{"id":5853,"date":"2022-06-05T21:15:24","date_gmt":"2022-06-05T13:15:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/countryairstrips.com.au\/?p=5853"},"modified":"2022-06-05T22:15:21","modified_gmt":"2022-06-05T14:15:21","slug":"best-pilot-training-aircraft-or-simulator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/countryairstrips.com.au\/best-pilot-training-aircraft-or-simulator\/","title":{"rendered":"Best Pilot Training – Aircraft or Simulator?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Is the best pilot training provided in an aircraft or simulator? Why practise in a simulator when an aircraft provides a more realistic experience? Well, for a start, it does not. A training device can teach a pilot to prepare for a host of scenarios and ultimately become a safer aviator<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is easy to come up with reasons not to pay for your \ufb02ight crew to train on a simulator beyond the minimum required to be legal. After all, aside from the cost and time away from the job, what could be more useful for any pilot than building sharp-end experience in the cockpit of an actual aircraft?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, rejecting simulation training from a professional organisation is, at best, a false economy and, at worst, risking your employees being unprepared for what could confront them in the skies, asserts Brian Moore, senior vice-president operations at FlightSafety International.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Source: FlightSafety International<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Simulators will equip pilots for unexpected conditions.<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThings can be done in a simulator<\/a><\/strong> that you just can\u2019t do safely training in an airplane,\u201d he says. \u201cYou can simulate an electrical malfunction, fail busses or circuit breakers. You can actually go through all these scenarios and see how the pilot reacts, making them much more prepared.\u201d The paradox of modern simulators is that, due to advances in visuals and kinetic technology,<\/a><\/strong> they can realistically create the sort of unexpected conditions in which a pilot might \ufb01nd themselves, with one big difference \u2013 unlike an aircraft, the device is bolted to the \ufb02oor and cannot crash.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This means that pilots who have received extensive simulator training are usually much better equipped for any- thing that the job throws at them. \u201cYou are going through all these situations and learning how to deal with them,\u201d says Moore. \u201cYou are prepared.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He cites the example of inclement weather. \u201cA training \ufb02ight in an aircraft would probably not take off in the worst conditions. But that is when pilots get really stressed in the real world, even when something relatively minor goes wrong,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn a simulator, we can put the pilot in bad weather, at night and with ATC [air traffic control] barking at them. Then we can throw in a small malfunction to see how they cope with that with everything else going on.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The idea is not to stretch the pilot\u2019s nerves to breaking point, but to assess their response under pressure. \u201cA lot of the learning comes in the debrief. Did they rise to the challenge or get stressed?\u201d says Moore. \u201cQuestioning what went well and what could have gone better leads them to self-discovery.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Is Simulator Training Expensive?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Another objection often made to simulator training is cost, but \u201cthis often catches folk by surprise\u201d, suggests Moore. \u201cWhen you look at all the indirect costs of training in an aircraft, when you really put pen to paper, you realise the cost might be close to equal or even more,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Using a business or private aircraft for training pilots is also not putting an expensive asset to its best use, argues Moore. \u201cMost people didn\u2019t buy their aircraft to train pilots in. It was bought as a business tool, to move people or cargo from place to place.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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