Pinnacle Equipping and Relocating KC-10 Simulators

Pinnacle Solutions, Inc. (Pinnacle) was awarded the U.S. Air Force Simulator Lateral Axis Motion (SLAM) Engineering Change Proposal under the KC-10 Training Systems contract. The company has also been tasked with relocating multiple KC-10 simulators.

The Pinnacle Team comprised of Pinnacleas the prime with two subcontractors, CAE USA and Acceleration Worx (AWx) fromBelgium, and will provide the U.S. Air Force with Acceleration Worx’ (AWx)Lateral maneuvering motion (Lm2) software, will license the Lm2 software andintegrate it with the KC-10 Weapon System Trainers’ hydraulic motion systems atTravis Air Force Base, California, and Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst(JBMDL), New Jersey.

The Lm2 is software that can be fittedto any full-motion simulator and modifies the conventional lateralaccelerations applied by six-axis motion systems. It results in better handlingfidelity on the ground and in the air and thereby increases the transfer ofmanual flight training and reduces the trigger of motion sickness.

Over the next eight months, thePinnacle Team will work  to implement themotion cueing algorithms that enhance the motion cues associated with ruddermovement during takeoff and landing training events.

Under the KC-10 Training System (TS)contract awarded to Pinnacle in 2015, the U.S. Air Force recently issued twoadditional Engineering Change Proposals that support the Air Force’s continuedtransition from the KC-10 to the KC-46. The first of the two additional Engineering Change Proposals supportsthe decommission (i.e. dismantle, pack,, relocation, and storage) of the KC-10Weapon System Trainer (WST) and Boom Operator Trainer (BOT) on JBMDL. Thesecond supports the recommission (i.e. installation, testing, and engineeringservices) of those previously decommissioned devices in their new locations aspart of new site activation.

The KC-10 WST (in the photo) has beenmoved to an off base facility in New Jersey, while the BOT will be moved toanother building located on the JBMDL base later this year. Pinnacle issubcontracting to Quadrant Simulation Systems, Inc. for the packing andrelocation of these devices, while all the recommission activities are beingperformed by Pinnacle’s KC-10 simulator team in conjunction with the KC-10Training System Support Center (TSSC) in Fairfield, California.

Student throughput at JBMDL will remainat full schedule capacity and not have to be reduced to account for the twodevices being temporarily unavailable. The remaining devices at the KC-10 TS JBMDL training facility - WeaponSystems Trainer, Flight Training Devices (FTD), and Boom Operator Trainer – arestill running at 99% capacity on any given day, satisfying the U.S. Air Forcetraining requirements.