Bending the Curve: Qualified Multi-Crew Training in a Mixed Reality Environment

How high-fidelity cockpits and mixed reality can combine training effectiveness with greater scalability

Dr. Johannes Hain, CEO, Reiser Simulation and Training, APATS 2026 Pilot Stream

Flight simulation has always faced an inherent trade-off: the most immersive and realistic training devices tend to be the least scalable, while highly scalable solutions often provide a lower level of fidelity.

At APATS 2026, Dr. Johannes Hain, CEO of Reiser Simulation and Training, explored how Mixed Reality can help bridge this gap. His central message was not that Mixed Reality should replace conventional full flight simulators. Rather, the industry should look at how new technologies can complement established training devices and extend high-quality synthetic training to applications where scalability, flexibility, and availability are increasingly important.

Effectiveness versus scalability

Synthetic training offers significant advantages over training in the real aircraft. Weather, malfunctions and demanding operational scenarios can be introduced repeatedly and safely. In helicopter training, this can include challenging environmental conditions, shipboard operations or hoist scenarios that would be difficult, expensive or inappropriate to reproduce in an aircraft.

The challenge is scalability.

Full flight simulators provide a very high level of training effectiveness, but they are substantial assets that require dedicated infrastructure and cannot easily be moved or reconfigured. At the other end of the spectrum, desktop trainers and standalone VR applications are highly scalable, but provide a different level of fidelity.

Reiser's objective was therefore not simply to replace one technology with another. The engineering challenge was to “bend the curve”: to retain the effectiveness of a high-fidelity training device while significantly improving its scalability.

High fidelity inside, virtual outside

The concept presented by Hain separates the physical cockpit from its external visual environment.

Inside the cockpit, pilots interact with physical controls, switches and instruments with representative haptics and operating forces. The cockpit itself can also be deployed within a Level D full flight simulator.

Outside the cockpit, however, the conventional visual system is replaced by Mixed Reality headsets. Pilots see the physical cockpit, their own hands and each other, while the world beyond the cockpit windows is generated virtually.

This distinction is particularly important for Multi-Crew Coordination. Unlike a fully virtual cockpit, the Mixed Reality approach preserves physical interaction between pilots and cockpit controls while providing a synthetic outside world.

The modular architecture provides another advantage. Different cockpit configurations can be exchanged within a common simulator infrastructure. This allows training organizations to allocate simulator capacity across multiple aircraft types without necessarily dedicating a complete simulator architecture to each cockpit.

The resulting training device has been qualified as an FTD Level 3, which Hain described as equivalent to FAA Level 7.

When regulation meets new technology

Building the training device was only part of the challenge. Demonstrating objectively that its Mixed Reality visual system met the requirements for qualification proved to be equally important.

The applicable EASA certification specification dated from 2012, when today's Mixed Reality technology was not yet addressed by the standard. Requirements originally developed for projection-based visual systems therefore could not simply be transferred to a head-mounted display.

Working closely with the German civil aviation authority, the Luftfahrt-Bundesamt, Reiser had to establish objective and equivalent means of compliance for the Mixed Reality visual system.

This required detailed consideration of parameters including latency, field of view, resolution, chromatic aberration, brightness, colour reproduction and the representation of dark scenes.

The key principle was simple:

“You need to measure it. You need to prove to the authorities that what your virtual system is showing fulfils certain requirements in an objective way.”

But that presented another challenge: suitable measurement equipment was not readily available.

Developing the tools to prove compliance

Together with partners, Reiser therefore developed dedicated measurement equipment to assess the characteristics of the head-mounted visual system.

One device measures parameters such as latency and field of view.

A second measurement system assesses image characteristics including brightness, colour, distortion and optical aberrations.

Within the project team, the two systems received rather memorable nicknames: “Arni”, after Arnold Schwarzenegger in his Terminator movie, and the “Weber Grill.”

Behind the humour is an important regulatory development. Objective measurement methods make it possible to compare the performance of a Mixed Reality visual system with requirements originally designed around conventional simulator visual systems.

The qualification process consequently produced more than a qualified training device. It also resulted in a set of special conditions describing how the Mixed Reality system differs from a conventional visual system, which tolerances must be met and how equivalent compliance can be demonstrated.

What matters to the pilots

Technical compliance ultimately has to translate into useful training.

Reiser therefore worked with DRF Luftrettung, whose pilots, test pilots and instructors evaluated the system. Hain deliberately cautioned against interpreting the results as a large representative scientific study. Nevertheless, the feedback provided a valuable indication of how experienced helicopter pilots perceived the technology.

According to the results presented at APATS, all 14 pilots rated the system good to very good, while depth perception received particularly positive feedback.

Depth perception is especially significant for helicopter operations. Unlike many fixed-wing operations, helicopters routinely operate close to terrain and obstacles, making accurate visual judgement of distance highly relevant.

The evaluations also indicated strong performance in areas including low-level flight, autorotation, instrument approaches and malfunction handling.

The testing also identified areas for further improvement. Hain highlighted the absence of the characteristic physical feedback during helicopter touchdown. Conventional motion-based simulators can reproduce this landing impulse, while the current device does not.

Rather than viewing this simply as a limitation, it raises a useful engineering question: how much motion does a training device actually need for a defined training objective?

A full six-degree-of-freedom motion system may not always be necessary. Targeted motion cues, vibration or touchdown feedback could potentially provide the relevant training cues without sacrificing the scalability of the concept.

Beyond visualisation

Mixed Reality also creates possibilities that go beyond replacing a conventional visual system.

Modern headsets inherently track where the user is looking. The resulting eye-tracking data support training analysis and instructors by providing objective information about a pilot's visual scan and attention during a scenario.

Further developments identified by Reiser include night vision capability and additional motion cues. The same fundamental approach is also being explored for fixed-wing applications.

From alternative technology to qualified training tool

Perhaps the most important lesson from the project is that the discussion should not be framed as Mixed Reality versus full flight simulation.

Different training objectives require different tools.

For high-end training tasks, full flight simulators will continue to provide capabilities that smaller devices cannot reproduce. But where the necessary level of training effectiveness can be demonstrated objectively, Mixed Reality can enable high-fidelity training to become more modular, accessible and scalable.

For Hain, qualification is fundamental to that transition. New technology only becomes truly relevant to professional aviation training when its performance can be measured, demonstrated and accepted within the regulatory framework.

The latest regulatory developments will make this path easier, but Hain noted that detailed technical requirements and measurement methods will continue to matter.

The challenge for the industry is therefore not simply to make simulation more virtual.

It is to make high-quality training more effective where necessary, more scalable where possible, and objectively measurable throughout.

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