Flight simulators not just used to train pilots anymore

  • Published
  • By Lee Ross
  • Nucleus editor
KIRTLAND AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. --  Airmen at Kirtland are being put in the back of a CV-22 Osprey and thrown into dire situations.

Engine fires, patients with traumatic wounds and battle damage to the aircraft are created at the press of a button, yet the hardware is undamaged and no one is hurt.

That's thanks to the Cabin Operational Flight Trainer, or COFT, a training device is built into the body of a retired CV-22 tilt-rotor aircraft. It uses a combination of physical training devices, such as medical dummies, and virtual reality.

The device is housed on the west side of Kirtland at the 58th Special Operations Wing Training Squadron Training Development Flight. It's more commonly known as the Monster Garage.

While flight simulators are nothing new, this one is special, according to Lt. Col. Michael Thomas, who oversees the flight. It's not just the way the device creates training scenarios by combining the real world and computer animation.

"We've had flight simulators since World War II, but this is one of the first times I've seen it used for non-pilot simulations," he said. "That's a pretty big deal, and it's very innovative."

The simulator helps train special mission aviators, who manage the aspects of a mission that take place in the back of the aircraft. It would be an understatement to say it is a tricky post to master.

The Airman in that position could be doing any number of jobs, including hoisting a patient from the ground into the back of the hovering aircraft, managing Marines as they prep their gear and then jump out of the back of the CV-22, and delivering a vehicle or survival kit. They are tasked with knowing how to do just about anything one can imagine doing with an aircraft that is capable of vertical takeoff and landing and can hover, but can also go into "airplane mode" and travel at 316 miles per hour.

It's a steep learning curve, and lots of Airmen wash out before seeing action, according to Maj. Robert Faith, assistant operations officer for the Training Development Flight of the 58th Training Squadron.

"When they leave here, they have to be mission-ready," he said.

Faith said the COFT is, in many ways, better than traditional training.

Students interact with the environment using a helmet that has a device that looks like nightvision goggles affixed to the front. It's a setup that is nearly identical to what a special mission aviator would wear in low-light conditions, but this one is connected to a bay of computers via a fiber optic cable.

Rather than goggles, the headgear is actually a 3-D screen. Sticking off the front is a video camera, which pipes live video and computer graphics everywhere the camera picks up a blue screen. It's similar technology to how a weather report is given on television, Faith said.

The COFT is far more complex, however, because it also uses sensors in the shoulders of the trainee's jacket, so the computer can generate realistic, three-dimensional graphics that react to the student's movements.

"There are things you can do (in the COFT) that you can't do in the actual aircraft," Faith said.

Instructors put students through their paces by having them drop dune buggies in simulated darkness. The advantage, he said, is that the computer-enhanced view -- which is all the trainee can see -- is a simulation of night vision goggles. Meanwhile, the instructor can observe the student from a fully lit environment, he said. That is much easier than having both student and instructor working in the dark, he said. Using the COFT, instructors can also have computer-generated Marines drop out of the back of the aircraft, simulate engine fires and more, all without ever leaving the hangar.

What is not part of the simulation is the physical movement of the aircraft.

"The device does visually simulate brownout landings with blowing sand, and the aircraft movement while in a hover," Faith said.

But there is no physical sand blowing in the students' faces or 110-degree weather. And that is part of the design, Faith said. The COFT is there to help Airmen develop rote memorization for the procedures they are responsible for while the aircraft is on the ground, in a climate-controlled environment. The idea is that Airmen will develop a kind of muscle memory to perform their jobs while in uncomfortable conditions and under fire.

"If you think of training as 'crawl, walk then run,' this is crawling and walking," he said. "Running is the training in the actual aircraft."