Beyond Civil Aviation: What Defence Can Learn from APATS

The Asia Pacific Aviation Training Summit (APATS) may be primarily a civil aviation event, but many of the challenges being tackled in Bangkok this week will be immediately familiar to the military training community.

From competency-based training and instructor standardisation to immersive technology, data-driven assessment and the changing role of the instructor, the conversations taking place across APATS increasingly transcend the traditional civil-military divide. The operating environments may be different, but many of the questions around how people learn, how competence is measured and how training technology is used are shared.

For defence training organisations, there was plenty at APATS worth paying attention to. Here are our key takeaways:

Regulatory

A new Flight Simulation Training Device Operator (FSTDO) Regulatory stream was launched to give regulators and simulator operators a dedicated forum to discuss major regulatory changes, including the European Union Aviation Safety Agency’s new task-to-tool approach, and work towards greater harmonisation of Flight Simulation Training Device oversight across the Asia-Pacific region. This was an excellent turnout for a first-time event; the room was packed!

Mark Dransfield, Co-founder of flight simulation solution provider SIM OPS and stream moderator, highlighted growing international momentum towards a common approach to FSTD qualification, with European, international, US and UK aviation regulators all moving towards or considering capability-based frameworks. He argued that Asia-Pacific now needs to be part of that conversation, encouraging regulators and industry across the region to consider how they will transition away from legacy FSTD types and levels and towards internationally recognised standards. Greater harmonisation, he said, could make qualifications more readily accepted across borders while allowing regulation to keep pace with rapidly evolving training and simulation technology.

“There’s a real opportunity here for harmonisation… but it has to come from us as an industry,” he said.

Andy Gillbard, Technical Fellow, Simulator Standards & Compliance Specialist at Boeing Global Services, outlined work underway at the International Civil Aviation Organization to modernise the global regulatory framework for FSTDs. This includes incorporating the principles behind EASA’s FSTD Capability Signature (FCS), creating regulatory pathways that can accommodate emerging simulation technologies, and shifting from device-based testing towards more risk-based oversight of FSTD operators. Ultimately, he said, the ambition is greater international cooperation and mutual recognition of FSTD qualifications across borders – something he described as the industry’s “holy grail”.

Participants included Victor Dufort, Group Head of Simulator Management and Training at Alpha Aviation Group, who described discussions as “informative” and “very enjoyable.”

“I’m even more confused that than I was before, but in a good way because we have all discussed how we are going to work together as an industry. We have a forum now, which was much needed.”

Instructor Standardisation

Across several streams, instructor standardisation emerged as a major theme, with speakers examining how greater consistency in teaching can improve training quality without removing instructor flexibility or professional judgement. In the Approved Training Organisation (ATO) stream, Harrison Stanhope, COO of Basair Aviation College, argued that clear instructional design, common language and agreed expectations can reduce unnecessary variation between instructors, while training data can reveal differences in outcomes and teaching practices. The message was that standardisation is not a one-off exercise, but something that must be continually measured, maintained and improved.

“Everyone is responsible for safety and risk,” he said. “And just like that, everyone is responsible for maintaining standardisation.”

Making CBTA Work in Practice

Several streams examined how competency-based training can move beyond theory to become a more integrated and operationally valuable part of aviation training.

Thomas Bessière, CEO of HINFACT, and Captain Sander van Bergen, Head of Flight Training – Airbus Beijing, examined how closer integration between CBTA, Training Management Systems and Safety Management Systems could help turn training data and competency insights into a more proactive safety tool.

“The competency framework is providing currency to the safety language,” said Cpt van Bergen. “It means that a training trend and a safety risk are the same currency.”

AI Makes Human Factors More Visible

AviatePro Founder and CEO Krisztian Makai presented Simvidence Powered by Simnest, an AI-assisted training-review platform, and explored how the technology could be applied in pilot training.

Makai explored how non-intrusive AI and computer vision can make factors such as workload, resilience and cockpit dynamics more visible, providing instructors with additional evidence to support debriefing while preserving the central role of instructor judgement.

“Sometimes the instructor misses some points in the simulator” where it can be hard to see the pilot, Makai said. “We wanted to provide a system that highlights those moments, which the instructor can review very quickly.”

VR Takes a Bigger Role in Pilot Training

Virtual and mixed reality are playing an increasingly important role in pilot training, giving pilots more opportunities to practise beyond the full-flight simulator and allowing valuable simulator time to be used more effectively.

At APATS, Santeri Saarinen of Helsinki XR Center presented a standalone VR cockpit training module developed with Finnair Flight Academy for familiarisation, procedural practice and multi-crew learning.

“Mobile XR devices can already support meaningful redistribution of training tasks in aviation, especially moving familiarisation and procedural practice out of full-flight simulators, freeing that time for actually flying,” he said.

The session, which included presentations from Dr Aki Nikolaidis of Visionary Training Resources and Dr Johannes Hain, CEO of Reiser Simulation and Training, showed how immersive technology is evolving from an additional training tool into a more integrated part of the pilot training ecosystem, helping pilots practise disruption and workload while complementing rather than replacing conventional simulation.

APATS returns to Bangkok on 25–26 August 2027, bringing the Asia-Pacific aviation training community together once again to tackle the challenges shaping the future of training. We look forward to seeing you there.