AHS International
AHS Montréal / Ottawa Chapter
International
Helicopter
Safety
Symposium
2005
Safety Strategies
In making helicopter flight safer, we can
approach the problem from many angles:
• Create safer machines
• Keep them in pristine condition
• Make the environment as safe as possible
• Prepare and maintain crew skills
OR
Make training part of the overall safety strategy, for
everyone:
Management, Mechanics, Pilots and
Crews
In General …
There’s one sure-fire way to fix all safety concerns …
Just Stop
Flying!
What you don’t know … won’t hurt
you, right?
What you don’t train for,
won’t happen, right?
Training For Mission Success
• Why do we train?
 To get the job done
 To reduce risk of mission failure
 To improve efficiency and reduce cost
Training For Safety
Why do we train?
 For safety of passengers and payload
 For safety of the crew
 For safety of the equipment
Individual and Crew Skills
Building skills starts with a look at current training
methods
• Undergraduate flight training produces “licensed
drivers”, with little or no real-world “application” skills.
• Postgraduate flight training is mostly “OJT” (on-the-job
training)
• May take years of OJT to build an experienced pilot in
some fields, like




Long line operations
Fire fighting
Powerline maintenance
Logging
• But are the skills developed in an structured OJT
process, or is it just hit-and-miss?
• How can it be done better?
OJT Training Methods
• Mostly done in the air, pilot-to-pilot
• Skills transfer achieved by observing and practicing
with an experienced pilot; transfer will depend on
how good the “old hand” is
• Very few “dedicated” training missions are
conducted – OJT is done on revenue producing
missions!
• Very little synthetic training used, except for type
conversions, procedures and emergencies.
Typical OJT Training Missions
Training for demanding tasks and missions
should be mandatory – not OJT!
OJT Training Issues
• Impossible to introduce every scenario needed for
comprehensive training into OJT – it’s a crapshoot
• There are a lack of industry standards – how do we
know when is a pilot “trained and ready” for his/her
missions?
But….
• Because OJT may never effectively shrink the pilot’s
safety bubble, inefficiencies, risk and confidence
issues will remain.
Ideal Training Logic
If …
 We could create an immersion environment that provided all the
necessary sensory cues experienced in OTJ training …
 And we could control the weather, visibility conditions, terrain, wind
turbulence …
 And we could capture the experience of seasoned pilots and use it to
train new pilots objectively …
 And we could measure the training’s effectiveness through
standards and testing …
Then…
 We’d have a much shorter path for creating journeyman or
experienced pilots
 And we would have “logic – skill based” safety, because our pilots
would be better equipped
And…
 we will actually improve mission effectiveness and efficiency through
better rehearsal and contingency training.
Flying vs Simulation
If done correctly:
• Simulation is a trade-off for flying
• And flying is a trade-off for simulation
• The “art of training” is to create a skillful
blend of BOTH
• When done correctly, you will receive
the best and most cost effective training
for helicopters
The Case For Synthetic Immersion
•
Synthesis of OJT would be useful as an immersive training
environment in reducing OJT hours, if …
 Cues: subtle and dynamic sensory cues and pilot aids were
reproduced
 Environmental: the characteristics, forces and physics outside the
helicopter were accurately modeled
 Scenarios: highly realistic training scenarios, with many
customizable features, must be available in the synthetic alternative
 Economics: synthetic approach must represent a significant cost
saving over OJT
•
•
Will never eliminate OJT – but synthetic immersion provides
a significant offload of OJT time, and is inherently safer
approach
Because synthetic immersion cannot replace “procedural
training”, a balance of other media (including aircraft) will
always be needed in the training equation.
Technology Solutions
Synthetic immersion training can provide some
of the answers, however …
• Current synthetic training is focused on “procedural”
training: classic undergraduate, type-conversion,
instrument and emergency training roles
• Current synthetic trainers do address subtle sensory
cues needed for vertical flight and immersive training,
but:
 Cross-cockpit viewing, through-cockpit viewing - current
visual systems have limitations and inherent parallax
errors
 Stereoscopic effects, for depth and vertical distance
perception are limited
More on Technology
 Current visual systems in synthetic trainers require “sweetspot” visual optimizations – viewing anywhere else in the
envelope is sub-optimal for training.
 Current synthetic training methods are expensive, and
therefore scarce, as well as being seriously deficient
• Current synthetic trainers are OK for procedural
flight training and some missions, but not OK for
helicopter skills transfer – “post graduate” training
– because they do not do a good job of producing
an ‘immersive’ environment.
The Answer to the Immersive
Synthetic Training Question
• Driven by the Maritime Helicopter community needs,
Defense Research and Development Canada in late
90’s developed the Helicopter Deck Landing System
(HDLS) prototype for DND
• Based on S-61/Sea King landing on CF frigate deck
in North Atlantic, modeled sea-states, aircraft and
ship accurately
• Used early VR technology coupled to available
sensory stimulus to “immerse” pilot
• All lighting and weather conditions, wind over deck,
weather, and controllable sea states provided for
launch and landing scenario
The HDLS Prototype
• Accurate visual scenery appropriate to the deck
landing mission
• Head mounted display, with stereo imagery capable
of painting the full 360° field of regard environment
• Head tracking device
• Small, but full-capability motion platform carrying a
high-fidelity pilot seat, harness, etc.
• Vibration and auditory stimuli provided by multiple
audio systems
• Controls and pedals to complete the illusion
• S-61 Sea King helicopter model, frigate model
• Wind, wave, sea and environmental effects derived
from comprehensive physics modeling
HDLS Today: “HVT”
• In 2003, DRDC partnership with industry established
to develop HDLS into commercially viable and
production-grade solution
• Atlantis selected after competitive proposal
• Helicopter Vocational Trainer (HVT) design concepts
defined for multiple immersive training scenarios
• HVT first production system developed by Atlantis
for I/ITSEC 2005
• Multiple representative helicopter models envisaged
for production version
• Likely to be adopted by DND for post graduate
training adjunct to undergraduate course, for
mountain flying, deck landing, urban operations
training, NVG and other applications.
Helicopter Vocational Trainers
The HVT Concept
• Marriage of VR visuals in a head-mounted display,
electric motion base, with accurate, highly detailed
scenarios and physics based modeling
• Compact, reconfigurable are design features
• Key to creating the immersion experience – account
for all the pilot’s sensory inputs:
 Pilot’s hands hold helicopter controls
 Pilot can look anywhere, and see appropriate highresolution imagery, with correct stereoscopic detail, without
parallax error, giving depth-of-field perception
 Pilot’s ears hear appropriate audio cues, aircraft sounds
 Pilot sits in flight-grade seat with harness, with feet on
control-loaded pedals
HVT Subsystems: Hardware
•
Base:
 Seat, Pedals, Controls,
 Head Tracker and Helmet
•
Motion System:
 Electric, Six Degrees of
Freedom
•
Host Computer:
 PC Based
•
Image Generator:
 PC Based
•
Instructor Operator
Station:
 PC Based
… leverages advances in PC technology and miniaturization
HVT Subsystems: Baseline
•
Controls:
 Cyclic and collective, with required functionality
•
Motion system cues:
 Modeled from aircraft derived data
•
Aural Cues:
 Dynamically responding to aircraft model and motion
•
Virtual aircraft:
 Emulates specific or generic cockpit configuration and structures
 Instruments will be dynamic and be reactive to HVT controls
•
Instructor Operator Station:
 PC-based and controls all aspects of training to include, pause,
playback, record, snapshots, gods-eye-views
•
Will support LAN and WAN implementations
 For team-training applications
HVT Footprint
… small footprint, 25% of typical FFS real estate, low headroom
HVT Scenarios
Many applications, but each will target a specific set of
skills to be transferred by training:
 Mountain operations
 Deck landing and haul-downs, for naval and oilrig
operations, in all-weather conditions
 Long-line operations, sling loads, static and dynamic loads
 Logging
 Urban operations, military and civilian emergency pilot and
crew training
 Brown-out & White-out identification and landing
techniques
 Night Vision Systems – initial, refresher and advanced
training
The HVT Tomorrow
• Simulation High Level Architecture already
embedded in HVT concept for growth applications
• Allows future networking of HVT applications and
devices, enabling team training, such as
 Multiple helicopter task coordination missions and
maneuvers
• Configuration for STOVL – JSF and V-22
• Aircrew - ground and deck crew coordination
• Aircrew and weapon operator, hoist operator,
sensor operator training
• Your tasks go here:
 
 
Summary
•
•
•
•
•
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Our conference objective: to map out an approach to
reduce helicopter accidents by 80% over the next 10 years
It can be traced to many accidents that a major
contributor is a lack of adequate training
OJT training does not cover all the eventualities
(scenarios), and is inherently risky and costly
Traditional synthetic simulators are not immersive
“enough” to allow the pilot to receive the fidelity of
training required
The marriage of virtual-reality techniques with the latest
visual and motion technology, and high-fidelity
environmental modeling, provides a useful “synthetic
immersion” into a training environment
Use of synthetic immersion approaches – like HVT – will
reduce OJT, improve training and experience, and
improve safety
Thank You
For further information covering HVT and synthetic
immersion training concepts, please contact:
Atlantis Systems International, Inc.
One Kenview Boulevard
Brampton, Ontario
L6T 5E6
Canada
telephones
Canada:
U.S.A. and International:
+1(905) 792-1981
+1(407) 380-9191
email
immersion@AtlantisSI.com