L3Harris Technologies will design and field new training capabilities for the U.S. Air Force’s Ground Based Strategic Deterrent program. This is L3Harris’ first contract in missile system training.
When the FAA releases revised guidelines for pilot training for the modified Boeing 737 MAX, insiders expect a motion-based FFS will not be required. CAT Editor-In-Chief, Rick Adams, FRAeS, reports.
The anticipated training requirements for the modified Boeing 737 MAX aircraft will not likely require hardware changes to full-flight simulators or other MAX flight training devices which have already been built. “We’ve just done a large update to all the segments,” CAE’s Nick Leontidis told CAT. “The FAA and everybody else are doing their testing; there’s some required modifications, and we have just finished an update for all our sims. So things seem to be progressing in the right direction. I’m going to assume that things are quite mature at the moment.” Leontidis, Group President, Civil Aviation Training Solutions, for the Montréal-based simulator manufacturer and training services provider, confirmed that the updates are software-only.
“They’re obviously being very, very quiet about the whole thing,” he added. CAE had a representative on the FAA working group evaluating the training changes.
A key part of the FAA’s aircraft re-certification is a simulator training evaluation by a Joint Operational Evaluation Board (JOEB) in which pilots from around the world will be asked to validate training requirements. The JOEB is said to be primarily looking at the order and priority of checklists and memory items.
Travel restrictions related to the pandemic add uncertainty to how JOEB sessions can be conducted. The select group may perform its work remotely in flight simulators around the world, rather than transiting to Boeing’s main training center in Miami, Florida, where COVID-19 is raging anew.
Following the sim sessions, the FAA's Flight Standardization Board will propose minimum training requirements, then a public comment period, before final approval of training.
Tens of thousands of sorties are flown in Israeli Air Force simulators. Arie Egozi was granted special access to the training airbase, including a conversation with BGen Amnon Ein-Dar, Head of the Training and Doctrine Division.
Early this year, the canopy of an Israeli Air Force (IAF) F15 flew off when the aircraft was at 30,000 feet. The pilot and weapon systems operator managed to bring the damaged aircraft to a safe landing in a base in southern Israel. This after being exposed to extreme temperatures.
LtCol ‘R’, commander of the IAF’s connected simulators squadron, remarked: “They knew exactly what to do because they have been trained again and again in our advanced simulators.”
During a rare visit to the IAF’s connected simulators facility in the Hazor airbase (also known as Hatzor), I was able to briefly observe the uniqueness of this special squadron that has a major role in making IAF combat pilots among the best in the world.
The Royal Australian Navy has a suite of nine simulators supporting a fleet of 24 MH60R helicopters. Kate Warner visited the site at HMAS Albatross in Nowra.
Be Aggressive’, the motto of the 725 Squadron of the Royal Australian Navy (RAN), reflects the determined and progressive approach they’ve taken to training the aircrews and maintainers of the RAN’s newest and most potent aircraft, the MH60R Seahawk naval combat helicopter.
This next-generation submarine hunter and anti-surface warfare helicopter, packed full of advanced technology, demands a next-generation training facility to ensure its crew is thoroughly versed in its combat potential.
Based at HMAS Albatross in Nowra, New South Wales, the Seahawk Simulator and Warfare Centre (SSWC) is a completely integrated, state-of-the-art training facility, custom-built to train the aircrews and maintainers of the fleet of 24 MH60Rs, known as ‘Romeo’.
But this multi-mission maritime helicopter is anything but a sweet talker.