CAT Magazine - Issue 3/2009 by Halldale Group

www.halldale.com The Journal for civil aviation training

CONFERENCE REPORT

WATS 2009 - Optimistic in Orlando AIRLINE TRAINING PROFILE

TRAINING TECHNOLOGY

ATC TRAINING

Getting The Green Light – The Rebirth Of Gulf Air

Projecting The Future – Now You See It, Soon You Won’t

Not Just What You Say, It’s The Way You Say It

ISSN 0960-9024

US $17/£8.50

Issue 3/2009

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Editorial

Editorial Comment

Editor-in-Chief: Chris Lehman [e] chris@halldale.com Managing Editor: Alan Emmings [e] alan@halldale.com Contributors Rick Adams - Science & Technology Editor Chuck Weirauch - Editor US Affairs Chris Long - European Affairs Fiona Greenyer - News Editor [t] +44 (0)1252 532004 [e] fiona@halldale.com Advertising Business Manager: Jeremy Humphreys [t] +44 (0)1252 532009 [e] jeremy@halldale.com Business Manager, North America: Mary Bellini Brown [t] +1 703 421 3709 [e] mary@halldale.com Marketing Manager: Lizzie Daniell [t] +44 (0)1252 532008 [e] lizzie@halldale.com Design & Production David Malley [t] +44 (0)1252 532005 [e] david@halldale.com Internet www.halldale.com/cat Subscriptions & Distribution Subscriptions Hotline [t] +44 (0)1252 532000 [e] cat@halldale.com 6 issues per year at US$168 Distribution Co-ordinator: Sarah Baker [t] +44 (0)1252 532006 [e] sarah@halldale.com Publishing House and Editorial Office Civil Aviation Training (ISSN 0960-9024) is published by: Halldale Media Ltd. Pembroke House, 8 St. Christopher’s Place, Farnborough, Hampshire, GU14 0NH, UK. [t] +44 (0)1252 532000 [f] +44 (0)1252 512714 [e] cat@halldale.com General Manager: Janet Llewellyn US office Halldale Media Inc. 115 Timberlachen Circle Ste 2009 Lake Mary, FL 32746 USA [t] +1 407 322 5605 [f] +1 407 322 5604 Publisher & CEO: Andrew Smith

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Chris Lehman Editor in Chief, CAT Magazine

An Abundance of Intellect As Conference Chair of the World Aviation Training Conference & Tradeshow (WATS), I always emerge from the intensive three-day event feeling simultaneously exhausted, challenged and re-energized, probably in that order. This year was no exception, with one delegate exclaiming: “You could power a small town with the intellect on display this week.” So what exactly did this annual gathering of the global aviation training industry achieve that served to challenge and re-energize? It has to do with the comment from our erstwhile delegate on the nature of the speakers and delegates. Three days at WATS serves to provide a confirmation that while the times may be tough, this industry is being managed by people who, for the most part, have a real grasp of the realities, fully understanding that the sector’s issues and challenges are not simple and therefore cannot be solved by simplistic thinking. After all, when we’re talking about the education and training of professionals and then attempting to measure the result, it can never be simple. The level of communication, mutual regard, and genuine empathy displayed between the various stakeholders was, and has been, a hallmark of WATS. When I see open and relaxed communications between what could be disparate groups, such as training providers, aircraft manufacturers, simulator users, airlines, and regulators, I cannot help but feel that WATS is making real-time contributions towards aviation training excellence and, most importantly, aviation safety. Some may see that as a self-serving statement given my role as Conference Chair, but it is exactly how I see it. The major theme of WATS 2009 was the exploration of “best practise” in aviation simulation and training. Within that general theme the four conference tracks - pilot training, regional airline training, cabin training and maintenance training - the presentations tended to follow the topical training issues. Chief among them was the path to the flight deck and today’s changing aircrew demographics. Were new training regimes such as MPL going to make a difference? Is the industry paying close enough attention to selection? And what about funding flight training for the new crop of intrepid airmen and women? Who will pay in the future? Delegates were told how operating for environmental efficiency is actually congruent with economic efficiency, and were then briefed on the coming new aviation technologies that will reduce greenhouse gases. Regulatory change is always a theme of WATS and applicable briefings were conducted in each conference track, including a Part 147 update in maintenance, a Part 60, Part 121 N&O and Part 142 briefing in the pilot tracks, as well as the just completed new ICAO simulator classifications. Delegates heard the latest on the issue of Loss of control in-flight (LOC-I), as well as training for runway incursions, and the importance of Safety Management Systems (SMS). Some of the highlights of the cabin training track included the subject of real world ditching training in the open ocean, cabin AQP, and unfortunately, many of the lingering issues surrounding security in the cabin. Likewise, maintenance training delegates received an update on everything from human factors to digital mock-ups and 3D animations in training. And an important maintenance breakout session was conducted by the ATA on the re-write of Spec 104. All of the conference breakouts were of particular quality this year, ranging from a special Regional Airline Association (RAA) training subcommittee meeting, through to an FAA National Simulator Program (NSP) breakout briefing, a FlightSafety-led breakout on motion simulation, and an Aerosim-led panel on advancing pilot training curriculums. The motion simulation breakout was quite noteworthy; the panel included the industry’s leading experts from around the globe. My final perception of WATS 2009 is one that defines the event for me this year. That was the off-line discussion I noted between a member of the FAA’s Atlanta-based NSP team and a training provider around a coffee table outside the conference hall. While the regulator nodded, the training provider was intently scribbling on a pad of paper. Clearly, an “ah-ha” moment was being achieved. And what can be better than that? Safe travels, Chris Lehman CAT Editor in Chief • chris@halldale.com CAT MAGAZINE • ISSUE 3/2009

CEOs on Training A SERIES

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FlightSafety Sugar_Northrop Grumman CEO ad - CAT magazine - Bleed: 212 mm x 283 mm Trim: 206 mm x 277 mm

cover credit Halldale Media Group

front cover

contents CAT 3/2009

05 Editorial Comment

08 airline training Profile

08 AIRLINE TRAINING PROFILE Getting The Green Light – The Rebirth Of Gulf Air. Restructuring is challenging but it brings opportunities for improvements.

12 ATC TRAINING Not Just What You Say, It’s The Way You Say It. Air traffic control training is all about clear understanding and effective communication – no small challenge in ever-busier airspaces.

16 TRAINING CULTURE It’s A Numbers Game - HF And CRM Training At Emirates. Guest authors Nicklas Dahlström and Lex R. Heemstra, HF specialists at Emirates Airline, describe the influence of a multicultural environment on training.

12 ATC Training

20 BUSINESS AVIATION TRAINING New Technology The Biggest Test For Business Aviation Sector. Business aviation operators are adopting commercial aviation training solutions yet continue to experience their own additional set of unique training hurdles.

24 AIRLINE TRAINING PROFILE An Ideal Start For The Aviation Training Center of Tunisia. ATCT was in the enviable position of setting up a new training organisation beginning with a clean piece of paper.

16 training culture

28 TRAINING TECHNOLOGY Projecting The Future – Now You See It, Soon You Won’t. The incredible shrinking visual system continues to gain power exponentially. But the best news for FSTD users may be reduced life-cycle costs.

31 CONFERENCE PREVIEW APATS Returns to Hong Kong. The Asia Pacific Airline Training Symposium will be held in Hong Kong on September 8-9, alongside Asian Aerospace 2009, the leading Asian airline exhibition.

32 CONFERENCE REPORT 20 business aviation training

feature Articles

An Abundance of Intellect. As Conference Chair of WATS, I always emerge from the intensive three-day event feeling simultaneously exhausted, challenged and reenergized, probably in that order.

WATS 2009 - Optimistic in Orlando. The 12th Annual World Aviation Training Conference & Tradeshow delivered impressive attendance figures and characteristic speaker excellence.

36 NEWS Analysis and Seen & Heard. Monthly roundup from the regions on developments in the training field, compiled and edited by Fiona Greenyer and the CAT editorial team. CAT MAGAZINE • ISSUE 3/2009

airline training profile

Getting The Green Light The Rebirth Of Gulf Air

CAT MAGAZINE â&#x20AC;˘ ISSUE 3/2009

Gulf Air has placed an order for 24 Boeing 787 Dreamliner aircraft. Image credit: Boeing.

Restructuring is challenging but it brings opportunities for improvements. Gulf Air is a case in point. It once grouped the interests of four Gulf states, but it is now the proud flag carrier of the Kingdom of Bahrain, writes Chris Long.

he rebirth of Gulf Air should be viewed in the context of the long-term plan for Bahrain - Vision 2030, which sees the national carrier as a crucial part of the kingdom’s growth. Chris Cain, chief operating officer of Gulf Air, points out that the airline is playing to its strengths of knowledge and history in the region. The aim is to consolidate its position as having the most robust route structure within the region together with a selective international network. With that as the foundation on which the airline’s future is being built, fleet renewal is underway. Gulf Air Fleet Fleet (current): 8 A320-200 2 A319-200 2 A321-200 6 A330-200 9 A340-300 3 B777-300ER (Includes leased aircraft) Expected deliveries in 2009 (leased aircraft and owned) 1 B777-300 4 A330-200 5 A320-200 Aircraft on Order: 59 35 Airbus (15 A320 & 20 A330) 24 Boeing (B787 Dreamliner) Bahrain Civil Aviation Affairs (BCAA), part of the Ministry of Transport, administers regulatory control and operational and licensing regulations are closely based on the JAR-OPS/JAR-FCL model.

Initiative A striking initiative is the grouping of

Captain Chris Ranganathan, Director Training at Gulf Air. Image credit: Gulf Air.

all training under one director, Captain Chris Ranganathan, who reports directly to Cain. All pilot, cabin crew, maintenance (Part 147) and ground operations come under Ranganathan’s department and are physically grouped close to each other, near the airline’s headquarters in Bahrain. All initial and recurrent training is performed in-house. In addition, all ground support training is carried out at the same centre, including such disciplines as check-in desk training and ticketing. This cluster of skill training also sits alongside the airline call centre. Consequently the training area is compact and expansion is underway to allow for future demand.

While the organisational grouping is interesting and the physical proximity of those training resources is helpful, at the core of Gulf Air’s training is its philosophy. This has been some time in development and both Ranganathan and the head of training programmes, Captain Rick James, have been instrumental in developing a robust quality management system. They were particularly attracted to the idea that, working closely with the regulatory authority, they could identify and modify essential and current training tasks, which would have immediate relevance to their flight operations. These would be defined by evidencebased research rather than outdated historical (and sometimes unsuitable) regulatory imperatives. They searched for best practice in the industry and identified the FAA AQP as having most to offer to satisfy their needs. CAT MAGAZINE • ISSUE 3/2009

airline training profile

This is a five-stage process in which the airline and regulator gradually change the emphasis from imposed sequences of training and checking, to a more adaptive and rolling programme. While it covers the internationally required training and check elements, it also allows for training and assessment in the use of new technologies and skills over and above the minimum international requirements. This approach better reflects the skill-sets required to operate current and future fleets. It also has the advantage that there is regulatory approval to rapidly modify training and check actions if data mining indicates that remedies can be applied before more significant incidents or accidents have occurred.

TEM A key element in implementing AQP is to guide the mindsets of the existing team to this new way of thinking, which is not necessarily so easy to do. However, after over two years in progression to the present state of having Level 4 AQP implementation, the crew now understands and has bought into the idea. Ranganathan is quick to point out that Gulf Air was the first airline outside the United States to be given such a full sign-off for the AQP. It is in the Gulf Air AQP that a lot of the non-technical skills, which are embedded in JARs, are introduced and integrated. A particularly interesting development was the introduction of the “Traffic Lights” system of approaching threat and error management (TEM) training. This is a process whereby operating crew learn to assess the live situation in terms of whether everything is going well – the green light - or whether there are sometimes subtle clues that something needs to be done – the amber light. The clever part is guiding crew to identify clues that a situation is in the amber section – has behaviour changed? For instance, is dialogue between crew members more tense as they become aware that something is amiss? Are procedures becoming hurried? Whatever the reason, the training leads to the identification of an amber situation, and whoever notices that first has simply to state “I think we are in the amber”. This action in turn triggers the move to step back for a moment to view the bigger picture and 10

CAT MAGAZINE • ISSUE 3/2009

Top: The Simulator Centre in Bahrain. Image credit: Gulf Air. Below: Currently Gulf Air has three full flight simulators in operation. Image credit: Gulf Air.

together plan how to move back into the green. Entry into the red sector is likely to be more obvious and again should be declared as soon as one member of the team identifies it. Whatever their roles, all crew must be prepared both to call the change of state and, imperatively, to respond to that call: “Captain we are in the Amber”. Training in TEM is largely scenariobased to emphasise the relevance to real situations. Like numerous airlines, Gulf Air draws its people from many nationalities and cultures. The aim is not to adjust to this by being multicultural, but rather to absorb everybody into the Gulf Air culture. For instance, in TEM training, care is taken to use a clear and simple English- based language. There are short and specific phrases to be used, which

avoid the potential for misunderstanding for those, the majority, for whom English is not their first language. Having identified a potential threat, the teaching shows how to plan strategies to move back to a safer state and to illustrate the behaviours necessary to achieve that. In concrete form those strategies are to: buy time, relieve workload, change the mission and prioritise. Within the AQP framework scenarios can be introduced in the simulator to illustrate how to action these strategies and, indeed, any naturally occurring instances during a training session can be used to show how to resolve an amber situation. Now that Gulf Air crew understands the idea and the simplicity of the principle it is increasingly happy to use it, and it is becoming a standard reflex to any situation, where one or more members of the team feel that things are happening, which move them away from green. The aim is to roll this same philosophy out into other disciplines, as the principle readily transfers to cabin crew, maintenance teams and ground support crew. It will be a long process to bring everyone along this road, but it has started.

Instructors The role of instructor is critical; so important, in fact, that Gulf Air recognises the significance of ensuring that its instructors are carefully selected, well trained and well paid. Seniority is not of itself a criterion for selection. The process starts with the identification of those who, once

the regulatory requirements for time-ontype are satisfied, show a willingness to both learn and teach. Candidates are then required to prepare a short presentation of four current operating/training topics - a cut-and-paste solution is not acceptable, some original thought is required. During the selection day there is a technical exam on type, and the presentation is delivered. Then a series of video clips from simulator sessions is shown and the candidate is asked to comment on them and present ideas for addressing any issues which show up in the clips: “What would you do?” The selection process is completed by an interview with the director of training and other training managers. The instructor training programme itself is closely aligned with the wellestablished JAR requirements and successful candidates will initially qualify as a synthetic flight instructor (SFI), before moving on to TRI and examiner authorisations by Bahrain CAA.

flight deck and cabin crew. The ratio of some 400 flight deck crew to 1,600 cabin crew does not allow a complete matching, but critical exercises are performed together in the crew emergency trainers. Senior flight attendants have the opportunity to observe LOFT sessions in the flight simulator – only one person has not taken that opportunity, which is a good indication of the level of interest. Session debriefs are held separately to avoid distracting flight deck crew from the lessons on technical aspects. However, CRM instructors from the flight deck side and the cabin crew are used jointly, as the behaviours they are teaching are common to all crew. Cabin crew training is carried out in-house and the two separate disciplines of safety and service training are co-located. Cabin crew instructors are qualified and used in both areas, unlike some airlines, where two separate teams teach those skills. A manifestation of the new philosophy is the physical removal of the wall in the training centre, which formerly divided the disciplines.

CRM Crew resource management (CRM) is conducted jointly, where possible, with

Further Education While Gulf Air is aiming to put in place

an industry best practice process for the technical sides of the operation, there is also a drive to support those who wish to continue their personal development. A recent renewal of the MOU with the City of London University facilitates further self-study education courses. A range of aviation business and management courses is available, progressing from a certificate level to a diploma then to an MSc. Equipment Supplier A320 Level D FFS Thales A330/340 Level D FFS Thales B767 Level D FFS Thales Airbus MFTD CAE A320 Level D FFS (Buy Oct/Nov '09) ?

Optimistic Future Gulf Air has invested substantially to renew and upgrade its fleet, to strengthen and modernise its training activities and, most importantly, the training philosophies and techniques to match. That template having been developed, it is easy to see that there is potential to expand the amount of training available to third parties, both from the region and further afield. cat

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CAT MAGAZINE • ISSUE 3/2009

atc training

Not Just What You Say, It’s The Way You Say It Do you speak the lingo of ATC? Air traffic control training is all about clear understanding and effective communication – no small challenge in ever-busier airspaces and hectic ground environments. Rick Adams reports on the different approaches being taken.

ou say aerodrome, I say airport; you say apron, I say ramp; you say taking off, I say departing. Sometimes there can be a big difference in the way air traffic controllers talk to pilots in the US compared to the phraseology used in the rest of the world, according to Jose Aragon, ATC chief instructor for FAA and ICAO at Pan Am International Flight Academy in Miami. The three contrasting terminologies above are just a few among dozens of differences between approved ICAO phrases and their equivalents in American airspace. Although there are only about 50 standard word combinations in the authorities’ tower and ground control guidelines, “there are numerous ways to issue a command,” says Gary Pearson, VP advanced programs and product management at Adacel Systems’ Orlando, Florida. “There are 30 different ways to issue a taxi command and 18,000 ways, at last count, to issue a traffic command.” Now add the sometimes heavy 12

CAT MAGAZINE • ISSUE 3/2009

accents of controllers for whom English is not a first language, the casualness of long-time pilots who cannot be corralled into using approved phrasing, and the tendency of speech patterns to accelerate in stressful situations, and you get a sense of the challenge of training for realworld ATC environments. Unlike the emphasis in pilot training on the technology and procedures of aircraft systems, “the core business of air traffic control is effective communication,” Aragon notes. Somewhat neglected in decades past, the ATC training environment has been getting considerably more attention recently. Ground side, ICAO mandated that, as of March 2008, controllers must demonstrate Level 4 proficiency in English. On the airside ICAO’s multipilot licensing (MPL) street-to-rightseat scheme, and the proposed ICAO 9625 Edition 3 update for flight simulation training devices (FSTD) are driving enhanced ATC simulation into global pilot training requirements.

Above Adacel’s MaxSim ATC TSS (Tower Simulator System). Image credit: Adacel.

Coupling more congested airspaces from anticipated air traffic growth worldwide with the potential mass retirements of experienced US controllers in the coming years, the need for improved ATC training - and more of it - is self-evident.

Precision Pan Am’s instructors see the language challenge every week, delivering refresher training in radar, tower and precision approach positions to controllers from nearly every corner of the planet. “Students come from all walks of life,” says Gary LaGuardia, business development leader. Pan Am has been approved by the World Bank’s European Commission, enabling any member state to use the Florida facilities for qualified training. Training is tailored to the national

vised journeyman in their home country. Additional specialized training can also be tailored to a customer’s required skill sets. The EU is forecast to need 10,00012,000 new controllers in the next few years, according to LaGuardia. “The existing schools are unable to do that. It’s a huge opportunity.”

Pace Adacel has been installing new MaxSim ATC simulators at US FAA locations at a pace of about one a month for the past year. The remaining nine of 24 total systems are scheduled by March 2010. The Melbourne, Australia based company has also landed several new customers in Europe, 11 American college programs and the new L-3/Link ATC Academy in Texas (see “Cleared for Takeoff,” CAT 2/2009, p29). Pearson believes Adacel’s “agentbased simulation” adds to the realism of the training. “They’re not just dumb aircraft that require a pseudo-pilot. The aircraft can ‘question’ an instruction when it is appropriate to do so. A real pilot is not going to blindly follow what a controller tells him to do.” For example, if a student controller instructs an aircraft to “climb and maintain ten thousand,” but the aircraft levels off at 9,000 feet, the agent is able to detect the mistake. The computer algorithm agents track altitude, speed, clearances, and other parameters, and make “intelligent guesses.” The agent is also able to determine if a pilot’s response provides enough information, even if the response is incomplete. If the pilot answers, “Roger, ten thousand,” instead of the full command, “the agent can understand the pilot’s intent,” Pearson explains. “A real controller’s not going to call, ‘Say again. Say again,’” for every non-standard phrase. Adacel advocates voice recognition and Pearson claims its “intelligent communications environment,” or ICE, now contains “over 600,000 phrases in its grammar.” The ICE Level 4 English tutor runs on a laptop or network environment, and can “teach you how to talk on the radio and assess how well you talk.” For example a heavy accent, even regional American “twangs”, will lead to poor scores. The assessment can also reveal which words or “phonemes” (sound segments) a student is struggling with.

Compliance Monitoring and Training Scheduling for Air Navigation Service Providers (ANSP) In introducing the Training Management System MINT TMS, Swiss air navigation service provider Skyguide has managed its leap to safe ground from the turbulent sea of administering complex competence schemes and training requirements. Toni Gähwiler, Manager New Training Technologies, Compliance and Training Planning at Skyguide states: “What we wanted was a mid-size supplier offering a straightforward implementation and a committed customer service with short response times”. Together with the authority and MINT, Skyguide will make Compliance Management a totally paperless affair.

Get Your Life Vest Here MINT MEDIA INTERACTIVE has successfully cast its anchor in this new market segment, while it has been deeply seated in the Pilot, Cabin Crew and Technical Training Scheduling areas for many years. MINT TMS is said to be the most comprehensive tool in the market. MINT’s Managing Director, Jörg Latteier comments: “Our smooth landing in the Air Traffic Navigation part of the industry makes it even clearer that MINT TMS is the one life vest suitable for everyone - every training organization that wants to optimize its compliance and planning processes and have a reliable guard and partner at its side”.

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customer’s needs and airspace. “We have the capability to replicate any airspace in the world,” claims Borys Rodriguez, airspace developer / scenario builder and an ATC instructor. Pan Am, which has been training controllers for 15 years, developed new radar and tower simulators in collaboration with Canadian Data Software (CDS). Pan Am focused on operational aspects, CDS on software development and computer language. The open architecture system uses an IBM PC platform. “It’s state of the art,” LaGuardia says, “built for controllers, by controllers.” The tower simulator uses six screens to present a 180-degree view of the aerodrome and, in addition to airports, ground and aircraft traffic, can reproduce high-fidelity CAT 1-3 conditions with clouds, rain, snow, sleet, hail, fog… “pretty much everything.” The Pan Am team does not embrace the concept of computerized voice recognition in its ATC curriculum. “Technology cannot replicate the human voice in an emergency situation,” LaGuardia says. “You cannot rely on voice recognition as a backbone. The products we have tested so far have not been useful, you have to tweak the pronunciation every time a new group of students comes to the classroom.” In pressure scenarios such as an aircraft “Mayday” emergency, it is human nature to default to poor speech habits. Words get rushed and syllables clipped; nervousness exacerbates native accents. Communication between pilots and controllers ultimately suffers. “Even at Level 4 an individual may memorize phrases extremely well, but may struggle in an emergency,” explains Dean Bush, who heads aviation English programs for Pan Am. “We focus on using plain English in unusual situations. We want to really find out if they’re Level 4-qualified under stress.” Pan Am uses controllers as “pseudo pilots” to represent voices from aircraft in the training pattern. They also incorporate a familiarization ride in a full flight simulator “so students get to see the other side” of the conversation, according to Aragon. Earlier this year Pan Am launched ab initio ATC training based on the European Union common core content. Basic training runs 12 weeks, after which a student is capable of becoming a super-

atc training

The effect of stress on speech can also be gauged. The program measures how long it takes to state a phrase, comparing a student’s response to how long it should take. Stress can be induced in the simulation by such techniques as increasing speed of transmissions and adding more traffic to radio frequencies. A pilot’s version of ICE for flight simulators is currently available, marketed as Air Traffic Control in a Box (ATCiB). An ATC procedures trainer release is expected in July and the full-blown ATC simulation is due by year’s end.

Burgeoning Communication specialist Advanced Simulation Technology Inc. (ASTi), Herndon, Virginia, is taking a hard look at the burgeoning air traffic training market. “We already have the high-fidelity radio communications environment,” notes project engineer Neil Waterman. “That part of the problem is something we’ve solved and delivered more than 5,000 systems. Speech recognition is already integrated.” But air traffic communications “is poorly represented in the full flight simulator environment,” he says. “Little has been done on interference, noise effects, line of sight ….” ASTi’s approach is to offer a flexible tool set “to allow you to put together your vision of the solution.” The ATC simulation would be configured by the end user. “It’s not an autonomous box of tricks. Each customer has their own perspective and we don’t necessarily know what a usable solution will be from an instructor’s perspective.” Waterman also suggests the current ICAO requirements “are experimental in nature.” It will be industry’s challenge to “evolve to what the solution might be. There are an awful lot of tech problems to be met before we get to that point.” One issue is that visual scenes offer only “a few aircraft on the ground. Other than that it’s pretty much an open scene.” A believable ATC environment, Waterman says, requires increased audio cues aligned with more traffic passing through the airspace in a “totally cohesive” manner. One technique ASTi is working on is to add realism in voice modulation, or “voice disguise,” which would enable a single instructor to generate several different voices – even male and female – 14

CAT MAGAZINE • ISSUE 3/2009

applied to different frequencies in use by student controllers. Waterman predicts it will be “three to five years” before we see a fully automated ATC training solution. “Crew expectations are going to be very high. Early adopters may not quite be there yet.”

Merge Many ATC training programs merge operational ATC radar consoles with simulated targets. Recent customers of Woburn, Massachusetts-based UFA include Lappland Aviation Academy in Sweden, and Thales for its Eurocat simulator upgrade program for Airservices Australia. Another is Bournemouth, UK-based Micro Nav, which has installed a tower simulator at Heathrow with a Rockwell Collins EP-10 image generator. Micro Nav has also been selected to provide a 360-degree tower trainer for the new Al Maktoum International airport in Dubai, which will have six parallel runways. The majority of en route and terminal area radar displays come from Barco. It has steadily been replacing the original 20-inch Sony CRT displays with 2K x 2K flat panel LCD displays. Barco has been installing operational equipment in 20 FAA en route centers for several years and is hoping for funding in next year’s budget, to start on the more than 200 terminal area sites. CRTs and their companion graphics cards were considered leading-edge technology in the 1990s, according to John Dobroski of Barco’s security and monitoring division. But CRTs require a multi-hour alignment procedure, get dim with phosphor burnout after several

Nigerian students undergo ATC radar and tower training at Pan Am International Flight Academy’s Miami training centre. Image credit: PAIFA.

years and have limited color sets. They are also larger, weigh more and consume more power than newer displays. When flat panels were first introduced, controllers complained they were too bright for the darkened ATC environment, “but they’ve gotten used to it,” says Dobroski. At one point a wide screen format was tried but controllers could not see as much airspace as they were accustomed to, so the square 2K x 2K remained. Mint Media Interactive (Kiel, Germany) announced last month what it claims is “the first air navigation training center to manage its training activities and regulatory compliance” with the company’s training management system. Swiss launch customer Skyguide envisions “completely paperless qualification tracking” in future. A Raytheon-led team has hired nearly 1,700 employees, including instructors and simulation operators, as part of a 10-year, performance-based contract to support both initial controller training at the FAA Academy, and ongoing training in air traffic facilities nationwide. The FAA continues to manage the overall program, recruiting and hiring candidates, as well as conducting performance verification, on-job training and credentialing. Raytheon’s standardized curricula and “blended learning” approach are said to require 15% fewer hours to train more controllers. cat

TRAINING CULTURE

It’s A Numbers Game

HF And CRM Training At Emirates Nicklas Dahlström and Lex R. Heemstra are human factors specialists at Emirates. Along with pilot colleagues who are also CRM instructors, they develop and deliver the airline’s training programs. Here they describe the influence of a multicultural environment on training.

lose to Dubai airport but well outside its perimeter, an unusually large aircraft can be seen. It is attached to and part of a building carrying the Emirates Airline logo. Here, in the Emirates Training College, crew resource management (CRM) training and other human factors (HF) training for Emirates Airline pilots are carried out. With pilots from more than 80 countries and cabin crew from an additional 30 countries, it is almost an understatement to say that crews are multicultural. Many pilots come from English speaking countries including Australia, Canada, New Zealand, UK, USA and South Africa. Together with those from the United Arab Emirates they represent the largest groups of the pilot population. In addition to this, however, all continents and almost half of the countries of the world are represented on the flight decks of Emirates aircraft. 16

CAT MAGAZINE • ISSUE 3/2009

It would be reasonable to expect this cultural diversity to create unique demands in CRM and HF training, especially as culture is not only concerned with values and traditions, but also context and guidance for action in daily life. The concept of culture is not, however, restricted to that of national identity; it also involves professional and organisational culture. Together these different aspects blend into a combined ethos, in which the daily operational challenges are managed safely, i.e. a “safety culture”.

Consequence That culture has an important role in HF and CRM training is an obvious consequence of the diversity at Emirates. In a specific section of the training focused on culture the implications of national, professional and organisational culture are discussed to highlight the challenges and benefits of this diversity. This section is based on the extensive

Above Dr Nicklas Dahlström leading CRM training at Emirates Training College. Image credit: Emirates.

experience within Emirates of working together across cultures, as well as on research regarding culture. The results of respected research provide an excellent platform for such discussions and for this purpose, research by the Dutch professor Geert Hofstede on national culture, and by Bob Helmreich and Ashleigh Merritt on national pilot culture are used (references below). This research used four dimensions to describe and measure the characteristics of different national cultures and national pilot cultures in a variety of countries: • Power distance. In cultures where this dimension is rated high there is an acceptance that some people have

far more power than others. Where it is rated low it is expected that people act towards each other as equals in a consultative and democratic manner. • Uncertainty avoidance. Where this dimension is high there is a preference for rules and traditions to guide actions. Where it is low there is preference for less rule-bound and more pragmatic ways to explore how to act in different situations. • Individualism versus Collectivism. High individualism indicates that people are expected to look after their own interests and make their own choices rather than to first of all act as a member of a family, a group or an organization. • Masculinity versus Femininity. A culture rated high on this dimension is focused on assertiveness and competitiveness. One that is low is more focused on modesty and caring. Some results from this research probably come close to what would be expected by anyone with knowledge about these countries and cultures. For example, Asian countries are often high on power distance, both generally and for pilots, while Scandinavian countries are low on this dimension for both groups. And while some South American countries are high on uncertainty avoidance, Anglophone countries are low, generally and for pilots. Individualism is high for Anglophone countries but on the whole always higher for pilots than for the general population in any given country. Masculinity is low in Scandinavia and high in Japan, Switzerland, Italy and Germany for the general population. But this changes abruptly with pilots as they then all move down to the lower part of the scale for this dimension. While the concept of a coherent national culture may be questioned in this globalised age, presentation of this research to Emirates pilots produced copious supportive reactions and interesting discussions. It can certainly be concluded that the material is effective for initiating discussion and increasing awareness about issues of national culture. Also it does not seem to contradict how pilots perceive their national culture or their national pilot culture. A facilitated discussion used to both consider and challenge research and experience can thus provide a pilot who is joining a multicultural airline with the

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CAT MAGAZINE • ISSUE 3/2009

Understanding Although national culture is an obvious starting point when addressing culture in HF and CRM training, understanding the professional culture of pilots is equally important. A professional culture can be identified as existing when people employed in a profession share certain norms, values and beliefs related to that occupation. This type of culture is often formed already during the education and training for a profession. Although there are many professions which have a distinct professional culture, few are guided as extensively by international conventions and regulations as that of pilot, where training is even detailed down to the number of hours required for different phases of training. The global regulatory framework for aviation ensures that most pilots have had similar experiences from their initial training and further on, until

they assume command of a large passenger aircraft. Fundamentally, most pilots are passionate about their work and this provides obvious common ground across national cultures that go well beyond the similarities of pilot training. An initial conversation between pilots about previous experiences of different aircraft types and airlines can provide a fasttrack to more in-depth knowledge about the person you are working with; it is a springboard to cooperation beyond that dictated by cockpit procedures. Such relations are of great importance for safety, as indicated by an over-representation in accident statistics of crews who were on their first day of flying together. A significant difference between the general population and pilots of any country is that pilots are rated higher on individualism. This is a difference that is likely to be even more prominent for pilots in Emirates, who often have changed not only country, but also continent, to come to Emirates to progress their careers. These are pilots with a strong commitment not only to flying, but also to professional performance and achievement.

Presenting and discussing pilot culture during CRM training can be used as a vehicle to emphasise this common ground and thus limit the influence of national culture on flight deck cooperation. It can also provide a starting point for development of an own brand of pilot culture in an airline.

Communication The most obvious aspect to consider when people with diverse cultural backgrounds work together is communication. Although proficiency in English and aviation standard phraseology facilitate communication and may be further supported by an understanding of different national cultures, the use of idioms, colloquialisms and other features of daily language is impossible to prevent. If a British pilot stated that he has a “bee in his bonnet” about something that could go “pear-shaped” and that he may end up in “a pickle”, all this may be impossible to decode for a non-native speaker of English. Also the pronunciation of certain words may loose their intended meaning when cross-cultural communication occurs in a common language. This may have unintended

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BUSINESS AVIATION TRAINING

with industry and the FAA,” Gignac said. “Right now the industry is under a strain with the evolution of aircraft, so we all need to have a certain standard that includes human factors. I think that the PTS has to have more of a human touch than just knowing how to do a steep turn. We need to be looking at real scenarios of what can happen and make the tests that evaluate the pilot as more than just a stick-and-rudder person.”

NextGen According to John McGraw, FAA deputy director for flight standards policy, while it has been more of a challenge to keep up with new cockpit technologies than in the past, the NextGen program will help the agency respond quicker to the provision of training guidelines and rules for them. “I think the Next Generation Air Transportation System is what is helping us now to plan ahead for some of that,” McGraw said. “It’s giving us a vision far enough out – to 2025 and beyond – that allows us to plan ahead for all of the elements, not just the training aspect and not just training for people who want to use the equipment, but also for our workforce. The education of the workforce and the external community is getting everybody on the same sheet of music. NextGen helps us bring together all the disparate communities involved with the program so that we can better serve their needs.” McGraw also feels that the real training challenge in the future is not so much the technology, but the wide range of diversity of business aviation airframe types and the technology that is installed in them. This diversity creates more complexity in developing training programs for them, he said. “The big challenge is that we are going to have a real diversity out in the fleet,” McGraw said. “We need to find a way to sort out the traffic so that we can give the benefit to those that are the best equipped. I don’t know that there is a specific training other than to be prepared to shift training to take advantage of these technologies. The challenge will be to balance the benefits against the costs and complexity of getting the training done.” The global spread of business aviation and growth in international traffic presents additional training challenges

for business aircraft operators and training providers. According to John Sheehan, manager, safety promotion for the International Business Aviation Council (IBAC), the problem is that there is a “hodgepodge” of different training standards and requirements from one country to the next, making it difficult for worldwide operators to be compliant with all these rules and guidelines. “There has been a considerable increase in the number of global business aircraft that make use of advanced cockpit technologies,” Sheehan said. “On the other hand, there is a lack of business aviation training standards in some countries, while others don’t require a lot of training, which seems to fly in the face of airplanes of that capability.”

Dilemma The IBAC’s response to this standards dilemma is its International Standard for Business Aircraft Operations (ISBAO), a certification effort based on the safety management system (SMS) concept. Business aircraft operators become IS-BAO-certified by meeting its set of standards, which include effective resource management, as well as a comprehensive training plan that strongly recommends simulation-based training and includes such elements as high-altitude, aircraft surface contamination, emergency procedures and security training. The IS-BAO standard also includes all International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) operating and background requirements. While more than a hundred business aviation flight departments have earned their IS-BAO Certificates of Registration, the standard still has not progressed to anywhere near universal acceptance. However, Sheehan expects a considerable increase in the next year. That is because in November 2010, ICAO will require that anyone who flies a large or turbojet-powered aircraft internationally to have at least an SMS in place. “Although our goal is to increase safety, we also have adopted the concepts of effectiveness and efficiency as well, because what we come with is a comprehensive management system that incorporates all parts of the system,” Sheehan said. cat

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An Ideal Start For The Aviation Training Center of Tunisia In a perfect world when you set up a new training organisation you should start with a clean sheet of paper. Aviation Training Center of Tunisia (ATCT) was in the enviable position of being able to do exactly that, writes Chris Long.

bdelkrim Ouertani, director général of ATCT, tells that in fact it was two sheets of paper, which outlined the design plans way back in 2002. At that time it was becoming obvious that the three primary carriers in Tunisia - Tunisair, Nouvelair and Kathargo - had between them sufficient training needs to establish a sound business case for developing a locally-based training organisation. Once that understanding was established, decisions had to be made as to how to set about realising their aims. Without the need to adapt an existing facility it was quickly decided to identify the requirements and build according to best practice. Given that the majority of aircraft being operated by local carriers were Airbus models, the decision was taken to start by putting in place a training system which initially focussed on answering training for the A320 family. This was reinforced by research, 24

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which looked at a wider market. It concluded that within 2-5 hours’ flight time there was a rapidly increasing build-up in the fleets featuring that aircraft family, and that there was consequently a significant potential market for training airlines which shared a common culture. ATCT would supply not only the local training needs, but also build a viable business by supplying training for third parties. It was quickly recognised that the whole process could be made simpler and more effective by adopting the training packages and methodologies recommended by Airbus. The start point was to follow the model of European regulation, at that time JARs, and from that determine everything from all the content of the training packages, the training delivery platforms and, crucially, qualifications and training necessary for all the instructional team. This started a cooperative venture between a group of shareholding partners.

Above The Rockwell Collins EP1000CT on-board the A320 full flight simulator. Image credit: ATCT.

Initially the main shareholders were the three airlines themselves with Tunisair holding the biggest proportion. Other partners were Airbus and training equipment manufacturer Thales. Later investment came from local banks, but the airlines between them still hold the controlling interest. One of the key issues in any training organisation is sourcing qualified instructors. With close ties to the local airlines, ATCT can use current TRIs and SFIs. Recently retired local pilots who would otherwise not have local access to aviation-related work can of course, also carry out the latter role. In reality many in that group are happy to work on a parttime basis.

Adoption In the past it has often been the case that legacy carriers have adapted the training required by the aircraft manufacturer to their own procedures. While there was an understandable wish to keep a standard system within an airline, this system had often been built up independently of changing technology. It was a slow and, importantly, costly process to take a new type and modify the manufacturers’ procedures. Recent trends have increasingly seen the adoption of manufacturers’ recommendations in their entirety, with minimal change. It also makes it easier and more cost-efficient to provide training for more than one airline if a single training pattern is used – training platforms and instructors can be standardised to a common process. From the beginning there was very close cooperation with Airbus and its training specialists. The working relationship was, and remains, close. For instance, ATCT is now delivering the standard Airbus Pilot Training (APT2) package, sourcing the material directly from Airbus. A critical resource is obviously the instructional team and Airbus plays an important role in selecting and training the necessary instructors. ATCT will carry out the initial administrative process in recruiting, but it is Airbus alone which screens and trains the instructors to the Airbus standard, which conforms to JAR/EASA requirements. Regular visits between Airbus and ATCT ensure that the requisite standards are maintained. With course content and instructor provision taken care of, all that remained was for the new building to be finished and the equipment installed. Thales was chosen to provide the FFS – an A320 family completed to the Airbus Standard 1.3.1 level, equipped with Rockwell Collins EP1000CT and 20 airport models. This was fitted with a side-facing instructor station. After it was installed in 2005 it was certified by the French DGAC as a Level D FFS. Training started with crews from Libya during an eight-month shakedown period. Thales has also supplied the flight training device (FTD) required in the APT2, and ATCT outsourced locally for the systems on which to install the CBT software. Three classrooms are equipped to

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Above ATCT’s Thales-built A320 full flight simulator was certified as Level D by the French DGAC in 2005. Image credit: ATCT.

take up to six students at any one time with a further classroom capable of taking 12 students. A group of young technicians has been recruited locally and again with continuing Thales support in selection and training, this team is now in place to ensure the maintenance of the training platforms. With all those facilities in place an annual regular rhythm of training for 300 Tunisian pilots a year, and for some 420 pilots from other countries, has been established. This results in a utilisation rate of close to 95%, which of course has already justified the scale of present development.

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Established With the baseline case now well established, Abdelaziz Jebali, commercial manager of ATCT, outlines the planned expansion. Because the market is continuing to grow, a further A320 Level D FFS has been ordered from Thales. It is one of the first simulators to be ordered from the new Thales Reality 7 range (see CAT 2/2009, p34). This model conforms to Airbus Standard 1.6 and increases the visual system field of view (FOV) from the earlier 180°x40° to 200°x40°. This system is still the Rockwell Collins EP1000CT but, reflecting the improved technology, it will use JVC LCoS projectors. Twenty-five airport models will be provided with this

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AIRLINE TRAINING PROFILE

unit and a forward facing instructor station is to be fitted. Jebali expects the customer base to continue to grow and he sees two primary tasks – providing initial type rating, and providing recurrent training. The initial type rating is a notional 25 days’ duration, but with proper provision of days off it tends to run to about 30-34 days. When a course lasts for that length of time the accommodation and leisuretime attributes of a training centre play an important part. Once again the ability to choose a greenfield site has proved to be commercially helpful; only 20 minutes from the international airport in Tunis, the centre is also close to a range of excellent hotels and serviced apartments, so that the complete package can be made all the more attractive to visiting airlines. The shorter duration recurrent training can, of course, be completed in a single day for those airlines within easy flying time. In addition to those two basic disciplines, ATCT is able to run entrylevel training courses and to supply line oriented experience in conjunction with Tunisair. Having successfully set up the flight deck crew training, there are naturally plans to expand the range of training to cabin crew and maintenance teams. Procurement of a cabin evacuation and exit trainer is underway for a unit to be installed during 2010, which will have a dual A320/B737 NG capability. Maintenance training will also feature, with Part 147 authority being sought. Although in the current economic climate there are no immediate plans

to put in place an ab initio pilot training programme, consideration is being given to answering that need at some future date. The likelihood is that such a programme would follow the MPL pattern, but final decisions for that are still a long way off.

Success One measure of success is to look at the customer base, with airlines from the Mediterranean region - France, Malta, Libya, Egypt and Turkey; it is obvious that ATCT has established itself well in the local region. The ripples flow even further, however, reaching out to as far away as Singapore, Indonesia, India, Pakistan and Russia, so it is evident that the model is proving attractive. Indeed the considerable amount of work carried out early on for S7, the Russian air-

Four classrooms are available, with one of them capable of accommodating up to 12 students. Image credit: ATCT.

line (featured in CAT 2/2009, p22), shows that that customer had confidence in the training product. One further ingredient in the success of the project is worth highlighting. There is a very gradual recognition that the common background culture shared in the Gulf region and the northern regions of Africa, can make training for that group as a whole more attractive if it is carried out within a similar culture. The influence of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) grouping may well be a development, which will influence future training decisions. cat

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The school of excellence ATCT is a qualified training and simulation center which complies with all international rules and standards. Based on innovative course ware, top level instructors and the most advanced technologies available, ATCT provides its customers with a range of state-of-the-art training courses for pilots, maintenance staff and performance engineers. We deliver a complete, customized solution for initial, recurrent and requalification training curriculum.

ATCT simulators offer the best of today’s cutting-edge flight simulator technology. Available 24 hours a day, these simulators include: 1. Two Full Flight Simulators AIRBUS A320 (A320 FFS) 2. One A320 FMGS trainer (FMST A320) 3. One A320 Flight Training Device (FTD) Our facilities are designed to make your training experience as pleasant as possible.

You will train the way you fly, and you will fly the way you train. ATCT, Les Côtes de Carthage, Zone touristique, BP N°77, 1057 Gammarth, Tunisie Tél.: +216 71 911 811 / Fax: + 216 71 911 606 E-mail: atct@atct.com.tn - www.atct.com.tn

TRAINING TECHNOLOGY

Projecting The Future -

Now You See It, Soon You Won’t The incredible shrinking visual system continues to gain power exponentially. But the best news for flight simulation training device users may be reduced life-cycle costs. Rick Adams reports some commercially driven trends and how optics manufacturers are making it happen.

n the throes of the global economic turbulence, one factor for helping reduce the cost of pilot training while extending the sustainable service life of flight simulation training devices, may well be the size of key components of the visual system. How about a smaller hard drive? RSI vice president Jeff Everett says new solid-state hard drives in its Raster XT and Raster XT/64 image generators “afford our users one million hours of mean time between failure, as compared to a standard mechanical hard drive that has only 50,000 hours.” And, while reliability was the determining factor, RSI found the smaller SSDs “dramatically increased performance by increasing the speed of data throughput.” Everett also points to projectors as evidence of the “small is powerful” trend. Over the past couple of years training operators have embraced the more compact liquid crystal on silicon (LCoS) 28

CAT MAGAZINE • ISSUE 3/2009

and digital light processor (DLP) options to supplant the bulky CRT workhorses of the previous generation. But the RSI technologist predicts: “What will really make an impact in the future will be the incorporation of an LED [light emitting diode] lamp source.” It just so happens that a couple of optics manufacturers are offering LEDbased projectors for simulation applications. Cypress, California-based Christie Digital, well known in the demanding military and entertainment markets, is actively pursuing the civil aviation training community with its new Matrix StIM projection system. The “lamp-less” solid-state platform can last from seven to ten years in typical operation, or up to 50,000 hours MTBF for the illumination package. With no consumables, low power consumption, and low cooling requirements, Christie director of system architectures Dave Kanahele, says Matrix StIM is “a virtually maintenance-

Above projectiondesign launched its new FL32 LED projector at this year’s ITEC. Image credit: projectiondesign.

free system.” He also calls it “the first intelligent projection system to enable real-time balancing of color, brightness, and black levels.” “Christie has made very good progress in the past 18 months, eliminating edge break-ups and suppressing temporal artifacts,” comments CAE technology director Philippe Perey. “The LED light source is very stable in terms of brightness and color performance.” Norwegian company projectiondesign debuted its FL32 ReaLED projector for simulation applications in May at the ITEC show in Brussels. “It’s the first completely customized projector based on LED lighting technology,” claims Neil Wittering, strategic business manager.

“The FL32 provides greater flexibility in applications when compared with other LED projectors in the market. We offer a unique solution, which encompasses a broader range of lens options and a stylish, compact, single-chassis design to simplify installation. The FL32 projector can be installed anywhere and in any configuration.” LED technology “has been slow to the market but is the wave of the future,” RSI’s Everett believes. “It’s not really the increased hour-life that makes this type of lamp appealing. It’s the fact that, in a multiple projector system, brightness will be maintained over a much longer period. Lamps can lose 50% of their brightness within 1,200 hours, but individual lamps lose brightness at a different rate, making brightness and color balancing between projectors a necessary maintenance function.”

Leapfrog Sony and JVC continue to play technical leapfrog with one another in what CAE’s Perey calls a “battle of titans” for LCoS simulation applications. Sony’s current VPL-GH10 and JVC’s DLA-VS2000U “have doubled or tripled contrast ratios and produce very nice black levels,” according to Perey. Both Sony and JVC address the simulation community via resellers such as Video Display Corporation and 3D Perception, who add features like sim-specific lenses, optical and electronic edge blending, and warping software. The Sony GH10 incorporates a new “Motionflow” algorithm, which runs at 120 frames per second with “dark frames” inserted between the normal 60Hz video images, designed to reduce the type of “retinal smearing” effect of rapid yaw rates. The anomaly is more likely to affect pilots of agile aircraft capable of rapid movement, such as a Cessna or Beechcraft. “Image smear makes it difficult to read taxiway and other airport signage while moving,” notes RSI’s Everett. “The new built-in smear reduction technology is promising, and we’ve had very positive feedback from pilots who easily see the difference.” Two LCoS projector suppliers with deep roots in simulation, Barco and the Seos Display operation recently acquired by Rockwell Collins, both claim superior white/black contrast. Rock-

well’s Zorro projector uses a patented four-panel architecture for a sequential contrast, said to be “far higher by orders of magnitude than any other light-valve based projector.” Barco’s SIM 7Q is “the brightest LCoS training projector on the market - three times brighter and three times darker compared to traditional solutions,” according to international manager Paul Lyon. Andrew Jamison is touting the concept of “Scalable-enabled”, a sort of “Intel Inside” for avoiding the extra expense of adding custom warping and edge blending hardware into projectors. The Scalable Displays CEO says its “projector-agnostic” EasyBlend software will interface with an external warping box or a projector, but the cheapest solution (saving about $10,000 per projector) is to drive the graphics card. In a year and a half, Scalable has integrated its “after market” software with 18 vendor image generator packages. “If money is not an issue, if you want a higher contrast than commercialoff-the-shelf [COTS], higher resolution, blacker blacks, then spend four or five times as much, $100,000 per projector,” Jamison advises.

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Challenge Competition is also ramping up in the cross-cockpit display subsector. Where Rockwell’s Seos was once the dominant supplier of widescreen displays, Barco and RSI have stepped up to challenge, in part from the expectation that Rockwell Collins will sooner or later pursue the airline FSTD market. Longtime partners such as CAE, FlightSafety International, and Thales may have a “reduced comfort level,” as one observer phrased it, dealing with Rockwell-owned Seos versus independent Seos. “The market is ready for some additional competition,” suggests Barco’s Lyon. “We were encouraged to enter the market by companies looking for options.” Barco’s widescreen launch customer was in the military market - an upgrade of L-3/Link’s B-2 stealth bomber simulator, “but the design really wasn’t optimized for civil applications.” The first demonstration of commercially available collimated displays will be in the Xenia, Ohio facility where Barco previously produced calligraphic CRT systems. Three 11-foot variants are expected to be offered, all rear-projected:

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CAT MAGAZINE • ISSUE 3/2009

TRAINING TECHNOLOGY

200 degrees horizontal field of view by 40 degrees vertical, 220 x 45, and 220 x 60. Q4 Services of Orlando, Florida will supply the polyester film mirrors to Barco. There is “no breakthrough engineering revelation,” Lyon acknowledges. Barco’s products will be “optimized around the SIM 7Q” lightweight LCoS projectors. “We’re going for higher quality and larger cockpits.” RSI’s new front-projected CrossView is initially chasing the small cab cockpit trainers with a nine-foot radius mylar display. It has been successful with displays for Simcom’s Citation Ultra simulator and a B737 for Pan Am International Flight Academy. Adding a display component to its image generation, database, and projection expertise allows RSI “to control our own destiny,” Everett says. “In the past we’ve had some hiccups relying on outside vendors to deliver products to our programs. Now we’re a one-stop shop.” Fidelity Flight Simulation (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) is using a novel 180 x 40 “Mosaic Wall” for applications such as Toronto Airways’ Cessna 172S simulator. Flat screen panels wrap around the cockpit to provide an affordable, “seamless” panoramic out-the-window scene.

Feeding the Beast Similar to the Sony-JVC “feud”, the battle for graphics processor supremacy has been waged for several years between Nvidia and ATI (now part of AMD). In the simulation market, “there’s been a progressive shift toward Nvidia platforms,” observes Perey. CAE’s Tropos and Rockwell Collins’ EP-500 image generators were originally based on ATI Radeon chips, but CAE has since migrated to Nvidia’s GeForce GTX series. Driven by the huge commercial video games market, graphic processor capability roughly doubles every year. “There might be a horse’s head advantage of one over the other” at any given time, Perey notes. Earlier this month, AMD announced that its HD4890 graphics card is “the first to break the one Gigahertz (GHz) barrier using standard air-cooling solutions.” With all that processing capability, Perey says the transition from 32-bit operating systems to 64-bit has begun. “You can’t put any more polygons into the system” and continue to run at 60Hz. “Right now 32-bit gets choked at rendering. It’s no longer a question of, ‘Can 30

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SimCom Training Center (Orlando, Fl) was the launch customer for RSI’s new collimated optical system “CrossView”. Image credit: RSI.

I draw it?’ It’s ‘Can I economically build it?’ The newest platform can rip through it in no time. This very capable beast has to be fed.” John Frasca of Frasca International (Urbana, Illinois) says, customers are increasingly ordering “huge databases with high detail throughout.” Frasca has shipped 60 channels of its TruVision Global IG, 33 to civil customers ranging from American Eagle to the German police, plus 27 to an international military user. Truvision is a collaboration of Frasca’s geometry correction and edge blending with Diamond Visionics’ GenesisRT engine. RSI’s Everett agrees with the scene content demand. “From the gate to the runway, we are modeling every taxiway sign, every marking, every building, every light. Each feature within the scene has to be at a detail level that allows easy recognition by the pilots.” Everett says even “flat” runways are passé – “Now all runways are modeled at real-world elevations, and profiled exactly like the runway we are depicting.” The IG also has a feature that detects when a wingtip strikes a light pole or building, triggering the simulator to react appropriately. Most IG vendors now offer some flavor of worldwide terrain at various resolutions, depending on proximity to

an airport. RSI’s is called Continuous Earth Real Terrain System (CERTS). The current database uses Digital Terrain Elevation Data (DTED) and 15-meter satellite imagery, but Everett says RSI is in the process of migrating to five-meter imagery, starting with the continental US. CERTS also provides illuminated urban areas derived from Digital Feature Analysis Data (DFAD), “ensuring a close match between the visual scene and standard aeronautical charts when training for night scenarios.” RSI’s was the first IG to achieve the so-called “software calligraphic” solution. Everett says the biggest hurdles included low-visibility halos and range attenuation “on a light-point by lightpoint basis… avoiding the ‘sea of blue’ effects of taxiway lights seen on older systems.” Speaking of colors, more and more pilots are having to cope with the monochrome green of head-up displays and other enhanced flight vision systems. The “I” in Christie’s StIM projector stands for infrared, i.e. Stimulated IR in Simulation. In addition to the traditional red, green, and blue LEDs for visible light, “a separate IR LED generates energy in the nearIR range,” Kanahele explains. Although originally developed for the military market, “There has been significant interest from the civil market as to how they can take advantage of the IR projection capability for night vision goggle training.” cat

conference PReview

Left The dedicated training pavilion at APATS@AA07. Image credit: David Malley/Halldale Media.

APATS Returns to Hong Kong

Organised by:

As APATS approaches its 5th edition, it has firmly established itself as the primary aviation training event in the region.

he Asia Pacific Airline Training Symposium (APATS) will once again be held at AsiaWorldExpo in Hong Kong on September 8-9, alongside Asian Aerospace 2009, the leading Asian airline exhibition. APATS will provide a focus for all airline trainers attending the AA Expo, with the APATS exhibits and conference situated in a prime position at the venue. Some 154 airlines were present at the 2007 Asian Aerospace show, with more than 2,000 airline representatives in attendance, which makes this the biggest event for the region’s airlines. Visitors included senior executives and top management in procurement, engineering, finance, training and passenger services. APATS 2008 brought together 235 senior airline training professionals from airlines, regulators and the training industry from the Asia Pacific region.

Conference This year’s symposium will aim to deliver a focused, executive level treatment of Asia-Pacific airline training and simulation issues. Topical themes at this year’s conference are: Day 1: New Aviation Technology And Challenges In Training Day 2: Taking A System Approach On Safety Oversight These have already generated a great response from speakers and a programme featuring major regional and global players is taking shape. Already confirmed are: • Keynote Speaker: Mr Norman Lo, Director General of the Hong Kong Civil Aviation Department.

• Steve Sheterline, Head of Flight Training and Technical, British Airways, on Training lessons learnt from BA038. • Florian Hamm, CEO of Lufthansa Flight Training, on the Lufthansa Approach to Ab Initio Pilot Training. • Alteon will present: The Alteon Multicrew Pilot License Approach on the MPL beta test carried out in Australia. These are representative of the very high quality of speakers coming forward for APATS – a must do for those wanting to hear and discuss the critical issues in aviation training. At the close of the first day of the conference all APATS delegates, speakers and exhibitors are invited to attend a Networking Reception sponsored by Aviation Australia.

APATS Exhibition A dedicated simulation and training pavilion will be located in the main exhibition area of Asian Aerospace (8-10 September) which will consist of the conference, an APATS lounge area and the APATS exhibition, where the latest training equipment and service solutions can be seen. The floor plan is filling up fast. If you are interested in exhibiting or sponsoring, please contact Jeremy Humphreys, email: jeremy@halldale.com, or telephone: +44 (0)1252 532009.

Debate APATS is a dynamic event - provoking debate through stimulating presentations and outstanding networking opportunities. It provides an exciting chance to share experiences and to question regional and global experts in the pilot training business - a “must do” for those serious about airline pilot training from either a global or regional perspective. For further information including the latest conference programme and delegate registration details, please visit www.halldale.com/apatsAA cat

Sponsored by:

eff Roberts, CAE’s Group President, Civil Products and Training & Services, and Jacques Drappier, VP Training & Flight Operations at Airbus, opened the WATS conference with a duo of keynote addresses challenging delegates to embrace the change that the industry is going through, while urging a continued focus on the WATS theme of training “Best Practise.” Speaking to an audience of 800 registered delegates, 70 exhibiting companies and almost 100 international airlines, Roberts highlighted six areas of best practice and the importance of career-long “closed-loop” training, while Drappier urged the industry to “re-think” elements of aviation training during this temporary economic recession. “Safety

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must never be compromised,” said Drappier. “We cannot train less, we need to train better.”

for less than 2% of total emissions, these emissions will increase as the industry expands. Otzik outlined the regulatory, technical, operational and training challenges of “flying green”. Safe and Green Captain Jack Casey of Safety OperBefore Chief Moderator Dr. Michael ating Systems followed with a discusKarim released delegates to their specialsion of Safety Management Systems, or ised tracks, pilot, maintainers and cabin SMS, and the crew delegates importance of heard from sevtraining audits. eral speakers on The opportunity to assemble these Since the purissues of common concern. Martin groups of people here at WATS with pose of SMS is to provide a Otzik from the their competence, experience and systematic way Berlin Institute of common goal of improving aviation to control risk, Technology dissafety is critical to this industry. and to provide cussed the issue assurances of “green aviaDr. Edward Cook, FAA that those risk tion.” While glocontrols are effective, SMS is not at odds bal aviation greenhouse gases account

with good business practices. To conclude, Captain Scott Graham of ALPA and Vicki Jurgens, AFA, presented a debrief of a Level 4 security incident from the United Airlines Security Incident Review Committee. Lessons learned, particularly from the cabin – “you cannot always rely on passengers assisting” – was a poignant part of the presentation. By the third session of the day, cabin and maintenance delegates split into their separate tracks, while pilot trainers received a regulatory update. Dr. Ed Cook of the FAA provided information on the state of Part 60, Part 121 N&O, and Part 142. Mark Dransfield from Thales followed with a broad look at the final result of activities of the RAeS international working group that updated ICAO simulator document 9625. Some 27 levels of FFS, FTD, and FNPTs have been boiled down to seven levels of FSTD - an enormous international achievement. Captain David Owens closed the session with an outline of IATA’s Global Training & Qualification Initiative (ITQI), which seeks to evolve pilot training to reflect today’s technologies and actual risks. The focus of the final pilot session of the day was new-hire issues and training. Kit Darby gave an enormous amount of data on the US pilot market, making the point that the career lifetime earnings of a professional pilot were still very impressive, and that long-term pilot need estimates show no signs of abating. Anthony Petteford followed with an excellent briefing on the merits of the multi-crew pilots license (MPL), dispelling the many myths, offering suggestions for optimization, and summarizing the overall benefits of this ICAO initiative. The last presentation of the day was by Jeffrey Oboy of m2p Consulting, who discussed flight training planning in the current environment.

Flight Training Insights Captain John Cox and Paul Ransbury of Safety Operating Systems, kicked off the Day 2 WATS Pilot Sessions with a thought provoking presentation on Loss of Control In-Flight (LOC-I). Delegates were intrigued to hear how specialised combinations of unusual attitude flight training using Level D FFS and actual

Left WATS 2009 keynote speakers – Jeff Roberts, CAE (top) and Jacques Drappier, Airbus. Opposite page 800 industry professionals attended this year’s event. All images: David Malley/Halldale Media.

tive effect, including purpose-built simulator training sessions with ATC simulation. Captain Mark Sawyer of Aerosim then summarized many of the earlier WATS presentation subjects by explaining how a confluence of regulatory progression, cultural and demographic developments, simulation advances, and economic pressures were driving new training curriculums and footprints.

RATS Pilot

aircraft, could be a solution to LOC-I. Dr. Nihad Daidzic of Minnesota State University continued the conference theme of presenting real-world data and training solutions with his analysis of aircraft landing operations on contaminated runways in adverse conditions. Dr. Daidzic’s outstanding presentation revealed the results of his research while offering insight on pilot technique for safer landing operations. Dr. Todd Macuda of Gladstone Aerospace Consulting closed out the session with a perspective on aircrew health as it pertains to the growing problem of laser strikes against aircraft. In the morning’s second pilot session, Marsha Bell from Adacel and Nick Sabatini kept the focus on safety operations with their discussion of the role of technology and training in preventing runway incursions. A growing issue at today’s congested airports, the resulting industry “Call to Action” has had a posi-

Moderated by Captain Drew Bedson and Terry Hibler of FlightSafety, the Regional Airline Training (RATS) conference sessions opened with the ever-changing dynamics of pilot recruitment. Dan Robertson of ASA foresees a pilot shortage again in two years, noting the alarming trend of reduced flight school enrollments. John O’Brien of Delta Connection echoed those concerns, telling delegates the primary challenge is for flight schools to be managing current resources, finding new pilots to teach and ways to secure funding. Larry Neal of Comair then described his company’s Launch Program, designed to assure that low-time new hires could meet the requirements of the airline’s Advanced Qualification Program (AQP), which includes CRJ systems training and simulator sessions. The dedicated RATS sessions continued with Captain Paul Kolisch addressing his company’s successful program of autopilot stall training. He asserted that traditional training does not prepare pilots for some events that actually occur, and that conventional stall training does not accomplish the PTS goal of recognition and recovery. Captain Randy Hamilton of Compass Airlines continued the safety theme with his excellent presentation on the role of training to reduce runway incursions and altitude and airspace deviations. Finally, and of particular interest to regional airlines, Stephen Koch of

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conference Report

the FAA’s Aviation Systems Standards division described a unique eLearning program, that provides recurrent training for FAA aircrew flying missions from various remote locations to inspect the US National Airspace System. A highlight of RATS 2009 was a special breakout featuring members of the Regional Airline Association’s (RAA) Training Subcommittee. Chaired by RAA VP Scott Foose, the discussion opened with Randy Hamilton of Compass Airlines continuing his earlier presentation by asking delegates how their training departments were addressing incursions and deviations. Robin Wall of Skywest then asked how attendees were incorporating corrective actions from safety programs into their actual training programs, while Jesse Childress of ASA asked for input concerning training and checking procedures in relation to Part 121, Subparts N & O. The lively discussion that ensued in this breakout resulted in the sharing of a great deal of information amongst delegates, and effectively concluded the RATS sessions.

Maintenance Track It seems that there are four things that maintenance trainers like to talk about when they gather together: regulations, trainees, the HF “dirty dozen”, and training technology. Moderated by Dr. Bill Johnson of the FAA, the 2009 WATS maintenance training track was the largest yet. Holger Beck from LTT began the first maintenance session with a presentation about putting passion in training content and the importance of instructors becoming coaches and mentors, particularly given the millennial generation’s need for creative training. Ed Hall from the FAA followed with an excellent synopsis of the Part 147 update - a key initiative is to make content a training specification, which is far easier to change and keep current than the traditional way which is to create a rule. Philippe Beaulieu from Airbus, rounded off the session with insight into how maintenance training can learn from pilot training methodologies, including the justification and formalization of curriculums and the use of simulation. The second session focused on personnel, compliance and records. Gwen Tracy from Strategia and Galen Hinshaw from Timco discussed how training and certification had to be managed. 34

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Top Mark Dransfield, Thales. Below Capt. Jack Casey, Safety Operations Systems. All images: David Malley/Halldale Media.

By day 2 the subject had turned to human factors. Renee Dupont provided a refresher on the “dirty dozen”, while JJ Milano of Horizon Air told delegates that a paper shredder is a trainer’s best friend when it comes to maintaining a recurrent HF training program. Relevancy and currency are key – get new meaningful cases, and shred the old. The last formal presentations of the maintenance conference focused on simulation technology. Presentations had a common theme – the importance of using technology to support scenario-based training that fully immerses students. Laurent Dussillols of Snecma described the power of digital mockups and 3D animations in training, while Steve Crowley of CAE described today’s range of synthetic environments. Jacqui Chapman from Pennant then explained the theory of malfunction simulation in both procedural and “free-play” maintenance simulations, while Laurence Esterhuizen from Casebank Technologies described the role of performance-support tools in aircraft maintenance, namely the company’s Spotlight technology, which uses case-based reasoning to help a technician zero-in on aircraft component failures. Finally, a closing maintenance panel session led by the ATA’s Mark Lopez explored the re-write of ATA Spec 104.

Cabin Crew Training Ilka Wolf of Mint Media, who spoke on continuation training record-keeping, followed them. The main messages of these presentations were the need for best practices in compliance management systems, and the need for today’s IT tools to manage the information. Paul Brederick of Aviation Australia closed the session with an engaging discussion on the nature and challenge of millennial students. He finds that they respond to well-designed and delivered instruction, regardless of their national culture.

Moderated by Flight Attendant Jeanne Kenkel and Capt (ret.) Al LaVoy, the cabin track began with a regulator and airline’s view of AQP in cabin training. Long established in pilot training, the Advanced Qualification Program (AQP) is a proficiency-based program, which is a voluntary alternative to traditional approaches. Dr. Douglas Farrow of the FAA and Michelle Farkas of Delta Air Lines provided invaluable insight into the advantages of this approach. Collette Hilliary of FlightSafety then asked whether the sector should adopt an “ab-

Simulation Technology Update Combined stream technology presentations were conducted on day 3 of the conference and included: • Don Reiter, Alteon Training “B787 Training Solutions” • Dr. Sunjoo Advani, IDT “Motion Cueing, Past, Present and Future” • Ron Jantzen, FlightSafety International “New Simulator Technology” • Philippe Perey, CAE “Leveraging Technology to Further the Art of Simulation” • Andrew Jamison, Scalable Displays “COTS Projectors and IGs” • Captain Jamie Smith, AirTran “Web-based Training”

initio” training model similar to pilot training, where the airline does not incur all the costs associated with the selection and primary training of cabin crew personnel. The focus on cabin training challenges continued in the second session. While English is the language of international aviation, pronunciation and accent remains a challenge to non-native English speakers. Judi Ravin of ARI outlined methodologies to mitigate both in order to enhance operational communications and safety. Lori Brown of Western Michigan University (WMU) then turned the discussion towards new technologies with her presentation on Crew Alert Monitoring Systems (CAMS), a new discrete, wireless system that enables pilot / flight attendant / Air Marshal communications during a security threat. The final session presentation concerned another threat, that of fatigue. Brian Hayvaz of AirCare Solutions Group discussed the obvious and the not so obvious causes of fatigue, both in the aircraft and on the ground, and provided suggestions for a heightened level of awareness, as well as self-assessment tools. As day 2 opened the emphasis was on human factors; Ivan Noel of Inflight Innovations discussed Evacuation Management Best Practices, including the latest research studies and advancements in Emergency Landing Checklist design. Captain Ron Nielson of Top Flight Performance followed with an informative presentation on the importance of CRM, particularly as applied to the social competencies needed to build effective teams. A presentation led by Captain Bill Crooks of the APA looked at the importance of situational awareness in specific security incidents, and the way that humans react to stressful situations. The final dedicated cabin session looked at health and safety issues and was kicked off by Heidi Giles MacFarlane, who reminded attendees of the impact of the new US DOT Air Carrier Access Act (ACAA), which becomes effective on May 13, 2009. The ACAA prohibits air carriers from discriminating on the basis of passenger disability. Matt Kliff from JetBlue then outlined his company’s Cabin Safety Evaluation Program, which monitors Inflight Crewmember compliance with regulatory and company procedures. Vicki Jurgens of AFA wrapped up the session, as she described the increasing trend of passenger misconduct, particularly that which is driven by the combination of sleep aids and alcohol. Finally, Captain Holger Hoffman of Condor Air, who described the real world ditching training his airline conducts with the German Navy, led an excellent breakout panel on cabin ditching training and survival. All WATS 2009 presentations can be found on the “Proceedings” section of the Halldale Media website: www.halldale.com/ wats. WATS 2010 will take place from April 27-29 at the Rosen Shingle Creek and we look forward to seeing you next year as we again advance the art and science of aviation simulation and training. cat

Pilot Training Breakout Panels • Regional Airline Association (RAA) “Training Subcommittee Meeting” led by Scott Foose, RAA, and Randy Hamilton • “Motion Simulation Technology” led by Dr. Nidal Sammur, FlightSafety International • “FAA NSP Briefing” led by Thomas Walsh, FAA • “Future Aviation Training Curriculums” led by Capt. Mark Sawyer, Aerosim • “Business Aviation Training” led by Peter Moxham

Above Work hard, play hard – as well as a busy 3-day conference schedule and bustling tradeshow floor, attendees were able to enjoy a networking reception and the annual WATS golf tournament. CAT MAGAZINE • ISSUE 3/2009

world news & analysis

Seen&Heard Edited by Fiona Greenyer. For daily breaking S&T news - go to www.halldale.com.

L to R - Gary Scott, Bombardier; Florian Hamm, LFT; Hank Blasiak, Bombardier and James Hoblyn, Bombardier. Image Credit: LFT.

ERAU SHOW THEMES ARE EASE OF USE AND COST

C-SERIES MAINTENANCE TRAINING Bombardier Aerospace, Lufthansa Flight Training (LFT) and Lufthansa Technical Training (LTT) have signed the first authorized training provider (ATP) agreement for the Bombardier CSeries aircraft. The accord will ensure that European operators of CSeries aircraft have access to worldclass training services at their doorstep. LFT will provide pilot and cabin crew training, while LTT will provide technical training for Europe-based operators of the 110-passenger CS100 aircraft and 130-passenger CS300, scheduled to enter service in 2013. The 36

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new ATP will deliver training through an existing network of centres in various locations across Europe. LFT and LTT will benefit from the use of Bombardier course materials while using their own instructors, infrastructure and simulators. They will employ the latest e-learning, classroom and simulator training technologies to meet or exceed EASA and other regulatory requirements. Training services for the CSeries in Europe will mirror the training that Bombardier will conduct in Montreal and are expected to begin in 2013 in advance of the first delivery.

New flight simulator technology to reduce instructor workload and a new, low-cost, motion-based advanced aircraft training device (AATD) were highlighted at the National Training Aircraft Symposium held at EmbryRiddle Aeronautical Universityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s (ERAU) Daytona Beach campus March 16-20, reports Chuck Weirauch. Other attractions included company overviews of advances in Cessna, Cirrus, Diamond and Liberty training aircraft; presentations and demonstrations by training equipment providers Frasca, CAPACG, Paradigm Shift, Redbird Flight Simulation, Simflightronics, Talon Systems and Jeppesen; and panel sessions on safety management systems (SMS) education and NextGen technologies and curricula. One standout was the synthetic automated flight training environment with virtual air traffic (SAFTE-VAT) simulator system, developed through a joint partnership between Frasca International and ERAU. The key feature of the SAFTE-VAT is a voice recognition system that simulates air traffic and air traffic control (ATC) communication during flight training sessions. The VAT element eliminates the need for instructors to role-play air traffic and ATC communica-

tions, thus enabling them to focus more on the student. SAFTE-VAT also features pre-programmed, ERAU-developed customized training scenarios and courseware software that can be loaded and run automatically without instructor involvement at the start of a training session. The instructor can then dedicate time directly to the student, rather than adjusting flight scenarios and simulated conditions during the session. “We wanted to integrate the whole training scenario, from stepping into the simulator to leaving it,” said John Frasca. “Automatic lesson execution enables the instructor to focus on instructing.” ERAU Professor John Macchiarella explained that the university’s goal is to provide better behavioral fidelity in its flight simulators. The university then formulated training needs to achieve this goal, partnering with Frasca to develop the SAFTE-VAT to meet this challenge. With the resulting transfer of training effectiveness from the simulator to the aircraft, in future the flight school intends to provide a hybrid flight training program with 54% FTD time and 46% aircraft time for ab initio students, according to Macchiarella. “Flight instructors are doing too many other things to effectively role-play other traffic and ATC. We wanted to optimize our FTD training curricula and maximize transfer to enhance the simulated flight training environment, providing a high degree of realism with voice recognition technology as a baseline,” he said.

NEW REDBIRD AATDS The Redbird FMX full-motion flight simulator and its fixed-base SD variant, which were FAA-certified as AATDs in

September 2008, were on show at the National Training Aircraft Symposium at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s Daytona Beach campus in March. The most impressive feature of the FMX, along with its motion capabilities, is its price tag - the SD variant sells for about $38,000. With these low-price points, Redbird Flight Simulations of Austin, US is aiming its products at small flight schools that normally would be unable to afford such kit. According to Redbird VP sales and marketing, Charlie Gregoire, there is already a backlog of orders for both training devices. Part of that backlog stems from a recent decision by Cessna to name Redbird as a preferred supplier for training devices for all of its 300 Cessna pilot training centers. Another major selling point is that the AATDs are reconfigurable for nearly all aircraft used for training by flight schools. “There is nothing on the market like it,” Gregoire said. “Right now our AATDs are reconfigurable to train for 23 different aircraft, and we are expanding that list. These devices can operate under an eight-foot ceiling, feature a 220-degree wraparound visibility with LCD screens, and can be powered via a standard wall electrical outlet. We feel these features make the FMX and SD affordable and effective training devices for flight schools of all sizes.”

JOINT EFFORT Flight Crew Systems, Inc., now doing business as LOFT of Carlsbad, California has partnered with Aeronautical Systems Engineering, Inc. (ASE) of Odessa, Florida to produce pilot training equipment for the LOFT pilot training center at McClellan-Palomar airport in Carlsbad.

ASE and LOFT have announced the completion of a CitationJet1 (Model CE-525) Level C FFS with a simulated Collins Pro Line 21 avionics suite, scheduled for delivery to LOFT’s facility late 2009. The CJ1 simulator marks the beginning of a multi-simulator training facility with a second Level C FFS currently being developed.

DISPATCHER GRADUATES Phoenix East Aviation, Inc. (PEA) has announced the graduation of the first group of new airline dispatchers for Middle East Airlines AirLiban (MEA). PEA initiated the training of 23 student dispatchers for MEA and other Middle East airlines in February. The six-week course was held in Beirut at MEA’s facility and was conducted in accordance with curriculum provided by PEA. It was developed to meet ICAO and Lebanese aviation authority requirements. The next airline dispatcher course is scheduled to begin late September. It will consist of MEA employees, as well as student dispatchers from other airlines.

EIGHT-DAY CRAMMER SimCom is now offering a timesaving, eight-day, one person CJ captain initial training course. It will prepare pilots to take a check ride in eight days rather than 14 as offered in SimCom’s standard course. Highly personal, oneon-one instruction maximizes daily learning and provides the pilot with the same content as in the longer course. The FAA Part 142 and insurance industry approved program is available to pilots who fly the CJ, CJ1, CJ2 and CJ3. Training is conducted at SimCom’s Orlando centre in the company’s Level C simulator.

What we do: Bizjet Training Ltd specialises in providing high quality training for engineers on the Hawker Beechcraft 125 series of business aircraft, formerly known as the HS125 or BAe 125. Bizjet Training Ltd. 729 Capability Green Luton LU1 3LU Tel: +44 (0)1582 435161 Fax: +44 (0)1582 435168 email: info@bizjet-training.com www.bizjet-training.com

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• We are approved by the Civil Aviation Authority as a EASA Part-147 approved training school for Hawker 125 aircraft with Honeywell/Allied Signal TFE-731 and the Hawker 1000 aircraft with Pratt & Whitney 305B engines to provide training for B1 mechanical engineers and B2 avionics engineers. • We carry out this training using our team of highly experienced Instructors, either at our newly built facility near Luton Airport, or at our customer’s facilities, world wide.

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world news & analysis

NEW SIM FOR DUTCH FLIGHT ACADEMY Dutch Flight Academy has acquired a B737-800 FTD from Sim-Industries to expand its pilot training program. The FTD is based on the B737-800 full flight Level D software, creating a high fidelity training capability for twinjet training. The system has a 180 x 40 degree visual system featuring similar capabilities as the FFS. Anne-Christine Dreue, president and CEO of Dutch Flight Academy, commented: “We are pleased to take delivery of this simulator this summer, which will create a significant improvement in our in-house training capabilities.”

HIGH FLIERS IN DEMAND Since it was launched CTC FlexiCrew has attracted global interest from pilots and airlines alike. To date more than 70 pilots have been placed and the company is in advanced discussions with airlines worldwide to assist with forthcoming seasonal needs. “CTC has been providing new and experienced pilots and instructors to its client airlines since the early 1990s. The economic downturn has forced our industry to revisit the way we do things and flexible resourcing is one area where airlines can genuinely manage their cost base,” said Captain Chris Clarke, group chairman of CTC Aviation Group plc. “Contracting CTC FlexiCrew is a cost-effective resourcing solution that will ensure airlines retain quality, high standards and commitment from their personnel. We are finalising plans to place pilots with one of our Australasian clients that we hope to announce very soon.” The CTC FlexiCrew database currently holds details of almost 1,000 pilots worldwide with a variety of experience levels and licenses. All pilots registering will be required to undertake a selection interview and simulator assessment before being offered placements.

LICENSE AGREEMENT infoWERK is collaborating with CAE to offer some of its type training products as part of CAE’s e-learning training solutions. The courses will be supplied by infoWERK ready for use by CAE, which will integrate them into its e-learning portfolio. “We are delighted with… this agreement,” said Hansjörg Lotter, CEO of 38

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infoWERK. “CAE as a world leader in providing integrated training solutions suits our sales strategies perfectly and this agreement gives us a more strategic [opportunity] in circulating our training products on the global market. We have a suite of high quality type training products for the aviation industry, and CAE has a high reputation in the market for type training, which makes this cooperation ideal for us.”

PILOT PROVISIONING IN CHINA CAE Global Academy continues to expand its presence in the Chinese market with a pilot provisioning contract for China based Xiamen Airlines, for approximately 70 pilots over two years. A group of Xiamen Airline cadets began training in March at CAE Global Academy in Phoenix, USA. CAE Global Academy in Phoenix includes hands-on training throughout the curriculum through use of the latest simulation-based technology, and by spending 250 hours flying an aircraft. At the end of training the cadets will graduate with a commercial pilot license (CPL) approved by the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC). The comprehensive training package will allow cadets to join Xiamen Airlines directly as first officers.

MAINTENANCE E-LEARNING CAE has received inspection authorization (IA) approval from FAA for six of its e-Learning maintenance training courses. They include B737NG engine ground operations, advanced digital

Dutch Flight Academy president and CEO Anne-Christine Dreue. Image credit: Sim-Industries.

principles, human factors, maintenance diagnostic systems (MDS) and reduced vertical separation minimums (RVSM). As part of their training program, maintenance technicians must train a specific number of hours in order to have their IA certificate renewed. Web-based courses offer maintenance technicians a new way to gain qualified hours, traditionally available through instructor-led courses. Along with the six e-Learning courses, 89 other CAE maintenance training courses received IA approval from FAA.

SMS TRAINING ONLINE Southern California Safety Institute (SCSI), a pioneer in safety management systems (SMS) training since 2002, has announced its seventh year of offering safety management systems training, and its third year offering SMS training online. Peter C. Gardiner, SCSI’s president and CEO, said: “We are pleased to offer SMS-Essentials both in the classroom and online for the convenience of our students, and recently switched our online course to Adobe Presenter, which is a much more user-friendly and powerful program.” The online course is self-paced and mirrors the traditional in-class SMSEssentials course (SMS-E). It supports

all aviation service providers in meeting ICAO’s 2009 requirement to implement an SMS program. The ICAO requirement means all regulators, aircraft operators, maintenance organizations, aircraft manufacturers, air traffic services providers, and certificated airport operators must have an SMS program in place this year. At a minimum the SMS program needs to identify safety hazards, implement remedial action, provide continuous monitoring and seek continuous improvement. Commenting in the SMS-workshop, John Richardson, director of the SMS certificate program and dean of training, said: “This is a very hands-on practical workshop in which we go beyond the basic case studies of someone else’s SMS, and actually help attendees build the framework and elements of their own SMS. We incorporate the ten steps, checklists, guides and tools needed. If they bring their current SMS plan, we can help them evaluate it for improvement and compliance with the most current requirements.”

FLIGHT TRAINING FOR US SCHOOL T. Wingate Andrews High School in High Point, North Carolina is to receive an Elite RC-1 advanced ATD from Elite Simulation Solutions. The trainer, configured with eight aircraft types, will be used within the Magnet School educational environment and provide future

young aviators with exposure to the fundamentals of flight, instrument training and light aircraft systems. The RC-1 is a complete full-featured ATD with life-size, high-resolution instruments, cockpit enclosure, instructor station and external visual system with large-screen display as standard. It is three trainers in one with simple, complex, and twin-engine aircraft capability. The RC-1 provides the same flying credits as a level 3 FTD.

KOREAN AIR BOOSTS CITATION FLEET Korean Air has ordered two Citation CJ1+ aircraft to boost its advanced pilot training capability. The aircraft will have a special center-mounted instructor/ observer seat behind the two pilot seats to provide a more robust training environment. The CJ1+s join Korean Air’s existing fleet of Citation Ultras, which have been used for advanced pilot training platforms since the aircraft entered service in 1995. The new aircraft, scheduled for delivery Q3 2009, will be based at Korean Air’s pilot training center at Jeju, South Korea.

TWO SIMS CERTIFIED AT FSC Flight Simulation Company-Dallas LLC (FSC-Dallas) has had two FFSs certified Level D by FAA. A new A320-200 and B737-800 at the Fort Worth training center join B737-300 and B737-200 simulators already in service. Both simulators

were built by CAE and have six degrees of freedom, electric motion base and CAE Tropos 6000 visual system. FSC’s training partner, Higher Power Aviation (HPA), is co-located in the FSCDallas Training Center, and will be providing instruction on both the new simulators. “We have an FAA approved Part 142 program for the A320 and are in negotiations with Part 121 and international air carriers to provide aircrew training to FAA standards and certification criteria,” said Joe Poore, HPA chairman. FSC-Dallas is a division of the Flight Simulation Company, based in Netherlands.

JAA-TO TRAINING CENTRE OPENS The Joint Aviation Authorities Training Organisation (JAA-TO) has officially opened its regional Balkan training centre at Airport City Belgrade, Serbia. At this facility JAA-TO will run training courses based upon European aviation safety regulations. Courses are open to aviation authority and industry personnel alike. JAA-TO provides training courses in multiple fields of aviation safety to help improve aviation safety worldwide and promote the understanding of existing and new European aviation regulations. JAA-TO conducts scheduled training courses in Hoofddorp, London, Vienna and Belgrade.

Graphic Performance Most companies in the aviation business learn to cope with the rapid change in the economic climate. ECA Faros is no exception and has weathered the storms of earlier swings in demand very well, writes Chris Long. As noted in the WATS Daily News at the recent WATS conference in Orlando, N. Paul Rault, head of sales, Aviation Simulation, announced that Airbus had just validated the ECA Faros Airbus Competence Training (ACT) software used in maintenance training. This most recent of captures illustrates the core competence, which launched the company, then called Faros, back in 1986. At that time its primary skill was the development of a simulation editor to run high-speed graphics. An early business win was providing Airbus with its first trainer for FMS. Subsequently, in partnership with WICAT (courseware development) and Airbus, the customer, Faros provided the software for FMS trainers across the then Airbus fleet. Early in the new millennium additional devices were produced to provide training for ECAM and, using full flight simulator software, for a PC-based flight training device. A financial boost came in 2006 when Faros was bought by ECA Group, which had established skills in producing robotic systems

used in underwater applications in both the civil and defence sectors. These included offshore oil operations, mine detection and destruction, nuclear industry and so on. The marriage of those hardware production skills and Faros software led to an increasing capability. Now ECA Faros can produce training devices such as the MFTD recently delivered to S7, the major, privately-owned domestic airline in Russia. The present model continues to use those system integration and software skills such that, using Airbus supplied virtual aircraft and training packages, a selection of ACT training devices is now available. Indeed, Lufthansa Technical Training has bought them for use in its worldwide training centres. The range of pilot training options now includes turnkey training systems featuring touch-screens and virtual cockpits for the Airbus APT packages. Consequently ECA Faros has set up a US base in Tulsa to serve the US market. Patrick Akcelrod, COO of ECA Faros, believes that, “With an increasing and wide-ranging customer base, ECA Faros feels comfortable and well positioned to play a strong hand when the industry picks up once more.” CAT MAGAZINE • ISSUE 3/2009

world news & analysis Arrivals & Departures FlightSafety International has promoted David Glass to manager of its Detroit Metro/Toledo learning center. He replaces Gil Schnabel, who has been named manager of FlightSafety’s West Palm Beach learning center. David Glass joined FlightSafety in 2004 as an instructor and training center examiner at the airline learning center in St. Louis, Missouri. He was promoted to director of standards in 2006. He also served as an FAA designated training center evaluator for the Embraer 170 training program and as the center’s quality coordinator. He most recently served as assistant manager of FlightSafety’s learning center in Houston, Texas. Gil Schnabel joined FlightSafety in 2001 at the Dallas/Fort Worth learning center as an instructor and served as director of training and then assistant manager prior to being promoted to manager of the Detroit Metro/Toledo Learning Center in 2007. André Wall has been appointed chief operations officer (COO) of SR Technics. He will also become a member of SR Technics Group executive board. He joins SR Technics from Jet Aviation in Zurich, where for the last two years he has been serving as chief operating officer with responsibility for the company’s operational management in Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia.

CAT MAGAZINE • ISSUE 3/2009

Spatial Composite Solutions will design, build and install Etihad’s A320 CST. Image Credit: Spatial Composite Solutions.

CABIN SERVICE TRAINER Jebel Ali-based manufacturer of crew training simulators, Spatial Composite Solutions, has been commissioned to design, build and install an A320 cabin service trainer (CST) for Etihad Airways. The device will be based at Etihad’s new Crew Training Academy in Abu Dhabi. It is scheduled to be installed and commissioned in June and will be ready for training end July. The contract was awarded to Spatial by EDM in UK, with whom the Jebel Ali company recently formed a strategic alliance. The two companies have also agreed to partner on a number of forthcoming cabin crew training projects in the Gulf region.

MPL AIRBORNE IN UK Oxford Aviation Academy has received UK CAA agreement for the first multicrew pilot license (MPL) course to be launched in partnership with UK airline flybe. It will be the first MPL delivered using instructors, aircraft and simulators based in UK. MPL is a natural evolution of OAA’s existing ab initio course, the APP First Officer (APPFO), which already incorporates new technology simulation to provide students with multi-pilot jet experience before graduation from Oxford. The continuing improvement in high-fidelity simulator technology, allied to the ability to introduce multi-crew techniques much sooner during training than before, means OAA will be able to provide flybe with graduate pilots who will adapt

seamlessly to life as first officers on Q400 turboprops. Some unique features are incorporated into the course, including use of a complex single engine aircraft (Socata TB20 Trinidad) for core skills flight training, and a combination of new generation EFIS CRJ and OAA Group’s Q400 FFS for basic and intermediate phases of training respectively. The advanced phase of training will be delivered through the flybe training team. OAA’s MPL launch students will benefit from a joint sponsorship scheme, under which flybe and OAA will provide £20,000 per student in funding support to those selected.

B737 SIMS IN RUSSIA Alteon is placing two B737 simulators in Russia to support training in the region. Russia’s S7 Group will maintain the simulators and provide instruction at its training centers near Domodedovo airport in Moscow. Alteon will be responsible for marketing the FFSs – a B737NG and a B737 classic.

REALITYSEVEN FOR TURKISH AIRLINES Thales has won a contract to supply two new RealitySeven FFSs to Turkish Airlines. This brings to 14 the number of RealitySeven FFSs sold to date, including Airbus’s decision to acquire six of the simulators for its facilities in France and USA. Thales’s new RealitySeven FFS is modular in design with a common core element independent of aircraft type. Different aircraft modules can effectively be “swapped” as a customer’s fleet or training business needs change, without the entire simulator needing to be replaced and without further investment. The two new simulators are designed to the latest Airbus standard. The first complies with the A320; the second will be swapped between the A330 and A340 types. They will be housed in the THY Flight Training Academy at Atatürk International airport, Istanbul.

TRTO RENEWAL FOR JATS Jordan Airline Training and Simulation (JATS), the ex Royal Jordanian Training Center at Queen Alia International airport in Amman, Jordan, has successfully completed all requirements of the TRTO renewal process by the Romanian Aeronautical Authority in accordance with

JAR FCL requirements of the Romanian Civil Aeronautical Authority. JATS is now authorized to provide type rating training on both A320 and A310 simulators to any individual or group of flight crews from different airlines in Europe with JAR OPS certifications.

Letter to the Editor Editor’s Note: CAT Magazine always welcomes comment, views and feedback from readers concerning editorial content and also on any aspect of our program of offshoot events. The following Letter to the Editor relates to a discussion that took place during a panel session at the recent WATS Conference, and comes from Pinnacle Airlines.

TELESTRA LEVEL D CERTIFICATION

Dear Editor,

An Advanced Simulation Technology (ASTi) Telestra 4 sound and communications system, fitted to a B737-800 simulator, has been certified to meet Level D standards for both JAA STD 1A amendment 3, and FAA Part 60. This simulator, said to be the world’s first that is certified to both standards on one device, represents the state-of-the-art in FFSs. The single Telestra 4 processor provides both aural cue sounds for the aircraft through all phases of flight, and communications system audio for both crew and instructors. Aural cue simulation features the latest soundfield reconstruction capabilities of the ASTi ACE software toolkit. This provides full immersive 3D sound directionality and meets the requirement to match objective spectral analysis over the frequency range 50Hz to 16kHz within the +/-5dB tolerances defined in both FAA and JAA standards. ASTi has also reported that a B737NG simulator installed in Europe, fitted with an ASTi Telestra system providing Level D sound and communications, recently passed 7,000 hours operational use with 99.6% simulator reliability.

At a panel discussion during the recent WATS Conference, Pinnacle’s Pilot Training Program was mentioned. The perception left from that discussion does not match the reality of what we feel is an industry leading program. Our Safety Culture is the bedrock to our training programs and I feel our Safety Culture is one of the strongest in the industry. Our commitment to safety extends beyond our embracement of FOQA, LOSA, ASAP and SMS programs. We have designed specialized ground and simulator training for our pilots that we feel are industry leading. One example of this is our Stall Training. Through cooperation with our FAA CMU, we are able to implement progressive Stall Awareness and Recovery Training that far exceeds the traditional +/- 100 foot precision stall maneuvers that the industry historically used to satisfy Appendix F. Our Stall Training begins during initial new equipment training, where both high altitude and low altitude stall training is provided. We utilize LOFTs for recurrent training and set aside time after the LOFT scenario is complete to make sure our pilots receive stall training during recurrent visits as well. Our training focuses on lowering the angle of attack and not on specific altitude loss or gain. Pilots are not forced to memorize specific stall entry maneuvers; it is the instructor who sets up approaching stalls. We use multiple scenarios and configurations, to include close base leg pattern entry, to keep the focus of the training on stall recovery and not the entry of the stall. This is just one example of our Safety Culture at work in our training program. The reality of what is going on at Pinnacle does not match the perception that was left from your panel discussion. We welcome CAT Magazine to visit Pinnacle to see for yourself what an Industry Leading pilot training program is like. We are understandably very proud of what we have here at Pinnacle Airlines, Inc.

MENTOR SALES STRONG

Regards, Michael R. Garvin, Jr. VP Flight Operations, Pinnacle Airlines, Inc.

Frasca International’s Mentor AATD continues to be popular with flight schools worldwide. Recent orders have come from Metro State University (172 configuration), Glass Simulation center, Mountain View College, Utah Valley University (DA-40 configuration) and Aeris Aviation, all with G1000 avionics. Over 60 Mentors have been sold to flight schools worldwide since its introduction in 2005. It was designed to train pilots to fly integrated avionics systems without the need to invest in more advanced FTDs.

FNPT II QUALIFICATION Mechtronix Systems has announced successful qualification of two Ascent flight trainers configured as Diamond DA-42,

which were recently installed at ESMA Aviation Academy. Both units located at ESMA’s facility in southern France were certified JAR-FSTD A FNPT II by the French civil aviation authorities, DGAC, under JAA regulations. The Ascent flight trainers both feature a 150 x 35 degree visual system with FFS quality image generator providing high fidelity. The units are equipped with the latest autopilot technology Garmin GFC 700, providing more precision to students’ navigation. Additionally the devices are marked with a wider shell providing an ergonomic environment

for easier interaction between instructor and student. “We are delighted with the successful certifications we received from the DGAC,” said Mr. Jean Durand, general director of ESMA. “We can now proceed with our plan to operate the two FNPTs for instrument rating training. The purchases coincide with the renewal of our fleet with modern DA-42 aircraft. We have invested heavily in the past two years in modern teaching tools to better serve and meet the training needs of French, Vietnamese and Chinese airline cadet programs.” CAT MAGAZINE • ISSUE 3/2009

world news & analysis

QUALIFICATIONS FOR FSI FlightSafety International has received JAA Level D qualification from UK CAA for three new simulators. The Hawker 750, Citation Sovereign and Gulfstream G550 simulators, based at the company’s London/Farnborough training center, were all qualified within an eight-week period. The simulators are equipped with the company’s latest advances in technology. FlightSafety’s electric motion and control loading technology provide the highest level of aircraft fidelity, enhanced performance, increased availability and environmental advantages compared to previous generation simulators. The new simulators also feature SimIO data control and SimPWR power distribution systems designed to enhance simulator performance, increase flexibility and improve efficiency. The company’s new Hawker 900XP FFS, equipped with the new SimIO and SimPWR technology has also received Level D qualification from FAA. The simulator is located at FlightSafety’s Learning Center in Houston, Texas.

B767 CBT CPaT has announced the sale of its B767 flight training computer based training (CBT) courseware to First Air Airlines, the Ontario, Canada based airline. Other services being provided by CPaT include the use of CPaT’s learning management system (LMS). “It is with great pleasure that I can announce that CPaT’s B767 flight training program is now in service at First Air,” said Captain Greg (Lang) Van Langenhove, director of flight operations at First Air. “Our technical instructors and flight crews are very positive about the new program.” The B767 course focuses on systems, controls and operation of various components of the B767-series aircraft. Courseware is designed to meet FAA Regulation 121 requirements, while reducing simulator time needed to train pilots. It consists of 134 instructional modules for a total of 32 hours’ instruction.

DA42 QUALIFICATION The first DA42 simulator from Diamond Simulation GmbH & Co. KG equipped with the new Garmin GFC700 autopilot has been qualified by the Federal Office of Civil Aviation (FOCA) as 42

CAT MAGAZINE • ISSUE 3/2009

FNPT II according to JAR-FSTD A at Horizon Swiss Flight Academy in Kloten, Switzerland. Additionally, the first new generation (NG) DA40 Level 5 FTD from Diamond Simulation received qualification at Moncton Flight College in Canada.

SAT CREWS IN MUNICH Swiss AviationTraining (SAT) is now training pilot crews from Air Dolomiti and Augsburg Airways on its Embraer 190/195 FFS in Munich. SAT is a preferred training provider of Embraer in Europe, Middle East and Africa and has worked closely with the Brazilian passenger aircraft manufacturer to develop its training programmes. SAT’s Embraer 170/190 instructors have already trained more than 1,000 pilots, 1,200 mechanics and countless cabin personnel worldwide. cat

Index of Ads Aerosim Technologies www.aerosim.com 21, 23 & 25 Alteon www.alteontraining.com IFC Aviation Training Centre of Tunisia www.atct.com.tn 27

APATS@Asian Aerospace 2009 www.halldale.com/APATSAA IBC Bizjet Training www.bizjet-training.com

CAE www.cae.com

OBC

CTC www.ctcaviation.com

Christie Digital www.christiedigital.com

Delta Air Lines www.delta.com

EATS 2009 www.halldale.com/EATS

18 & 22

FlightSafety International www.flightsafety.com

Calendar 8-9 September 2009 APATS 2009 - Asia Pacific Airline Training Symposium @ Asian Aerospace Asia World Expo Hong Kong www.halldale.com/APATSAA 10-11 November 2009 EATS 2009 - European Airline Training Symposium Clarion Congress Hotel Prague, Czech Republic www.halldale.com/EATS 3-4 March 2010 ADTS 2010 – Aerospace & Defence Training Show Dubai, United Arab Emirates www.adts.aero 27-29 April 2010 WATS 2010 - World Aviation Training Conference & Tradeshow Rosen Shingle Creek Resort Orlando, Florida, USA www.halldale.com/WATS 18-23 August 2009 MAKS 2009 Moscow, Russia www.airshow.ru 23-24 September 2009 A Training and Regulatory Environment for Tomorrow: Annual International Flight Crew Training Conference London, UK www.raes.org.uk/conference 20-22 October 2009 NBAA 62nd Annual Meeting & Convention Orlando, Florida, USA www.nbaa.org

Frasca International www.frasca.com

Advertising contacts

MINT MEDIA INTERACTIVE www.media-interactive.de

Business Manager: Jeremy Humphreys [t] +44 (0)1252 532009 [e] jeremy@halldale.com

Rockwell Collins www.rockwellcollins.com

Scalable Display Technologies www.scalabledisplay.com 29 Thales www.thalesgroup.com

Business Manager, North America: Mary Bellini Brown [t] +1 703 421 3709 [e] mary@halldale.com

8-9 September, 2009 AsiaWorld-Expo, Hong Kong, SAR China

Organised by:

Assess the Region’s Key Training Issues at APATS The Asia Pacific Airline Training Symposium (APATS) will once again be taking place in Hong Kong, alongside Asian Aerospace 2009 – the leading Asian airline exhibition. APATS will provide a focus for all airline trainers who attend the AA Expo with the APATS exhibits and conference located in a prime position in the centre of the main exhibition hall. APATS will deliver a focused, executive level treatment of AsiaPacific airline training and simulation issues. Speakers from across the region will address the following principle drivers during the conference: • Day 1 - New Aviation Technology and Challenges in Training • Day 2 - Taking a System Approach on Safety Oversight Whether you’re looking to buy, sell, or just learn about the newest training technologies and methods in this growing market, APATS is a must-attend conference and tradeshow. For further information and secure on-line registration, please visit: www.halldale.com/apatsAA

Exhibition space and sponsorship opportunities are still available. To exhibit in the dedicated training pavilion within Asian Aerospace (8-10 Sept.) please contact: RoW - Jeremy Humphreys Tel: +44 (0)1252 532009 Email: jeremy@halldale.com

USA - Andy Smith Tel: 407 322 5605 Email: andy@halldale.com