Flight training simulators today are better, cheaper and able to talk to students. But it will be some time before the software will be smart enough to take any significant workload from instructors.
Manufacturers say voice recognition and synthetic speech software can replace the instructor by taking on the role of air traffic control during simulator training. "What we foresee is that the role-playing can be greatly diminished," says Philippe Perey, director of engineering for CAE. "By the mechanics of voice recognition, voice synthesis, smart rules and algorithms you can eliminate the role-playing the instructor does."
CAE's Simfinity integrated procedures trainer, meanwhile, is part of a relatively new genre of training tools that use flat-panel displays arranged in three dimensions to create a simulated flightdeck, but without requiring a complete motion-based cockpit like expensive full-flight simulators. Perey says these middle-range devices have brought great value to flight schools. "What has been going on is a shift of the training curriculum from the high-end simulators to many more and less expensive low-end devices," he says.
Rick Maloney, dean of Western Michigan University's college of aviation, sees potential in the broader use of simulation technology to ease the instructor shortage. "Maybe we'll do more simulator and less airplane flying, like the airlines do. That will pick up more people, because you can have more people do that," he says.
Montreal-based Mechtronix Systems has pioneered lower-cost training devices including "non-zero flight time" full-flight simulators. Its president Xavier Herve says that, fuelled by pilot hiring rates, demand for simulator training time is outstripping capacity. "There's an actual shortage of [Bombardier] CRJ full-flight simulator time in the USA, and no-one could have predicted that three years ago." Herve says the use of peripheral tools, such as virtual procedural trainers, can allow better usage of full-flight simulator time.
No matter how advanced the technology, Herve worries that pilots are being rushed too early into jets carrying hundreds of passengers. "In the old days they used to let them accumulate hours. Now they don't, and as soon as these guys are anywhere near ready, they're putting them in training for type rating," he says. "You're getting the same level of competence that you had before, so the training world in North America has had to adjust even more the way the training systems are done."
Source: Flight International
