reports Aimée Turner.

S

imulated Air Traffic Control Environment, or ‘SATCE’, automates ATC to the point where its champions claim that combining SATCE with an out-the-window visual system and weather simulation ‘completes’ the synthetic environment. Equally applicable to military and civil, fixed-wing and rotary-wing pilot training, SATCE also provides flight crews with far more realistic workloads in scenario-based training as instructors are freed from having to play the role of controller and consequently have more time to observe.

As SATCE supports the adoption of real-time scenario-based training, it is well placed to enhance competency-based training approaches and programmes such as the Multi-crew Pilot Licence (MPL) and evidence-based training traffic simulation, and ease into use new Air Traffic Management (ATM) procedures associated with the FAA’s NextGen and the EU’s SESAR programme as well as new aircraft technologies such as ADSB-IN and Data Link communications.

While SATCE is not yet required for flight simulation training devices, except by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency for one particular licence, organisations across the global flight training industry are starting to integrate SATCE into their pilot training programmes and flight training devices.

Dr Jeremy Goodman believes that once widely established and proven in training, SATCE will become an essential mandatory component of synthetic flight training programmes. “SATCE will likely be adopted and in use with several training providers by the end of this year,” he tells CAT. Goodman is the SATCE product lead for Quadrant Group. He is also the industry editor for the Flight Simulator Engineering and Maintenance Commit-

38

C AT M A G A Z I N E 1 . 2 0 2 2

tee (FSEMC) Working Group on SATCE that has published ARINC Specification 439A and has helped lead Quadrant’s development of a fully automated, dynamic and interactive SATCE solution.

“The pandemic has served to highlight the case for using SATCE in flight training and in terms of ‘bang for buck’, SATCE delivers a lot of training value and efficiency for the investment. We think it’s the next obvious big jump in simulation fidelity,” Goodman noted.

He points to several reports, including an analysis of voluntary submissions to NASA's Aviation Safety Reporting System (ASRS) by Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, which showed a sharp 1000% increase in the number of incident reports filed by pilots which had a proficiency-related Covid-19 aspect, highlighting the unintended consequences of long periods of absence and lack of recent operational exposure.

“That gap between current simulator experience and real-world operations is particularly obvious concerning the synthetic environment outside the cockpit which is missing complexity without

Above ASTi’s Simulated Air Traffic Control Environment (SATCE) product has been integrated with Simthetiq’s image generator, library of airports and 3D simulation entity models.

Image credit: Simthetiq.

other traffic and realistic ATC. It may never be possible to create a simulation that fully matches real-world complexity, but SATCE serves to further close the gap,” says Goodman.

“Current deficits in the simulation fidelity reduce the ability of regular and refresher flight training to fully prepare pilots for a return to work after a period of not flying,” he says. “SATCE delivers valuable exposure to more realistic operations in the simulator that enhances preparedness. The logic is that higher simulator fidelity incorporating SATCE results in more realistic workloads, greater familiarity with operational procedures, and enhanced training transfer.

These support the development of pilot core competencies that ultimately contribute to building proficiency and resilience. More proficient and resilient flight crews deliver efficient operations and augment flight safety.”

Quadrant has supported trials of its AI-based SATCE solution, ‘INTERACT’, on a full-flight simulator and on several fixed-base high-fidelity FTDs involving

both ab initio and experienced flight crews. INTERACT has been integrated on several simulation platforms and with multiple visual systems, with ongoing development and testing involving FlightSafety International in the US and high-fidelity FTD manufacturer MPS in the Netherlands.

Goodman reports that Quadrant has observed marked benefits during these trials, with interviews after flight crews’ exposure clearly reflecting their enthusiasm. As well as expanding its data to support training at multiple European and North American airports and associated airspace, Quadrant’s recent R&D activity has further involved immersive and 3D gaming technologies, which offer the prospect of exciting new applications. Indeed, Goodman says integrating SATCE with 3D VR environments makes perfect sense as this adds missing traffic and realistic radio and data communications, even arguing that XR-based training tools actually require SATCE, as old ways of simulating ATC using human actors are impossible.

Communication Muscle Memory SATCE’s champions also cite the technology’s ability to support the adoption and use of ICAO Standard Phraseology for radio communications and so supports the use of the English language in simulator training for nonnative English speakers. Nick Papadopoli believes the value of this is significant.

He worked for Adacel as a subject matter expert at a time when the business was the sole developer of a SATCE solution and still works on continually improving all aspects of SATCE operations. A commercial pilot, he understands SATCE from a crucial safety perspective. “I would say that SATCE is primarily a safety enhancer,” Papadopoli says. “The principles of flying are Aviate, Navigate and Communicate, and the communications aspect remains the weakest link in the chain. It is a recurring data point where incident analysis demonstrates that communications invariably stand to be enhanced because in a lot of cases it comes down to a lack of focus on applying

Training in empty skies?

Quadrant offers fully automated traffic and ATC communications

INTERACT is Quadrant Group’s proven AI-based SATCE solution, supporting ab initio to advanced civil and military pilot training.

Available for integration across all flight training device types.

Videos: vimeo.com/quadrantinteract Demos: available on request

quadrantinteract.com

C AT M A G A Z I N E 1 . 2 0 2 2

39

REGULATORY COLLABORATION standard Aviation English which, if it is not used in the correct way, leaves you wide open to misinterpretation. All too often the holes will line up to create the Swiss cheese model.”

Papadopoli says SATCE is a tool to exercise and practise depending on the level of fidelity in use which means that if the AI component in SATCE is good, practise can happen. “It gives context to training which is crucial. It does not matter how much you practise, your training needs to correlate the input with the most effective response, especially in an emergency situation. The communications ‘muscle memory’ must be developed so it’s not neglected or rushed.”

He insists that flight crew need to be as good as controllers in terms of their high, rigorous standards which are frequently quality tested and recommends that SATCE become standard for all early career pilots. “Covid has resulted in a huge number of inexperienced pilots with less operational experience,” he argues, “creating a global workforce that is ‘not entirely versed’ in how to apply their communications training.” This is, in his opinion, a deficiency that is more serious, he says, in non-native speakers. Papadopoli advises airlines to test their early career flight crew with emergency scenarios to find their weakest point but also more experienced crews too, pointing out that “they may have experience in managing the flight but they may have scant experience managing the operation.”

Five Years in the Field Neil Waterman is ASTi’s Commercial Aviation Director, which has delivered 52 systems across a significant variety of devices. The first ASTi SATCE system, known by the name SERA (Simulated Environment for Realistic ATC), was deployed in November 2017 – so the business today has five years of real use.

The first customer was military although second was a global airline using the system on two new Level D FFSs. “This experience has been invaluable in allowing us to fully understand the real training requirements for the spectrum of possible use-cases that SATCE ‘fits’, and it turns out SATCE brings ‘value’ at all phases of flight training, from ab initio new pilots through experienced flight 40

C AT M A G A Z I N E 1 . 2 0 2 2

crew with thousands of hours in their log book,” says Waterman, who adds that one of his favourite analogies is “flight training without ATC and other traffic is like training for a hurdles race without the hurdles or the lane lines”.

For Waterman, the benefits of SATCE are essentially through providing a framework where all training is conducted according to regional standards as it is better at developing phraseology and offering improved situational awareness.

He explains how the business started developing the system in 2006 although, because it did not believe it had a viable solution, launched nothing as it did not want the pilot community frustrated to the point of turning off any fielded system. In the early days ASTi integrated third-party text-to-speech and speechrecognition solutions but soon learned early that Aviation English is so highly specific that current solutions are all developed in-house today. “We purposefully did not expose ourselves to the sharp end of the stick until we were fully ready, and I believe we got our timing one hundred percent right in that respect,” he says.

“We feel quite confident that this technology will make a significant impact in pilot training,” Waterman says.

“We understand how people want to use these systems. ASTi’s background is in flight simulator sound and communications systems, so we know the perspective from the cockpit. This is unique in the marketplace, as all other

Above In FFS trials - a busy ground departure scene using Quadrant’s SATCE solution INTERACT. Image credit: Quadrant Group.

potential SATCE suppliers come from an ATC tower training perspective.” He believes this is a critical difference as an ATC tower is, by default, a geographically fixed entity, hence, any technology developed to solve this problem does not have to handle the vast diversity of pilot speech accents and variation of phraseology that a flight simulator will support.

“Consider,” he says, “an airline LOFT scenario which may start with the aircraft departing from a city in Europe under EASA flight rules and phraseology, and arriving into a city in the USA, with FAA standard terminology, crewed by a crew from Asia, for example. The next use of that same simulator may be completely different, with new MPL students practising takeoffs and landings at an airport in Japan.”

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University has deployed multiple SERA systems as part of a new initiative for its pilot training programme, and its independent research results has shown an overall reduction of time to solo flight of better than 30% for the autumn 2021 student intake. This was a significant piece of research since this was the first important hard data showing the benefits of using SATCE. “The cost saving in terms of equivalent time saved plus the reduction in necessary remedial training

is a validation of the industry’s effort to develop SATCE,” Waterman says.

He adds the business has worked with 15 or so flight simulator manufacturers and believes that the key to the future of SATCE is to allow them to get their hands on a system to actually try it out.

“That’s when they press the green light,” he says. In terms, however, of the future uptake of SATCE, Waterman believes it is likely to be spearheaded by new training providers who will be the future innovators as SATCE is essentially ‘invasive’ to existing training programmes.

“The issue here,” he says, “is that creating a training programme in itself is work, so it takes quite some effort to rework an existing programme to use a new capability like SATCE. A new training provider doesn’t have that baggage and can innovate, using SATCE from the very earliest elements of the programme.” He says this may include elements before a new student sees a flight simulator, such as the ASTi Pilot Phraseology Trainer (Pilot PT) Aviation English training tool, which uses the same core speech recognition and text-to-speech technologies from the ASTi SERA product to allow a novice pilot to learn how to speak like a pilot, using an interactive web-based application.

While SATCE is appropriate for both civil and military flight training, it is arguably most applicable in military flight training for transport category aircraft flight crews who operate increasing hours in civil airspace, as well as for disaster-relief type operations offering not only efficiency savings but also a reduction in environmental impact. The British RAF is also known to be conducting a rigorous SATCE evaluation programme with its pilots exposed to one of two streams – one with SATCE, and one without – to figure out where the main benefits lie.

UFA, a US business specialising in ATC simulation products and voicerecognition technologies, has developed the ATWorld simulation solution, a FSTD plug-in providing an automated, realistic and contextually correct ATC environment, simulating traffic operating in and around the airport, airborne and ground.

ATWorld has been integrated successfully with the T-1A Jayhawk aircraft, E-3

AWACS and C-17 flight simulators. UFA president Larry Pennett tells CAT the reason for this interest from military trainers: “We observed that military organisations showed increased interest in SATCE to provide pseudo-realistic training operating in a congested airport environment similar to major civilian airports since military pilots’ exposure to this environment is limited.”

ARINC, ICAO and EASA Industry standards describing SATCE can now be considered mature with the publication in August 2020 of ARINC Specification 439B, which marked the culmination of years of industry-wide collaboration involving a wide range of stakeholders, including the FAA. The technical requirements for a SATCE system detailed in ARINC 439B have now been harmonised and outlined in ICAO guidance (ICAO Doc 9625) and EASA draft certification specifications for training devices (NPA 2020-15).

Quadrant’s Goodman believes SATCE is “in the wings” since it has been defined but not yet mandated by international regulators. Indeed, EASA has included SATCE as part of the environment simulation in proposed future FSTD specifications in NPA 2020-15 where SATCE is part of an FSTD ‘capability signature’ (FCS). Goodman also notes further developments stateside: “Although not yet incorporated into FAA qualification standards, the FAA plans to test and to evaluate SATCE in one of its research

Above The virtual Air Traffic Control Lab at EmbryRiddle’s Daytona Beach Campus.

Image credit: Embry-Riddle/Ginger Pinholster.

simulators with follow-on guidance for its possible use in flight training.”

ASTi’s Waterman is confident that within a decade every flight simulation system will have SATCE. Globally, there are at least three specialist suppliers offering mature SATCE solutions, all of which are outside the major training device manufacturers. However, Goodman reports that sim manufacturers are watching the technology with interest, especially as customer requests for SATCE have been increasing recently and new applications for using SATCE are emerging.

“SATCE technology has massive potential,” Goodman says, “and once it is adopted and delivering obvious benefits there will be no going back.” Why? He says it is hard for instructors and flight crews to go back to training at a sterile airport, empty airspace and with a silent radio once they’ve experienced a full environment simulation. “As SATCE is progressively adopted, we expect it will become an industry standard and all the major training device manufacturers will begin to offer it. They will either form partnerships with vendors or secure the technology via acquisition. We don’t expect there will be the appetite to develop SATCE themselves, however, as it takes time and considerable investment.” cat C AT M A G A Z I N E 1 . 2 0 2 2

41

CIVIL AVIATION

The Roles of Aviation Organisations in Training Aviation generally and aviation training in particular is an alphabet soup of industry associations and regulators. Naveed Kapadia sketches the remits of several of the groups who collaborate on standards, guidance and best practices.

T

he aviation training landscape is transforming.

We are faced today with an abundance of information that comes to us from various sources. Augmented reality and virtual reality can be used in novel ways to improve situational awareness. Application of machine learning, Internet of Things, Big Data and Blockchain to enhance safety management programmes, training needs analysis, and recruitment is beginning to take shape.

It is understandable then to adapt to the emerging technological trends and innovations in air transport and respond to them with timely and optimised aviation training solutions for the current and next generations of aviation professionals.

Aviation safety issues are revealed sometimes universally but often can affect different sectors and regions in different ways.

Therefore, it is only logical to be concerned about how training is managed globally.

We reached out to several civil aviation training related organisations about their missions and challenges ahead. Most importantly, how to improve the safety and efficiency of training in the aviation sector through higher standards globally. Following is a snapshot of our stimulating discussions to highlight the remarkable efforts made by industry stakeholders.

ATPG The Aircrew Training Policy Group mission is to drive industry conversation and innovation to enhance aircrew training quality, diversity and efficiency while increasing safety and environmental sustainability. To achieve this, the main group of 12 industry 42

C AT M A G A Z I N E 1 . 2 0 2 2

experts work across five sub-groups in collaboration with associate members, external experts, and key EASA representatives. In the short term, this helps facilitate open communication channels between airlines, Approved Training Organisations (ATOs), Flight Training Organisations (FTOs) and the regulator while also looking beyond the current rulemaking tasks at potential long-term solutions to upcoming industry challenges.

Current noteworthy projects of the ATPG include: • EASA EBT Manual Drafting. To support airlines further with implementing EASA EBT (ORO.FC.231), the ATPG is engaging with EASA to draft a practical guidance document.

• ATPL Open Book Exams. This white paper will promote an update to specific ATPL ground-school exams to make them better match the pilots' required competency set (e.g., application of knowledge rather than memory).

• ICAO CBTA Taskforce. To support EASA with input into the ICAO CBTA task force to assist with updates to ICAO

Above EASA approved the first VR-based Flight Simulation Training Device.

Image credit: VRM Switzerland.

Doc 9995 (Manual of Evidence-Based Training).

• Competency-to-Tool Approach. This white paper aims to empower airlines and ATOs to make optimum decisions when implementing new training technologies. It provides a future-proof methodology to effectively map from pilot competency development to suitable tools for creating a blended learning environment.

• Pilot Environmental Awareness Training. To create a positive environmental impact during the training process. The focus starts with the APS MCC course, where most value has been identified to develop positive new pilot behaviour early towards environmental initiatives, integrating into the Threat and Error Management model.

• Diversity within Aviation Training.

The ATPG is committed to correcting this long-term and introducing more varied people with the right competencies into these crucial roles. At the EATS 2021 Head of Training roundtable, it was identified that gender diversity is a significant issue, particularly in the training management system where very few, if any, women had substantial roles.

“The ATPG continues to be a uniquely effective organisation within the European aviation industry, offering tactical support to airlines, ATOs and EASA while applying ‘blue skies’ thinking to solve future strategic challenges,” said Capt.

Andy Mitchell, FRAeS, Chair, ATPG.

CAAi As part of the UK Civil Aviation Authority (UK CAA), CAA International unites and exports half a century of UK regulatory know-how to help air transport and the aerospace industry. With technologies moving faster than the regulations designed to govern them, CAAi asserts that they need to manage safety and risks in the future. As a social enterprise, CAAi is committed to taking action to help overcome some of the most significant aviation challenges facing the developing world. Working closely with ICAO, they invest and provide targeted training to help drive regulatory improvement programmes needed most globally.

Covid-19 had a devastating impact on UK Aviation, with many aviation pro-

fessionals across the sector forced out of work. CAAi has since been appointed as a training provider under the UK Department for Transport's Aviation Skills Retention Platform (ASRP). Aviation professionals currently unemployed who worked within the UK aviation sector before the pandemic have been eligible for enrolment, with course placements funded by the Department for Transport.

Sophie Jones, Head of Operations and Training at CAAi, told CAT: “With experts predicting air traffic not back to pre-Covid levels for several years, we all need to work together to support aviation's recovery from the pandemic. At the same time, the focus on our environmental and decarbonisation aviation has never been greater. Training is key. We remain fully committed to working with partners and supporting organisations across the globe to achieve more sustainable aviation, and with expert training fully equip the people who will lead the aviation of tomorrow.”

Above CAAi offer a RiskBased Oversight and Surveillance training course to mitigate conditions that threaten aviation safety.

Image credit: CAAi.

EASA EASA’s role in terms of aviation personnel training is to draft implementing rules for use across the 31 EASA Member States (the EU 27 plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland). EASA does not specifically offer training itself but sets the regulatory framework for the training of aviation personnel across the Member States.

Through their ‘Together4Safety’ Safety Promotion initiative, EASA provides guidance and support to the National Aviation Authorities and the industry to assist them with their work. The Agency also provides oversight and support to Member States in implementing EASA rules and monitors training effectiveness on aviation safety. EASA works at a global level with ICAO and promotes the use of worldwide standards, as they apply in the EASA States. Additionally, EASA cooperates with international organisations, including IATA, the Flight Safety Foundation, and others.

The Agency’s safety priorities are laid out in the European Plan for Aviation Safety (EPAS). This is a 4-year rolling plan that is currently in its 11th Edition covering the period 2022 to 2026. This edition comprises three volumes with 183 actions covering 219 C AT M A G A Z I N E 1 . 2 0 2 2

43

CIVIL AVIATION safety issues. Volume 1 sets out the strategic priorities, and currently, these include supporting the safe return to operations from the Covid-19 pandemic, which provides for activities explicitly to help manage the impact of skills and knowledge degradation during the pandemic.

Other priorities include improving safety through effective safety management and human factors, human performance, the competence of aviation personnel and the impact of socio-economic factors on safety.

“We want to ensure the highest level of safety – and we believe the new training technologies can help with that. They offer a broader scope of simulations, and the affordable pricing means that more in the aviation community are able to benefit,” said Jesper Rasmussen, EASA Flight Standards Director.

FSF Flight Safety Foundation (FSF) has been a leading voice in aviation safety for 75 years, and its mission is to connect, influence, and lead global aviation safety. As safety issues are identified, the Foundation brings together the world's aviation experts to construct effective mitigations and solutions to these issues.

FSF use their network to understand the knowledge gained by investigating and studying aviation errors and mistakes and recognising the industry's changes and where safety issues are likely to develop. One of the most significant examples of change is the growing industry of remotely piloted or autonomous equipment. In 2020, FSF started the Autonomous and Remotely Piloted Aviation Capability (ARPAC) Advisory Committee to address safety considerations in uncrewed autonomous and semi-autonomous flight operations.

"At the Flight Safety Foundation, we study the safety issues carefully and look for proven solutions so that before long, the industry is measuring the years between accidents instead of the number of accidents every year", said Mark Millam, FSF Technical Programs and Events.

FSF support innovative training programmes that understand the relevant tasks and subtasks for the specific operations a pilot will be flying. These 44

C AT M A G A Z I N E 1 . 2 0 2 2

programmes require continuing re-evaluation as the operations change, and pilot recurring training should be designed with insight from safety risks realised in an operator's safety management system (SMS) programmes. FSF has authored working papers for ICAO events on training to competency and continues to look for ways to assure broader implementation of these programmes for every aviation sector.

IATA IATA has provided training to those working in the aviation industry for 50 years. In the past 20 years alone, more than one million aviation professionals participated in one of IATA’s training courses, which offer development from entry to executive level. As a global industry, aviation relies heavily on adherence to common standards. Setting these is part of IATA’s raison d’être, along with ensuring that the related training programs and documentation are made available. This work is, in many cases, done in conjunction and collaboration with international organisations or regulators, such as ICAO, FAA, UK CAA, and EASA. IATA tells CAT that the workforce reduction brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic has also affected management-level positions. They ensure that future leaders understand what drives airline costs and revenue and adjust strategy to maximise profitability. Airlines are in parallel re-thinking their business models.

Safety, sustainability and leadership are the three main areas at the forefront of IATA’s current training agenda, along with security and CBTA. Moreover, with the heightened threat of cyberattacks, the need for cybersecurity training is also on the rise.

“As aviation rebuilds from the biggest crisis in its 100-year history, it is essential that those leading the transition into a more sustainable future possess the correct skillset. Ensuring that the corresponding training is made available to support this is more important than ever,” noted Stéphanie Siouffi-Vareilhes, IATA’s Director, Training.

ICAO The International Civil Aviation Organisation highlighted that their immediate objective is to ensure all countries access ICAO training, specifically regarding pandemic recovery activities.

Above The RAeS mission is to further the advancement of aeronautical art, science, and engineering worldwide.

Image credit: RAeS.

high-quality training solutions focused on relevant key competencies, delivered cost-effectively and with improved global accessibility for States and their aviation professionals. Working in close coordination with training organisations, academia, and other international partners is essential to achieving this objective,” commented Diego Martinez, Chief, ICAO Global Aviation Training.

RAeS

The UN specialised agency’s training objective is to leverage the latest technologies and provide high-quality, economical training solutions by widening participation globally.

ICAO’s Global Aviation Training (GAT) aims to provide innovative training products and services to support the Member States and industries to comply with ICAO Standards and Recommended Practices (SARPs) and contribute to the evolving skills requirements of aviation professionals. ICAO has established an Aviation Training and Education Directory (ATED), which provides the Member States and the industry with over 350 training packages to support their human resources development and compliance activities.

Additionally, ICAO is partnering with other international/regional organisations, trade associations and academia to jointly develop and deliver relevant training to support the evolving needs of the industry. These partnerships, including those with academic institutions, helps to realise significant synergies and efficiencies. And under the frame of the TRAINAIR PLUS programme, they contribute to developing programmes to address the needs and expectations of the Next Generation of Aviation Professionals (NGAP).

“ICAO’s Global Aviation Training activities help assure that no country is left behind in terms of their human resources development and the wideranging skill sets which the international aviation industry relies on. Our objective is to provide aviation professionals worldwide with diversified, innovative, and

The Royal Aeronautical Society is the only global organisation serving the entire aviation and aerospace community as a learned society and professional engineering institution. As such, the RAeS is independent, evidence-based, and authoritative, relying on a body of knowledge going back more than 150 years. The RAeS mission is to further the advancement of aeronautical art, science, and engineering worldwide.

David Edwards, FRAeS, Chief Executive of the Society, said: “We fulfil our mission in many ways, but part of that is adding to the body of knowledge, stimulating debate, and ensuring policymakers, regulators, and other actors in our industries are well-informed. Our specialist groups are hugely valuable and contain possibly the world’s greatest concentration of expertise and knowledge within their specialisms. On training, in particular, the work of the Flight Crew Training specialist group is crucial, but so too is the work of our Human Factors, General Aviation, and Flight Operations specialist groups, all of which contribute to our work in this area.”

UK AOPA In the UK, the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association has been the independent voice of general aviation for over 50 years, lobbying on behalf of pilots, instructors, aircraft owners, flight training, and other GA-related businesses.

AOPA's role is to ensure that aviation careers are seen positively, as GA is considered the nursery and first contact for future professional aviation personnel.

This means that AOPA works with regulators to ensure that the requirements are risk-based and proportionate. As an organisation primarily interested in general aviation, AOPA's mission is to "facili-

tate the movement of general aviation aircraft nationally and internationally and to increase the utilisation of general aviation aeroplanes as a means of personal and business transport."

AOPA only offer instructor refresher courses, but the corporate members provide flight training. Martin Robinson, CEO of AOPA (UK), summarised: “The best safety device in any aircraft is a welltrained pilot.” The challenge will be getting the policies that support the activity right. In its primary sense, a significant challenge is that aviation is a pool that feeds off itself, but everything starts with the student pilot, said Robinson.

Opportunities, Resources As we leave the Covid-19 pandemic behind us, many aviation professionals are exploring the opportunity to upskill in broad aviation-related areas. Based on the regional and global projections for pilots, maintenance personnel, and air traffic controllers, expected growth will create shortages of skilled personnel in these areas. In addition, there are hundreds of different professions in the air transport system, from jobs in aviation medicine to security, accident investigation, air law, flight dispatching, aircraft design, to name a few.

The organisations referenced here, and many more not mentioned, address our most critical capacity gaps globally.

How we redefine our efficiencies and integrate innovations in air transport will be vital to the survival of the future aviation ecosystem.

The future training needs against the combination of staff reductions and retirements or pilots simply leaving the industry set up a monumental training challenge for the future. The situation is further exacerbated for many more skilled aviation roles. Perhaps companies and organisations may wish to consider how on-the-job mentoring can play an essential role in developing overall human performance when replacing one skilled generation of technical professionals with another. Implementation of safety programmes, environmental protection initiatives, integration of uncrewed aircraft, cybersecurity, diversity and other challenges will continually be complex to manage. cat C AT M A G A Z I N E 1 . 2 0 2 2

45

LEADERSHIP INTERVIEW

“We’re Looking at the Whole Training Journey” On the sidelines of the EATS 2021 conference in Berlin, CAT Editor Rick Adams had a conversation with Robin Glover-Faure, Vice President Sales & Marketing, L3Harris Commercial Aviation – about FFSs, FTDs, pilot shortage, VR, data analytics, and eye tracking.

CAT: In the wake of losing your L3Harris military cousins (acquired by CAE), was there ever much overlap? Were you building simulators for them?

Robin Glover-Faure (RG-F): The military business, because of the content on board the aircraft, was run by a separate division. The only overlap would be in what we call the generics, in other words, the base design of the machine, which we would sometimes do for them, sometimes not. It was a separate business unit and therefore relatively straightforward to separate. No impact at all on us, primarily because we do military simulators in partnership with Thales where we would do the simulator content and they do the mission content - crossover types, 737s, A380s, A330s. It's a small part of the business, but we've always had to run the commercial and the military business separately, primarily because of the clearances and the sensitivity of the content.

CAT: What trends are you seeing in airline training as the industry attempts to recover from the persistent pandemic?

RG-F: We're seeing encouraging momentum building in the simulator business. We recently announced the 46

C AT M A G A Z I N E 1 . 2 0 2 2

award of an A350 full-flight simulator and flight training device to a US carrier in Q2. That's our second A350 full-flight simulator that expands our portfolio and placement of devices in the US market. We announced Air Astana about a month ago, an A320 in their new training centre. And then announcing the BAA A320.

We're a longstanding partner with BAA. We sold them MAX simulators last year. And this is really a continuation of that relationship.

CAT: They're very aggressive in building out their network.

RG-F: They’re agile. They are open to new ways of training. And they were a significant launch customer for our new products, which are the flight training devices, categorized now through EASA’s FTD 1 and FTD 2.

We have chosen to invest in these products. We're offering these products with a full OEM software load. It's not synthesized, it's the same load. That means the pilots are experiencing the very same software, the very same experience when they are practicing various procedures. It is the software that we see in the full-flight simulator, so it gives an extremely high level of training fidelity. It doesn't have the motion, but what it allows through the regulations is the courses to be designed around the most effective training device available to the airline.

BAA have embraced that and they're looking at a ratio around two to one. So, two full-flights to one FTD. We saw a very similar approach from Lufthansa, another very forward-looking training organisation. In addition to buying a 787 full-flight, they also bought a 787 FTD. We do the full range now of the A320, the MAX, the A350, the 787, the NG. We've got five platforms out there that cover 85-90% of the market. The reason is relatively simple; when you

Above L3Harris has ab initio flight training academies in Bournemouth, Cranfield and Crawley in the UK; Ponte de Sor, Portugal; and Orlando, Florida.

All images: L3Harris Commercial Aviation.

calculate the cost per training hour, the cost of producing a simulator hour, when you blend that combination, you're getting somewhere between 24 and 28% cost saving overall.

It's not that you can put all the hours on the FTD, to be clear, but you can substitute somewhere in the region of 30-40%.

Under the procedures, you can train on a 1.7 or 1.8 standard A320. But what you get with the FTD is you're going to be operating on the latest standard, so 2.0 or 2.1 as it’s coming. If you're training, for example, warning systems, windshear ahead, runway incursion, you're going to get the latest software developments from the manufacturer, the latest equipment, and you're going to see all of those warnings and work through them. Now for the dynamic manoeuvres, of course, you go into the full-flight simulator. But much of the training experience of pilots is understanding the warning system and understanding the correct response procedure. And the FTDs are absolutely superb for that.

The A320 was our launch platform (for the FTDs). We’ve got those placed with Lufthansa, with Spirit, with BAA. We’re getting fantastic feedback. People are genuinely surprised at how good they are. It’s what we thought, but it’s still rewarding for us, and for two reasons.

One, we’ve clearly built a very effective device. But secondly, they become advocates. And now whenever we discuss FTDs with customers, we actually say don’t take our word for it, speak to the airlines that have taken it.

CAT: How do you see the evolution of the airline training recovery?

RG-F: We're looking at the whole training journey. We’re training about 600 cadets in the next year. We were training about a thousand cadets pre-pandemic.

So, our cadet market is broadly down with the shape of the market. We see that recovering over the next two years as it becomes obvious that there’s going to be a demand for pilots in 2023-24. In fact, as we see in the US market, the demand in the regionals has already started. We’re already seeing a shortage of pilots in the regional markets. We see that being a little delayed into Europe. But it will follow.

It's a relatively straightforward explanation of why there is a potential short-

Above Robin Glover-Faure, Vice President Sales & Marketing, L3Harris Commercial Aviation.

age of pilots in the 2023-24 timeframe.

We know there were about 350,000 pilots globally flying the commercial fleet; that was the case in 2019. Relatively easy to calculate because we know how many aircraft are flying. We can calculate the crew ratios. We also know that after 2019, many pilots were given early retirement.

Some of them just decided to leave early.

Some of them moved on to other careers.

But what we saw was a very high level of attrition, certainly through 2020. The majority of those pilots will not return.

None of them are going to come out of retirement and return their retirement benefits to go back flying. So you had an excessive period of attrition, about two and a half times what we would normally see in pilot attrition assumptions over that period.

Secondly, we've seen the pilot training market running broadly in line with the level of the overall market, which is about 50%. So we’ve seen the whole market come down 50% and the number of pilots being trained reduced to about 50%.

So you’ve got two factors that have resulted in significant numbers of pilots leaving the industry and a few entering the industry during the period 2020 through to now. We know, of course, it takes two years to train a pilot, and by 23 or 24, depending on which consen-

sus you err towards, most people say 2024, the global demand would be back at where it was at the pandemic levels.

Ergo, you will need 350,000 pilots. Now, the mix will probably be a little different.

I think there’ll be a greater mix of narrowbodies versus widebodies. I think the domestic markets in the global economies will recover quite quickly through 2023. The international is clearly going to take to 2025-26.

So what we’re anticipating coming into 2022, we need to start training, at least to the normal rate of training, just to give the industry the number of pilots it needs. And then there’s going to be a catch-up period to basically fill the gap left by the 2020-21 exodus of pilots. So that is a positive message for 2022-23 for people looking to train as a pilot looking for employment. 2023-24 is looking very strong.

The majority of the market in the last 18 months to two years has been ‘retail market’, people electing to pay for themselves and assuming that there’ll be a job at the end, and there’s a degree of reluctance to make that commitment. We’re starting to see now much higher levels of interest.

CAT: You’ve created a number of student scholarship programmes to help on the funding side of training.

RG-F: We remain absolutely passionate about diversity, not just in terms of people of colour, more female pilots. These are givens, but also in terms of broadening the access to the pathway into a flight deck to those from lower-income backgrounds. It’s become more difficult since 2008 to borrow on an unsecured basis as a result of the banking rule changes. So what we’re doing to encourage that is we’re now running a scholarship programme where we offer £10,000 ($13,400) scholarships to encourage those from diverse backgrounds where they wouldn't normally be able to become a pilot, attempting to lower the barrier. It clearly still leaves a sizable payment to be made to train as a pilot. But what we're hoping is that we can start to work with airlines and we can start to build on that scholarship programme.

CAT: How are you searching for the candidates?

RG-F: We invite the individual to apply C AT M A G A Z I N E 1 . 2 0 2 2

47

LEADERSHIP INTERVIEW through the normal process and then we invite them to answer three questions, primarily driven at motivation and what are the reasons that they want to be a pilot. And then we have a committee who assesses those submissions. We grade them objectively and make awards on that basis.

We just awarded two scholarships in the last month. They will be starting their course in December.

CAT: There’s a lot of talk about reducing the use of the full-flight simulator, which is one of your product lines. It would seem to make sense to train more pilots more efficiently using devices other than the FFS. How do you see that working out long term in the curriculum?

RG-F: Like many of us in the industry, we used the time during the pandemic to do a full strategic review of where training devices were going to move. The desire to maintain the highest levels of training, training excellence in terms of the equipment used, does not fall away. So the challenge is what technology can you use to reduce the cost of training to the airlines whilst increasing the effectiveness of that training? And that brings into play three criteria that we’ve broken out. The first is the type of devices, so we’re not in the space that says we want to hang on to full-flight simulators being the only training device. We recognize that's not what our customers want and why we purposely made the decision to invest in the FTDs. But we’re going to go further. So we’re now embracing VR technology. You can sometimes find that the regulatory requirements don’t provide sufficient training and in certain parts of the course that results in a candidate completing that course with a comprehensive grasp of all of the competencies. And therefore you would naturally supplement that either with more full-flight time or with more FTD time. What we’re saying is that’s one way to do it, but another way to do it is actually look at some of the technologies that are coming out.

So why spend four hours in an FTD training for the scans when you can adopt a VR solution and use those four hours in an immersive environment with learning management embedded systems that can actually work the pilot through in a very real environment of learning those scans. That raises the competency in that particular part of the learning curve. It allows the FTDs and the full-flights to be used where they're effective. So what we’re seeing is these new tools coming in to initially supplement the overall quality of training. The obvious next step is then working with the regulators to start defining what is acceptable training and a training course. And I anticipate that the regulatory direction will be that some of these immersive technologies will be embedded into the regulation whereby you can from the get-go design a course using these technologies as a combined entity.

What we’re trying to do is get the right training device at the right point in training and give that portfolio to airlines. Why would they do this? Well, everybody on the airline side is looking right across their operation and how they can deliver the same operational output, but at a lower cost. And we also see this is one way of addressing that need as well.

CAT: Where do you stand with your virtual reality development?

RG-F: We’ve got an established product range in our virtual maintenance trainers. We sell many of those, some in the European market, but they’re very strong in the US market. We’re 48

C AT M A G A Z I N E 1 . 2 0 2 2

bringing that expertise and that knowledge into the pilot side of the business.

It’s relatively straightforward to adapt those technologies across. And then, of course, the equipment itself is developing, started with goggles. Now you’ve got the handheld devices, so you can develop those devices to become even more effective.

CAT: You’re doing your own ab initio network. You’re supplying devices to airline customers. Are you doing any joint venture or third-party contract training where you run the training centre?

RG-F: We currently have a training centre in Bangkok where we have a partnership with Bangkok Airways. That model, we’re seeing greater interest in the airline industry. The new-generation airlines across all markets would tend to go down a pay-by-the-hour type agreement, i.e. not owning the asset, not owning the training centre. What we’re now seeing is the established airlines reviewing what is their longer-term plan. Do they want to own simulators, own training centres, or do they want to let go? So yes, we have had several of those conversations.

CAT: There seems to be a sentiment with airlines that maybe training’s not a core business for them. And would it make sense to put it out to someone that does it every day?

RG-F: I think there's a couple of things that are driving it. One is that, during the pandemic, what it demonstrated to

Above L3Harris’ highfidelity fixed-based flight training device is being used by Lufthansa, Spirit and BAA Training.

Opposite L3Harris launched a US$100-million training centre in London a few months before the start of the pandemic.

airlines is how much of their cost base is fixed. And some airlines were surprised that when the revenue dropped off, they weren't able to take the cost out because of the fixed-cost base, at the level they needed to, such that they were consuming cash at a level that was clearly alarming. Now, some of them were able to raise additive cash. Some of them were not.

But the lesson learned was watch very carefully the level of your fixed costs on the basis of potentially another pandemic occurring at some point in the future.

So where does that lead us? That leads us to thinking, what are the fixed costs that I want to have in my business?

And simulator training fits into that category, whereby you can lay off some of those fixed costs to a third-party provider like ourselves and our competitors where we own the simulators, we own the land, and then it’s an operating charge, and that operating charge can then vary with volume. So we’re definitely seeing that type of thinking push towards the outsource model.

I think airlines will always rightly hold the intellectual ownership of their own training management system.

They rightly won’t want to cede control of that. But the mechanics, the devices, are all certified, they’re known standards, and that sits without that competency, so they will keep their own training philosophy. Now, that doesn’t mean that they can’t use external instructors. They can. But it ultimately serves their own training philosophy and how they want to train their pilots in the culture, they want to train the pilots. But the model is entirely compatible with that.

CAT: You’ve been doing some interesting things with eye tracking in the simulators. What prompted that and what have you found?

RG-F: Customer demand was what prompted it. Customers found it gave another level of insight into the training experience. And now what we find is that a lot of customers now specify eye tracking, and they build the eye-tracking capability in terms of the feedback that they get from the trainees into their training philosophy. I would say not all airlines have yet latched onto eye tracking, but the majority have and it’s developing momentum. Some of this is because it’s

new. It requires a different approach to how you train. You have to then bring in how the pilot is scanning and using the insights it gives you, but we see that growing, not shrinking over the course of time.

CAT: You’re also introducing data analysis.

RG-F: We have made the decision that we will invest in this part of our business to differentiate. We started by looking at three principles that we needed to build around in data analytics. The first is you have to decide who owns the data. Secondly, you have to be platform agnostic. So if you’re going to give a set of data tools, it can’t just be for your own devices. You have to make it applicable to other devices. Now we made a conscious decision to do that so that we could provide our end customers a comprehensive solution and not just that it has to be on an L3Harris device. The third element is you have to give customers a choice of whether they want Cloud-based, on premises-based data, or whether they want both. Most customers will almost certainly want some form of a Cloud solution, but some customers will require an on-prem solution.

The flight data recorder is an area where we’re clearly experts. We’ve got a very large market share of those, so we are developing Cloud-based tools and on-prem tools that will allow the data to come off the aircraft into the airline’s

data pool. We’ve got access and expertise to understand line operations. And when we move into the concept of deidentified data pools, we can offer customers the choice of de-identifying the data, but developing a huge data pool and industry data pool that allows them to compare their operation against that data pool. We then go to the other side of our business, which is the training side, and exactly the same is true. There’s huge amounts of data that come off the simulators, FOQA and SOQA and all those sort of things that are well known now. But we can then take that data and then we can start to look at the line operations data, we can look at the training data. And then all these roads start to lead to developing tools that can analyse that data, turn it into information. We’ve got some AI content in there as well.

L3Harris has a very deep resource of specialist engineers because of the military side of the business, so we can reach into the organisation and pull a very capable resource to help us develop AI tools and analysis tools, then start to put some definition on evidence-based training.

We understand evidence-based training in a conceptual level, but where do you get the evidence from? And yes, you can get the evidence from reports of events that happen on the line and the various reporting elements which give you that evidence. But we think we can enrich that by many times by using the C AT M A G A Z I N E 1 . 2 0 2 2

49

LEADERSHIP INTERVIEW data, analysing the data and then being able to give training solutions to CEOs who will look across their operation and how their aircraft are being operated on the ground. Dwell time on the gate, turnaround times, how the aircraft are being operated on the line. How does that then translate into what you see in the simulator?

We launched a tool four months ago called CARA (Competency Assessment Recording Application) which is a tool that allows an instructor to identify the no-tech behaviors with word recognition and then codify those observed competencies and integrate them into the data that's available so that you can correlate the application of no-tech skills with the actual outcome of how the aircraft has been flown, the successful outcome of the manoeuvre.

We’re working with airlines in developing a suite of tools that ultimately give airlines the means by which they can take evidence-based training to the next level, which almost surgically applies effective training to the areas of the operation where you’re going to get the greatest improvement in safety, greatest improvement in efficiency, and that ultimately, of course, is where the value of these tools will lie.

We think we can uniquely differentiate because of our experience with flight data recorders and being able to bring the line operation into the training operation.

CAT: Are you using this currently in your own training operation?

RG-F: Yes, we are. We haven’t yet integrated the line operations. That’s the next phase. But yes, we basically now are able to download from our own devices and run them through the tools such that we can now start to demonstrate the effectiveness of how you can use this data.

The other area that we’re also looking at is being able to assess against a de-identified data pool. We’re able to look at the comparator of an individual pilot’s performance against the data pool and then we can prompt the areas of that particular pilot’s operation that would benefit from more focused training. So those tools are now live and we can we use those.

We're also looking to bring them into our academy training. The fidelity will be less because of the quality of the 50

C AT M A G A Z I N E 1 . 2 0 2 2

flight data recorders, but there's still a lot of data that can come off even training aircraft. And the next step is bringing in a tool that could break down in three dimensions a rebuild of, for example, flying a circuit. A student that flies solo, you can break down afterwards and show in 3D exactly how they’ve flown. The areas where their performance has been good.

The areas where you need to improve.

So we see, ultimately, data as being the thread that will run right through our whole business. Right from the avionics, right through to the training.

CAT: As it inevitably happens in this industry, new people pop up that think they’ve got a better idea. How do you talk with the customer as to the advantages you bring to them?

RG-F: We’ve got about 300 simulators deployed globally. We spend a lot of time utilising that deployed base and therefore the customers to understand exactly what customers need from our devices, what direction do they want to go? And we use that insight to then inform our next product portfolio. So the FTDs, for example, came from that process.

We would welcome competition on the basis that there is always somebody that’s going to come into the industry with a really good idea and ‘steel sharpens steel’. You need that innovation.

You need those new players to come in to bring those ideas. What we will play to is the fundamentals. So high-quality devices that give a very high level of technical reliability, devices that are sustainable in terms of the power usage, spares usage and the cost of owning and operating those simulators and the fidelity of those simulators. Our FTD simulators, we purposely chose to put them at the very higher end of the fidelity spectrum. Certainly, they’re sitting above what is required by the regulation now. We could engineer them down, but we believe that would result in a lesser product. And actually, more importantly, our customers don't want us to engineer them down. If the training experience is far superior, it’s a value proposition that our customers embrace. It’s a fastmoving market and it actually needs all of us to be coming to the table and giving choice because the choice ultimately drives up the quality. cat

SIMULATION & TRAINING CALENDAR Events organised by Halldale Group: 3-5 May 2022 WATS 2022 – World Aviation Training Summit Rosen Shingle Creek Resort, Orlando, Florida, USA www.wats-event.com 29 June 2022 AAETS 2022 – Asian Aviation Education & Training Symposium Virtual www.aaets-event.com 8-9 November 2022 EATS 2022 – European Airline Training Symposium Estrel Hotel, Berlin, Germany www.eats-event.com

Other simulation & training events: 14-16 June 2022 FAA-EASA International Aviation Safety Conference Washington DC, USA www.easa.europa.eu/events 28 June - 1 July 2022 ICAO Global Implementation Support Symposium 2022 Istanbul, Turkey www.icaogiss2022.com 18-22 July 2022 Farnborough International Air Show Farnborough, UK www.farnboroughairshow.com

INDEX OF ADS Bolverk XR www.bolverkxr.com CAE www.cae.com EATS 2022 www.eats-event.com Entrol www.entrol.net FlightSafety International www.flightsafety.com ICAO www.icaogiss2022.com Quadrant www.quadrantinteract.com Pan Am Flight Academy www.panamacademy.com Saturn Flight Simulator www.saturnsim.com Advertising contacts: Holly Foster holly.foster@halldale.com +1 813 994 0191 Jeremy Humphreys jeremy.humphreys@halldale.com +44 1252 532009

27 OBC IBC 23 IFC 17 39 5 13

eats2022 B E R L I N

E

U

R

O

P

E

A

N

A

I

R

L

I

N

E

T

R

A

I

N

eats2022 B E R L I N

I

N

G

S

Y

M

P

O

S

I

Estrel Hotel, Berlin, Germany

Training for Aviation’s Next Era

Improving training and safety, resilience, and sustainability during this period of momentum and growth demands a highly connected community and coordinated response from all sectors of the training industry.

Join us at EATS 2022 – Training for aviation’s next era!

For sponsorship and exhibiting opportunities contact: Rest of the World

Holly.Foster@halldale.com

Jeremy.Humphreys@halldale.com

For more information:

eats-event.com

M

8-9 November 2022

Organised by:

The Americas

U

Conference By

CIVIL AVIATION

Elevating and advancing human performance.

CAE Civil Aviation enhances your operational confidence with an increasingly wide-ranging aviation offering that also simplifies your work.

Elevated experiences result from our advancing technologies, deep expertise and innovative spirit, which in turn are ensuring superior operational and organizational outcomes. All enabled through our consistent delivery of broader, better, cleaner, smarter and ever safer solutions. www.cae.com

Confidence through smarter training