cat magazine - issue 5/2009

The Journal for civil aviaTion Training

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AIRLINE TRAINING PROFILE

Training With The Yellow Crane AIRLINE TRAINING PROFILE

Good For Morale - The AAdvantages Of Nurturing In-House TalentTRAINING PERsPEcTIvEs

Training For The Automated CockpitcONFERENcE REPORT

Speaking In Absolutes - APATS 2009

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At Thales we’ve worked with organisations across thesector to identify the key issues facing the training

and simulation industry. And our Customers agree.Visit www.thalesgroup.com/thenewreality to hearwhat they have to say and see a powerful filmdemonstration of our new offering.

‘The New Reality’ is a dynamic new approach that addresses our Customers’ key businessdrivers and requirements.

We understand that ‘Total Cost of Ownership’means assigning a financial value to every aspect ofoperation. Whether you are a pure trainingbusiness or an airline, cost is key at every stage, not just the price of trainingequipment but also the total cost of training. Improved leadtimes are critical if you are to remain competitive.

Our strong investment in key technologies, support services andinnovative financial options is also a vital part of ‘The New Reality’

at Thales. Talk with us soon about the many ways we can help youachieve your business goals.

To find out more, please visit our website.

www.thalesgroup.com/thenewreality

TRAINING SOLUTIONSTHAT ANSWER YOURBUSINESS NEEDS

26228_Thales_SIM_T&S_CAT_Iss3_09_277x206:26114_Thales_SIM_CAT_iss2_09_277x206 21/05/2009 13:25 Page 1

Editorial

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Editorial Comment

CAT MAGAZINE • ISSUE 5/2009 05

Alan emmingsmanaging editor, CAt magazine

time to Bring HF Centre Stage?The cohort of new entrants launching their careers in aviation is different from earlier generations. that was one view aired and shared at last month’s APAtS convention in Hong Kong. the difference with today’s young talent, apparently, concerns the way they think and behave, also the way they learn. “Different” does not imply any derogatory trait, but it is likely to prompt a rethink and some adjustment to the way training is designed and delivered.

this will be onerous for the training sector and all the more so at this juncture, set as it is against the strangely paradoxical backdrop of recession and predicted long-term growth. newly emerging challenges like climate change and the need for environmentally friendly performance-based navigation, will bring additional and unique pressures that render us all the more susceptible to the vagaries of human factors. It’s at times like these that errors are made and risks increase.

the same conference in Hong Kong heard that the cause of around 75% of accidents relates to human factors and that more emphasis needs to be placed on HF training if acci-dent rates are to be reduced. endorsing this view is a very sobering read in the UK CAA’s Global Fatal Accident Review 1997 – 2006 (available online), an uncomfortable synopsis for those with a vested interest in making this industry safer, i.e. everyone.

on a positive note the Review, published last year, reports an overall falling trend in the number of fatal accidents and deaths. However, two-thirds of all fatal accidents entailed a flight-crew related primary causal factor. the findings would seem to indicate a training deficiency or the contribution of human factors; the report cites “omission of action / inap-propriate action”, “flight handling” and “lack of positional awareness – in air” as the most frequently identified primal causal factors.

the import of human factors, and our understanding of them, has grown in recent years, but the subject remains largely in the wings as a topic of instruction. that might have something to do with the pragmatic characteristic of aviation; despite its complexity, pilots, mechanics and cabin crews perform their roles in a very hands-on manner. Human factors, in comparison, is more of a science - academic, nebulous, abstract even, which might account for its slow uptake. But times are changing. the industry is attuned to the fact that further progress in reducing accidents requires new attitudes, new thinking. It might be time for the subject of human factors to move closer to centre stage.

Last year (CAt1/08) the FAA launched a human factors presentation tool (mHFPS) as an aid to teaching this subject to mechanics. FAA also has a number of ongoing HF research programs, covering subjects such as aircrew performance, behavioural stressors and organizational effectiveness. A search of the Web throws up dozens of independent HF courses, to say nothing of academic papers on this topic.

eASA is also upping the ante. the Agency, which acknowledges the contribution HF brings to safety, is planning to give greater prominence to aspects of HF in its rulemaking. eASA does not employ HF specialists but might be moving towards the formation of a working group, which would enable it to propose requirements for HF training. to that end it is currently awaiting the completion of a questionnaire on HF by industry stakeholders – “those with first-hand experience of HF issues” – who it hopes will share their knowledge and views and in so doing, develop its expertise in this discipline.

though still some way down the line the continuing influx of today’s new entrants into aviation and the different cognitive idiosyncrasies that they bring will eventually permeate this industry. new ways of learning and looking at this business might change our percep-tion of human factors, persuade us to embrace it more broadly and so exploit its qualities, and thereby enable us to maintain and enhance our safety record.

Alan emmingsmanaging editor, CAt magazine

At Thales we’ve worked with organisations across thesector to identify the key issues facing the training

and simulation industry. And our Customers agree.Visit www.thalesgroup.com/thenewreality to hearwhat they have to say and see a powerful filmdemonstration of our new offering.

‘The New Reality’ is a dynamic new approach that addresses our Customers’ key businessdrivers and requirements.

We understand that ‘Total Cost of Ownership’means assigning a financial value to every aspect ofoperation. Whether you are a pure trainingbusiness or an airline, cost is key at every stage, not just the price of trainingequipment but also the total cost of training. Improved leadtimes are critical if you are to remain competitive.

Our strong investment in key technologies, support services andinnovative financial options is also a vital part of ‘The New Reality’

at Thales. Talk with us soon about the many ways we can help youachieve your business goals.

To find out more, please visit our website.

www.thalesgroup.com/thenewreality

TRAINING SOLUTIONSTHAT ANSWER YOURBUSINESS NEEDS

26228_Thales_SIM_T&S_CAT_Iss3_09_277x206:26114_Thales_SIM_CAT_iss2_09_277x206 21/05/2009 13:25 Page 1

FlightSafety Sugar_Northrop Grumman CEO ad - CAT magazine - Bleed: 212 mm x 283 mm Trim: 206 mm x 277 mm

“Northrop Grummanselected FlightSafety

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05 EdiTorial CommEnTtime to Bring HF Centre Stage? new ways of learning and looking at this business might change our perception of human factors.

08 airlinE TraininG ProFilEtraining With the Yellow Crane – lFt in Competent Form. With over 50 years’ expertise, Lufthansa Flight training has enormous know-how in pilot and cabin crew training.

14 airlinE TraininG ProFilEGood For Morale - the aadvantages of Nurturing in-House talent. For those who might think simulator technicians spend their days waiting to replace burned-out projector lamps, they are in for a surprise at the American Airlines Flight Academy in Fort Worth.

19 FliGhT oPsEaSa Flight ops and Flight Crew licensing - Where are We Now? Closing dates for comments on nPAs have passed. eASA is now intent on responding and making amendments in light of comments offered.

21 EQUiPmEnT ProCUrEmEnTBuyers' Market – or How to Get More For less. training departments are becoming more cost-conscious, but training fidelity still drives safety.

24 TraininG PErsPECTivEstraining For the automated Cockpit - Knowing or Understanding Your aircraft? Reading the accident investigation report of the Spanair mD-80 crash at madrid airport makes one wonder if anybody learns from history, writes guest author Capt. Cor Blokzijl.

26 ConFErEnCE rEPorTSpeaking in absolutes - aPatS 2009 Champions the Cause of Safety. At a time of uncertainty and hard choices, APAtS brought together experts to look at how the industry can improve.

28 aB iniTio TraininGthe Changing Face of the ab-initio Professional Pilot training organisation. never has there been so much confusion for the pilot training industry in europe.

31 nEWsanalysis and Seen & Heard. Updates and briefs from the training market, compiled and edited by Lori Ponoroff and the CAt editorial team.

same standard for all its customers, but will tailor courses to customers’ specific requests.

Training is delivered at five sites, the principal one being the homebase of Lufthansa, Frankfurt International air-port, and this supported by standalone operations at Berlin, Munich, Vienna and Bremen. Another training centre to be operated in Moscow by LFT and Vnu-kovo Airport will open in 2010.

CompetencyLFT shares with many companies the belief that training simply to the mini-mum regulatory requirements does not necessarily lead to the proper level of competency. Christian Korherr, head of

Lufthansa Passenger Airline has one of the most compre-hensive and geographically

diverse route structures of any major carrier. It alone has a fleet of around 300 aircraft, comprising eight basic types. But that number rises to almost 550 when aircraft from other members of Lufthansa Group are counted.

This snapshot is best considered in the context of the company’s planned acquisitions. Lufthansa is launch cus-tomer for the B747-8 (20 on order) and this, together with the 15 A380s ordered, indicates its determination to stay at the forefront of long-haul services.

Renewal of its continental and regional fleets is on track with over 50 A320 family and 30 Embraer aircraft due for delivery by 2015. The recent acquisi-tion of Swiss and the takeover of Aus-trian in September show its drive to con-solidate, even in these difficult economic times.

Florian Hamm, CEO of LFT, explains that the syllabus and all training con-tent for Lufthansa airlines are defined by Lufthansa, but it is LFT’s role to provide all technical support and training tools. The two entities work closely together to create the optimum training package. For example, Lufthansa dry-leases the FFS while instructors are current Lufthansa TRIs/TREs, which ensures that training accurately reflects the realities of day-to-day operation.

Some 50% of LFT activity is in direct support of Lufthansa. The remaining tasks comprise training for other mem-bers of the Lufthansa Group and third parties. LFT provides training to the

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airline cockpit training, is quick to point out that while regulatory requirements have to be respected, effective training should not only teach rigid sets of actions in a limited number of scenarios.

Good training should teach both how to avoid difficult situations and how to think through an unusual situation to safely resolve it. Learning how to apply a generic approach to an unplanned situa-tion, and then carry out a considered and appropriate specific action to remedy that situation, leads to safer operation. LFT places a great deal of emphasis on this teaching of non-technical skills.

An interesting demonstration of the desire to train for competency rather than basic regulatory minima is the Lufthansa requirement that, whatever the level of automation of the aircraft type, at least one manual raw data approach must be flown in every simulator session. This pattern was instilled long before the

08 CAT MAGAZINE • ISSUE 5/2009 CAT MAGAZINE • ISSUE 5/2009 09

training With the Yellow Crane – lFt in Competent Form

With over 50 years’ expertise, Lufthansa Flight Training has enormousknow-how in pilot and cabin crew training, writes Chris Long. It has always served Lufthansa passenger Airline and in 1997 it became a separate company, wholly-owned by Lufthansa Group.

Image credit: Lufthansa Flight Training.

Three CEETs have been equipped with the

new virtual slide system.

Image credit: Lufthansa Flight Training.

He refers to Asok Ghoshal, manager, simulator training equipment support (STES). His group of more than 100 tech-nicians and engineers is responsible for keeping simulators and training devices going full-tilt for 16 hours a day. That includes scheduled and unscheduled maintenance of host computers, image generators, projectors, displays, motion hydraulics and control loading. Plus pre-flight inspections of cockpit instruments, lights, navigation systems, autopilot, and other components, including the instruc-tor station; also troubleshooting pilot or instructor-reported “E6 log” discrepan-cies. And, of course, quarterly approved test guide and annual FAA re-qualifica-tion evaluations.

This past month, STES installed American’s first new simulator in eight years, a CAE 7000 series B737NG (next-generation) FFS. Ghoshal reports that the trainer is slated for FAA Level D evalua-tion late October. It is the 20th CAE-built sim for American and regional partner American Eagle. AA also took delivery of a CAE Simfinity B737NG integrated pro-cedures trainer.

To borrow a phrase from pro-fessional golf, these guys are good. And their impact reaches

beyond the traditional pilot, cabin crew, maintainer, and dispatcher training.

American, of course, is the world’s second largest airline (behind Delta/Northwest) and has one of the most extensive training facilities with 75,000 square feet, 28 full flight simulators (FFS), seven cabin sims, a water evacuation pool, flight management system train-ers for every aircraft in the fleet, assorted other task trainers, 75 training and con-ference rooms, and a 300-seat theatre. Pilots and flight attendants can even bunk at the 30-acre wooded complex south of Dallas/Fort Worth International airport in AA’s 299-room Dolce Hotel, or dine in its three restaurants.

But as impressive as the infrastruc-ture may be, the talent of the team is more so. “We’d rather do updates in-house,” says Christopher (Chris) Broom, managing director for American’s flight training department. “It keeps costs down, and it’s good for morale. Asok’s team loves this stuff.”

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Day JobBut that is just the tech team’s “day job.” STES has applied its expertise beyond the training facility to improve the air-line’s flight operations.

Using a simulator as a test bed, Ghoshal’s team supported the Midlife Avionics Update Initiative (MAUI) for the B757/B767 fleet. The project encom-passed a flight management computer upgrade for aircraft with the Honey-well Pegasus FMC; replacement of the electronic horizontal situation indicator (EHSI) and electronic attitude director indicator (EADI); replacement of out-dated round-dial instruments, such as the airspeed indicator, radio/distance magnetic indicator (rDMI), altimeter, vertical speed indicator, radio altimeter, and dedicated weather radar display – with flat-panel LED displays; integrat-ing three standby instruments into a single standby flight display; and swap-ping out for a state-of-the-art instru-ment landing system (ILS) and multi-mode receiver (MMr).

“The total integration was done with all the various avionics pieces, as

14 CAT MAGAZINE • ISSUE 5/2009 CAT MAGAZINE • ISSUE 5/2009 15

good For Morale –

For those who might think simulator technicians spend their days waiting to replace burned-out projector lamps, they are in for quite a surprise at the American Airlines Flight Academy in Fort Worth, Texas, writes Rick Adams.

American Airlines current fleet of

over 600 aircraft includes 124 B757-200s.

Image credit: American Airlines.

well as resolving mechanical issues,” Ghoshal notes.

The MAUI program “allowed us to avoid a lot of pitfalls,” Broom adds. “We found issues in the sim before the first aircraft update was done. And it enabled us to better determine what training was required.”

Another project involved replacing the traditional ground proximity warn-ing system (GPWS) with an enhanced EGPWS across the B757 fleet after a December 1995 mountain crash in Colom-bia. “No one else was using the technol-ogy yet. FAA inspectors hadn’t even seen it,” Ghoshal notes. The upgrade was first tried in the simulator prior to updates to aircraft, and subsequently any system upgrades (such as peaks and obstacles mode) followed this process.

The innovation which passengers will appreciate the most is development of a static discharge apparatus. If you have ever sat in a crowded aircraft on ground hold during a thunderstorm (as the author did one night recently… until 4 am), you may want to send the STES team a thank-you gift for this breakthrough.

Since ground personnel cannot safely work around an aircraft when lightning is occurring, the aircraft cannot be docked and passengers cannot disembark. “The simulator support group was asked to look for a solution in which passengers could be offloaded if gates are available,” Ghoshal recalls. In a trial-and-error proc-ess that conjures visions of Ben Franklin and his kite, STES replicated the static

electricity build-up beyond the levels expected for an aircraft in storm condi-tions on a test fuselage in roswell, New Mexico. It created the charge with a familiar power source – the type of cath-ode ray tube (CrT) used in traditional simulator visual displays.

The result was “a simple solution,” for which American received US patent #7,570,474 B1 in August. The “Safegate” automated docking system enables air-craft to be parked by remote control, regardless of inclement weather. You may not be able to get your checked bags, but at least you can get off the plane and go home.

BenefitBefitting one of the biggest carriers, American has been a leader in safety procedures that potentially benefit the entire airline industry. It was a couple of years ahead of many carriers, according to Broom, in implementing rNP SAAAr (required navigation performance with special aircraft and aircrew authoriza-tion required) instrument approach pro-cedures.

the aadvantages Of nurturing in-House talent

B757 full flight simulator.


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The flight crew licensing pro-cedure is well underway but it is likely to be year-end

before revised notices of proposed amendments (NPA) are available. This is seriously eating into the time available to implement changes to FCL regulations, which still need to be com-pleted by April 2012. The problem is not limited to those who are regulated but also to the national authorities, which are required to ensure compliance with the new EAsA regulations.

Historically national authorities have been unable to adjust with the speed now required. It should be remembered that the EC legal process is tortuous and the process time needed from acceptable NpA to European law will be at least one year – likely date is now at some point in 2011.

The situation is far worse with flight operations. The closing date for com-ments in this area was significantly later than FCL and therefore the timescales rather more compressed. Many of the

proposed changes in this area will be very time consuming for operators to introduce, not least in the area of flight time limitations.

In just a few years operators have moved from national requirements to JAR Operations to EU Operations, and now to EAsA Operations. One really does begin to wonder if there is an ele-ment of over-regulation in this sector.

Times are financially very difficult for most of the world’s airlines and they are no longer in a position to employ the required numbers of staff to ensure speedy adoption of new requirements. Indeed, it is important that those issues with safety considerations are given pri-ority attention.

ApproachThe time has come for the European Commission to adopt a more rational approach to the new regulations. When it instructed EAsA to take over the rule-making process for FCL and flight opera-tions it had no idea what it was asking,

and EAsA failed to understand the scope of the task with which it was presented. Thus we have had many delays and changes in response dates. And yet the Commission will still not agree to an extension of the implementation date.

The problem was compounded by the addition of extra tasks for EAsA, including aerodromes and ATMs, before earlier requirements were completed and without adequate funding or staff num-bers to meet the time-scales laid down – a rather typical political approach.

The fault is not all with the Commis-sion. some believe that the Agency took on board some responsibilities, which were not required by the Commission and that this dissipated staffing arrange-ments at a time when everyone’s hand was needed at the wheel.

It is still difficult to understand why so few EAsA staff were allocated initially to the task of introducing the regulations for FCL and flight operations. Even more difficult to grasp is the current complete lack of practical professional FCL and

Closing dates for comments on flight operations and flight crew licensing NpAs have passed. EAsA is now intent on responding and making amendments in light of the responses. But the process is proving slow and painful, writes Peter Moxham.

EASA Flight Ops And Flight Crew licensing – Where Are We Now?

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26 CAT MAGAZINE • ISSUE 5/2009

Right from the start the ideas kept flowing, with the keynote speech from Sherry Carbary, vice

president training and flight services, Boeing. She clearly expressed the Boeing view on the way forward. For decades simulator manufacturers have laboured to produce full flight simulators mounted on sophisticated motion platforms of increasing complexity and cost. Carbary asked: “Why is it pilots in the military around the world can train to fly and operate one of the world’s most complex flying machines - the Apache helicop-ter, in a fixed-base device with a motion cuing seat, at significantly lower cost and higher mobility, and yet we require a full six-axis motion base device to learn to fly a B737NG or A320?”

Soon after that question had bounced around the room, Jacques Drappier, vice president Airbus Training, clearly made the point that the industry as a whole

should never forget to train for the basics of manual flying, and that training pat-terns should reflect that.

There was an interesting juxtaposi-tion of views here: on the one hand, Boe-ing advocated that conversion training times could be reduced through the use of more effective training tools; Airbus stated that it would not seek reduction of training time if it compromised the abso-lute of safety / quality.

Both views are valid and the two viewpoints prompted lively debate around the conference. The drive to cut costs was fine, but there were several worried references to proposed increases in charges for the software provided by some aircraft OEMs to equipment manu-facturers and training providers. That might reduce costs for OEMs but not to end-users.

Another issue in which the industry must be proactive was identified by CTC, which pointed out that the generation of young talent now coming into the indus-try thinks and behaves differently from earlier groups. We would be well advised to understand how they learn and what they need to learn. We need to ensure that we either already have, or are willing to develop, appropriate learning tech-niques and tools. We must play to the undoubted strengths of this generation while being prepared to boost training in areas where there may have been less emphasis in earlier iterations of training.

ChallengesAlthough accidents and incidents are still statistically low in number, the decrease in the accident rate over recent decades seems to have slowed down. Technolo-gies such as GPWS and TCAS in their latest variants have significantly reduced events, and the integration of the “soft” skills such as CRM has brought consid-erable improvement. However, it is still a fact that in some 75% of accidents human factors have been a contributory cause. The conclusion is, therefore, that the next breakthrough in reducing the accident rate will have to come by addressing HF training in greater depth.

Safety management systems are key to establishing and maintaining a safety culture, and the way to do this was illus-trated by presentations from both ICAO and the local regulator, the Hong Kong Civil Aviation Department. Cathay Pacific Airways operators then described how to

Halldale conferences and CAT magazine aim to provide a stage for inventive thinking in training, preferably through the recognition of best practice. APATS 2009, an event run alongside Asian Aerospace in Hong Kong, was no exception. Chris Long reports.

translate that principle into day-to-day operations. One critical step is to gather hard data to determine areas of potential weakness, and to address them before they lead to incidents or accidents.

The idea of evidence based training (EBT) is gathering momentum and Brit-ish Airways quoted excellent examples. This depends on creating a “just” cul-ture, where openness in reporting human error, which may not have lead to an inci-dent but which, in other circumstances, could have done so, allows the training system to address the potential problem before it becomes critical.

The importance given to this topic was reinforced by the presentation given by IATA on the IATA Training and Qual-ity Initiative (ITQI) progamme, which relies heavily on EBT. Its reach is grow-ing as the industry realises the potential benefits of adopting new approaches to safety and training.

ExhibitionThere was a wider range of exhibi-tors at APATS 2009, and the closeness of the conference room helped the flow between the constituent parts of the symposium, albeit amidst the bustle of Asian Aerospace. Networking was vis-ibly vigorous in the downtime between sessions. The opportunity to talk through any thought-provoking comments in the presentations with the peer group, and perhaps to find answers with exhibitors, makes for a profitable experience.

At a time of uncertainty and hard choices in the industry, APATS brought together experts and delegates alike to look closely at how the industry can not only survive, but also improve ready for the predicted demand for crews, which will follow the delivery of new aircraft fleets.

At APATS 2010 in Bangkok, there will no doubt be evidence of progress in these areas, and new issues to examine. We hope to see you there.

Facts and FiguresIn total 342 people attended APATS 2009 over the three days of the conference and exhibition including 79 airline staff repre-senting 33 international and regional air-lines, five national civil aviation authori-ties and five airframe manufacturers. Attendees’ time was split between the conference and exhibition, providing opportunities for both learning and busi-ness discussions.

Speaking In Absolutes – APATS 2009 Champions The Cause Of Safety

Left

Delegates enjoyed two busy days of Asia

Pacific training-related presentations.

Below

Norman Lo, Director-General of Civil

Aviation, Civil Aviation Department of

Hong Kong.

Top

Keynote speaker – Boeing’s Sherry Carbary.

Center

Jacques Drappier, vice president Airbus

Training.

Below

Networking within the Training Pavilion at

Asian Aerospace.

All images: David Malley/Halldale Media.

In the teeth of difficult economic conditions, APATS continued its unbro-ken record of year-on-year growth with just over 20% increase in total attend-ees over 2008, indicating the strength of the event and the importance that is attached to training in the Asia Pacific Region.

This bodes well for the next APATS, which will take place at the fabulous Shangri-La Hotel in Bangkok on the Sep-tember 14th and 15th 2009. cat

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training With the Yellow Crane – lFt in Competent Form

image credit: lufthansa flight Training.

same standard for all its customers, but will tailor courses to customers’ specific requests.

Training is delivered at five sites, the principal one being the homebase of lufthansa, frankfurt international air-port, and this is supported by standalone operations at Berlin, Munich, Vienna and Bremen. Another training centre to be operated in Moscow by lfT and Vnu-kovo Airport will open in 2010.

CompetencylfT shares with many companies the belief that training simply to the mini-mum regulatory requirements does not necessarily lead to the optimum level of competency. Christian Korherr, head of

Lufthansa Passenger Airline has one of the most compre-hensive and geographically

diverse route structures of any major carrier. it alone has a fleet of around 300 aircraft, comprising eight basic types. But that number rises to almost 550 when aircraft from other members of lufthansa Group are counted.

This snapshot is best considered in the context of the company’s planned acquisitions. lufthansa is launch cus-tomer for the B747-8 (20 on order) and this, together with the 15 A380s ordered, indicates its determination to stay at the forefront of long-haul services.

renewal of its continental and regional fleets is on track with over 50 A320 family and 30 embraer aircraft due for delivery by 2015. The recent acquisi-tion of Swiss and the takeover of Aus-trian in September show its drive to con-solidate, even in these difficult economic times.

florian Hamm, Ceo of lfT, explains that the syllabus and all training con-tent for lufthansa airlines are defined by lufthansa, but it is lfT’s role to provide all technical support and training tools. The two entities work closely together to create the optimum training package. for example, lufthansa dry-leases the ffS while instructors are current lufthansa Tris/Tres, which ensures that training accurately reflects the realities of day-to-day operation.

Some 50% of lfT activity is in direct support of lufthansa. The remaining tasks comprise training for other mem-bers of the lufthansa Group and third parties. lfT provides training to the

airline cockpit training, is quick to point out that while regulatory requirements have to be respected, effective training should not only teach rigid sets of actions in a limited number of scenarios.

Good training should teach both how to avoid difficult situations and how to think through an unusual situation to safely resolve it. learning how to apply a generic approach to an unplanned situa-tion, and then carry out a considered and appropriate specific action to remedy that situation, leads to safer operation. lfT places a great deal of emphasis on this teaching of non-technical skills.

An interesting demonstration of the desire to train for competency rather than basic regulatory minima is the lufthansa requirement that, whatever the level of automation of the aircraft type, at least one manual raw data approach must be flown in every simulator session. This pattern was instilled long before the


With over 50 years’ expertise, lufthansa flight Training has enormousknow-how in pilot and cabin crew training, writes Chris Long. it has always served lufthansa passenger Airline and in 1997 it became a separate company, wholly-owned by lufthansa Group.

Three CeeTs have been equipped with the

new virtual slide system.


more recent and growing concern at the worldwide level of accidents / incidents that are at least partially attributed to loss of control. These loC incidents have raised questions as to whether the indus-try should focus much more on basic fly-ing skills. Certainly the philosophy at lfT is that thorough competence in basic handling is the foundation upon which the rest of the safe operation is based.

To ensure a good standard level of competency the majority of the 139 instructors are Tris/Tres who have retired from lufthansa, although some with other airline backgrounds are recruited.

training toolsThe suite of training tools employed by lfT is continually updated. Not least among ongoing programmes is a move to switch to a replacement visual sys-tem. As Georg Schuetz, senior engineer visual system projects explains, lfT has long had a close cooperation with rock-well Collins (rCi), initially in its earlier guise as evans and Sutherland (e&S). The blend of lfT’s operating experience, especially lufthansa’s flight operations and simulator flight crew training experi-ence, and the software skills of e&S led to the development of the ep-1000CT image generation system.

So pleased is lfT with this product that a programme to replace the remain-ing nine Sp-X 500/550 on its 36 simula-tors (see full listing in the CAT Annual Training Sourcebook 2009) is underway. This will be installed on existing field of view (foV) on the present simulators, but any new systems will move to the new standard of 40° x 200°. The larger win-dows of the likes of the A330 generation of aircraft have shifted that vertical field to 17° above and 23° below the horizon to better answer the demands of visual positioning at an airfield.

The image generator will be coupled to JVC lCoS projectors. An unforeseen result is that the greatly increased level of brightness has revealed a patina of scratches on the windscreens of older ffSs, which have therefore required a change from the original plastic wind-screens to glass. The comprehensive database of more than 100 airports, which is supplied with the visual system, answers the majority of training tasks, but lfT technicians can build another airport model to order if required.

a380 arrivalinitial crew training to support entry into service of the A380 in March 2010 will be carried out with Airbus in Toulouse. However, lfT's new A380 level D ffS built by Thales will be qualified and ready for training mid January 2010.

This device will feature both the fM2K electro-hydraulic motion platform and the ep-1000CT visual system. lfT will not use Airbus Crew Training (ACT), the latest iteration of what was previ-ously called the MfTD. lfT’s rationale is that an ffS is constantly matched to the modification state of a specific aircraft and tail number. There is no requirement to have the ACT tied to a specific aircraft, so the software used may not match pre-cisely the latest modification state. That, naturally, would have an impact on over-all training costs. Consequently CBT will

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account for only around 20-30% of the training course and will be carried out at the training centre. The training pat-tern will consist primarily of instructor led classroom training and full use of the ffS.

Historically lfT has used its consid-erable iT and aircraft systems expertise to modify and adapt the software of the aircraft oeMs to match the specific train-ing needs and scenarios of lufthansa. This flexibility is now under threat as the aircraft oeMs are retaining the software and the in-house changes can no longer be made.

This raises an interesting point. The industry is very keen to embrace evi-dence based training (see the iCAo iTQi programme). A basic requirement of this is to integrate feedback from real operat-ing data and incidents back to the train-ing scenarios. if training deliverers are no longer able to do that themselves they will be forced to wait for the oeMs to act, and typically the software updates are only implemented once or twice a year. There is an inference here that there will now be an unnecessary delay in that critical feedback loop. Maybe this is a subject worthy of further debate.

impressiveAs Annette Becker, director of aviation safety and service training states, the training task is quite impressive. With 16,000 cabin crew and 4,000 flight deck crew who need initial and recurrent train-ing, the lfT centre at frankfurt frequently has 750 people training on any single day, with Munich operating at up to 150 per day. Hf and emergency training already

Top

The ep-1000CT image generation system.


Below

lufthansa has ordered 15 A380 aircraft.

image credit: lufthansa.

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florian Hamm speaking at this year's ApATS

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employ evidence based training to cre-ate realistic training scenarios. from April next year these will be conducted as combined sessions of Hf training and emergency training.

first aid training is also outsourced, but lfT has a real fire training capability in the form of a unit built by interfire. The cabin emergency and evacuation train-ers (CeeT) naturally have a simulated fire capability. An lfT-developed onboard re-charging facility reloads actual size fire extinguishers with a compressed air/water mix, which replicates the appear-ance of the halon extinguishers in aircraft.

The enthusiasm with which Willi Göttinger, who runs emergency train-ing, describes the latest improvement in the CeeTs is infectious. Starting with an initiative from lfT, a project to cre-ate an effective virtual slide has come to fruition. Working with TfC and software company, digi mice, three CeeTs have been equipped with this system, two in Munich the other in frankfurt. The hardware consists of four flat screens placed horizontally immediately outside the cabin door and a further projection screen mounted vertically in front of the door exit.

A software programme projects a realistic external world on these screens, and the operation of the slide is superimposed onto that scene. The big advantage of this process is that, rather than having the instructor describe any given scenario (ditching, off-runway evacuation etc) the visual display shows what is happening. The full range of dif-ficult scenarios / slide malfunctions and

so on can be introduced and, here is the critical part, the trainee then has to ana-lyse the situation and decide the best course of action, based purely on what s/he can see.

The instructor can freeplay and rap-idly reset the training tool, making train-ing more flexible and adaptable. So posi-tively has this capability been received by crews, that this function will be integrated into the A380 trainer when it arrives in December 2009.

A further possibility for A380 training is the use of a virtual aircraft to familiar-ise cabin crew with the layout and oper-ating controls. Studies to evaluate this option are ongoing.

florian Hamm is clear that lfT must continually evaluate new training technologies and methodologies and use those best suited to present and future needs. A good example of this is the wholehearted adoption of the Mpl ab initio pilot training programme, for which the first course started in feb-ruary 2009. He explained this rationale during the recent ApATS event in Hong Kong, and CAT will follow up on the results of this training pattern once it is completed. cat


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He refers to Asok Ghoshal, manager, simulator training equipment support (STES). His group of more than 100 tech-nicians and engineers is responsible for keeping simulators and training devices going full-tilt for 16 hours a day. That includes scheduled and unscheduled maintenance of host computers, image generators, projectors, displays, motion hydraulics and control loading. Plus pre-flight inspections of cockpit instruments, lights, navigation systems, autopilot, and other components, including the instruc-tor station; also troubleshooting pilot or instructor-reported “E6 log” discrepan-cies. And, of course, quarterly approved test guide and annual FAA re-qualifica-tion evaluations.

This past month, STES installed American’s first new simulator in eight years, a CAE 7000 series B737NG (next-generation) FFS. Ghoshal reports that the trainer is slated for FAA Level D evalua-tion late October. It is the 20th CAE-built sim for American and regional partner American Eagle. AA also took delivery of a CAE Simfinity B737NG integrated pro-cedures trainer.

To borrow a phrase from pro-fessional golf, these guys are good. And their impact reaches

beyond the traditional pilot, cabin crew, maintainer, and dispatcher training.

American, of course, is the world’s second largest airline (behind Delta/Northwest) and has one of the most extensive training facilities with 75,000 square feet, 28 full flight simulators (FFS), seven cabin sims, a water evacuation pool, flight management system train-ers for every aircraft in the fleet, assorted other task trainers, 75 training and con-ference rooms, and a 300-seat theatre. Pilots and flight attendants can even bunk at the 30-acre wooded complex south of Dallas/Fort Worth International airport in AA’s 299-room Dolce Hotel, or dine in its three restaurants.

But as impressive as the infrastruc-ture may be, the talent of the team is more so. “We’d rather do updates in-house,” says Christopher (Chris) Broom, managing director for American’s flight training department. “It keeps costs down, and it’s good for morale. Asok’s team loves this stuff.”

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Day JobBut that is just the tech team’s “day job.” STES has applied its expertise beyond the training facility to improve the air-line’s flight operations.

Using a simulator as a test bed, Ghoshal’s team supported the Midlife Avionics Update Initiative (MAUI) for the B757/B767 fleet. The project encom-passed a flight management computer upgrade for aircraft with the Honey-well Pegasus FMC; replacement of the electronic horizontal situation indicator (EHSI) and electronic attitude director indicator (EADI); replacement of out-dated round-dial instruments, such as the airspeed indicator, radio/distance magnetic indicator (rDMI), altimeter, vertical speed indicator, radio altimeter, and dedicated weather radar display – with flat-panel LED displays; integrat-ing three standby instruments into a single standby flight display; and swap-ping out for a state-of-the-art instru-ment landing system (ILS) and multi-mode receiver (MMr).

“The total integration was done with all the various avionics pieces, as


good For Morale –the aadvantages Of nurturing in-House talent

For those who might think simulator technicians spend their days waiting to replace burned-out projector lamps, they are in for quite a surprise at the American Airlines Flight Academy in Fort Worth, Texas, writes Rick Adams.


American Airlines current fleet of

over 600 aircraft includes 124 B757-200s.


well as resolving mechanical issues,” Ghoshal notes.

The MAUI program “allowed us to avoid a lot of pitfalls,” Broom adds. “We found issues in the sim before the first aircraft update was done. And it enabled us to better determine what training was required.”

Another project involved replacing the traditional ground proximity warn-ing system (GPWS) with an enhanced EGPWS across the B757 fleet after a December 1995 mountain crash in Colom-bia. “No one else was using the technol-ogy yet. FAA inspectors hadn’t even seen it,” Ghoshal notes. The upgrade was first tried in the simulator prior to updates to aircraft, and subsequently any system upgrades (such as peaks and obstacles mode) followed this process.

The innovation which passengers will appreciate the most is development of a static discharge apparatus. If you have ever sat in a crowded aircraft on ground hold during a thunderstorm (as the author did one night recently… until 4 am), you may want to send the STES team a thank-you gift for this breakthrough.

Since ground personnel cannot safely work around an aircraft when lightning is occurring, the aircraft cannot be docked and passengers cannot disembark. “The simulator support group was asked to look for a solution in which passengers could be offloaded if gates are available,” Ghoshal recalls. In a trial-and-error proc-ess that conjures visions of Ben Franklin and his kite, STES replicated the static

electricity build-up beyond the levels expected for an aircraft in storm condi-tions on a test fuselage in roswell, New Mexico. It created the charge with a familiar power source – the type of cath-ode ray tube (CrT) used in traditional simulator visual displays.

The result was “a simple solution,” for which American received US patent #7,570,474 B1 in August. The “Safegate” automated docking system enables air-craft to be parked by remote control, regardless of inclement weather. You may not be able to get your checked bags, but at least you can get off the plane and go home.

BenefitBefitting one of the biggest carriers, American has been a leader in safety procedures that potentially benefit the entire airline industry. It was a couple of years ahead of many carriers, according to Broom, in implementing rNP SAAAr (required navigation performance with special aircraft and aircrew authoriza-tion required) instrument approach pro-cedures.

the aadvantages Of nurturing in-House talent



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“We first had approval for the rNP SAAAr approach into Quito, Ecuador in July 2007. The Quito procedure developed by American was the first rNAV [area navigation] rNP approach procedure in South America.”

This became especially useful when the ILS was damaged recently and American and Continental could continue to fly the approach. AA also developed the “Cottonwood Pass” rNAV arrival into Eagle, Colorado (Vail). Alaska Airlines took the lead in rNP in many of its Alaskan airports.

The benefits of rNP SAAAr are safer approaches and depar-tures to terrain-challenged airports (Quito’s Mariscal Sucre Inter-national airport – UIO, is one of the highest in the world, in the middle of the city and surrounded by mountains), more efficient use of terminal airspace, and significant fuel savings.

“rNP SAAAr is very useful at airports with significant ter-rain close-in to the runway where conventional ground-based navigation signals may be blocked. In this case, rNAV rNP may be the difference between an approach procedure that is very precise and no approach at all,” explains Broom.

AA is approved to conduct rNP SAAAr approaches on B737, B757, B767 and B777 aircraft. “American Airlines is also FAA-approved to create and publish rNAV and rNAV rNP pro-cedures at airports where we see benefit. This is significant in that we can produce beneficial procedures where we need them without having to wait for the FAA to produce them.”

American is very metrics-driven. For example, it imple-mented a single-engine taxi policy; only one aircraft engine is used during taxi in and out of gates (when safe and operation-ally feasible). This saves at least four million gallons of jet fuel a year and reduces carbon dioxide emissions by more than 84 million pounds.

take-Off’s no Picnic either

>>

Only 5,436 feet of usable runway... a plateau in a basin ringed by 6,000-foot high mountains... The approach to Ton-contin International airport (TGU) in the Honduran capital of Tegucigalpa is one of the most difficult in the world for com-mercial transport pilots. The landing pattern circles inside the basin, below the mountaintops. Then, with only a couple hun-dred feet to line up on the runway, aircraft must make contact as soon as crossing the fence separating the airport from an adjacent highway. The 1.06-degree downslope leaves little braking time to avoid the 100-foot cliff drop-off at the end of the tarmac. Oh, and during the dry season, a dense cloud of smog often lingers in the basin.

To help familiarize American Airlines pilots with this per-ilous pattern, the flight department turned to an unorthodox source – flight data recorder analysis. It was already using Flightscape’s Insight to address Flight Operational Quality Assurance (FOQA) safety requirements. But Chris Broom, managing director, flight training, says they thought there might be other ways to use the information.

“We flew the Tegucigalpa approach, then downloaded the flight data information.” Using Flightscape’s automatic data generation tool, it created an animation of the flight for familiarization training. The interactive animation incorporates narration, text, Jeppesen charts, rules for flying the approach, and other aids, and is available on the American pilots’ internal website. AA hopes to incorporate the animation into onboard electronic flight bags (EFB) so crews can click on the presenta-tion enroute.

Training & Qualification Initiative

Evidence Based TrainingEATS 2009 – BriefingThe ITQI Briefing will take place the day before EATS 2009 on Monday 9th November, 13.00 to 15.00 at the Clarion Congress Hotel, Prague.

Hosted by Captain Michael Varney (IATA) and Captain Joel Lebrun (AIRBUS), this is an opportunity to learn about the initiative, how it will affect you and your organization. It is also an opportunity to engage and make comments.

The Evidence Based Training concept is a development being undertaken by a specialist training group working with IATA, on behalf of ICAO and the aviation industry, to examine safety evidence on all generations of aircraft, to determine how best to improve safety through more effective airline pilot training. The group is charged with designing a new training and evaluation philosophy, both for type ratings and recurrent training and evaluation. We have very wide industry support, including all major aircraft manufacturers, regulators, pilot representative bodies, airlines and training organizations and will begin beta testing new programs in 2010.

In association with:

After the ITQI Briefing, why not come along to the EATS Welcome Reception in the lounge area adjacent to EATS Registration?



American even takes “oil changes” to an extra level - it recycles the 600 gal-lons of hydraulic fluid used in a simula-tor motion system before using it. “New fluid is unacceptable for simulators. After being processed and ‘super cleaned,’ our hydraulic fluid is 12 times cleaner than brand new fluid,” claims Broom. “This reduces the overall cost of maintenance, especially by reducing contaminated servo valves.”

trendsBroom says the recurrent training curric-ulum incorporates “issues-driven” train-ing based on trends the flight depart-ment spots in its own data or across the industry. These can include technology-driven topics such as rNAV arrivals and departures, severe crosswinds, short field landings, or runway incursions and other human factors issues.

American’s advanced qualifica-tion program (AQP) recurrent training operates on a nine-month cycle, and includes: six hours of distance learn-ing modules, such as windshear avoid-ance, hazardous materials, high-altitude physiology and de-icing; 13.5 hours in the classroom and computer-based training (CBT); and 13 hours in simula-tors and training devices.

retirement of a captain at the top of the pilot pyramid can trigger as many as 4.5 transition or upgrade training events: B757/767 captain moves up to B777 captain, B737 captain is promoted to B757/767; and down the line, an MD80 first officer sliding into a B737 right seat. (That is actually half the ripple effect compared with nine training transition slots in the late 1990s after the acquisi-tion of TWA. American had 20 duty posi-tions then, including three-crew B727s and DC10s, plus the now retired F100s, MD11s, and A300s.) The current course footprint for new type ratings is 22 days – 12 days of ground school and 10 days of simulator flight training.

When not used for training the 8,400-plus pilots of AA and Ameri-can Eagle, sims are made available to “companies that establish a business relationship with American Airlines and whose instructors are checked out to operate the flight simulators at the Flight Academy.” Third-party time can be leased on the A300, B727, B737, B757, B767, B777, MD80, F100, Saab 340, ATr, and ErJ.

JuggleCo-located with flight and flight attend-ant training facilities is American Air-lines’ system operations control (SOC) center, the “nerve center,” responsible for coordinating the minute-by-minute operation of the route network. SOC flight dispatchers juggle myriad aircraft, people, facilities, airports, and airspace – including frequent abnormal and emer-gency situations triggered by equipment problems, adverse weather, and other events.

What exactly are some of the daily issues dispatchers deal with? Pre-plan-ning daily flight operations with empha-sis on safety, efficiency, and economy consistent with passenger comfort and on-time performance. Changes in flight status such as aircraft substitutions, delays, unscheduled landings, diversions, or cancellations. Availability of crew and aircraft for each departure. Progress of in-bound flights entering control areas. Instructions to ground personnel. And much more.

“Each day is different, based on weather, air traffic and other challenges. No day is ever boring. Aviation is an infec-tious business, it seems to get in your blood,” says Tim Antolovic, Managing Director, Dispatch Operations. “We deal with strikes, hurricanes, air traffic irregular-ities, airplane mechanical situations, and a host of other irregularities that become part of another normal day at the office.”

The typical American Airlines dis-patcher has more than 20 years’ experi-ence. Antolovic says most of them work for another carrier (including American Eagle) and have their FAA aircraft dis-patcher certificate in hand before joining


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AA. “Once at AA, each dispatcher completes basic indoctrina-tion and initial training. This is followed by four to eight months of on-job training, supervised by an experienced dispatcher.” During the “upgrade” process, the dispatcher must pass a writ-ten test, two-day competency check, and complete a route famil-iarization - at least five hours in a cockpit riding and interacting with the crew during line operations.

“Since the dispatcher often ‘flies in front of the airplane,’ he or she tells the crew when they need to be made aware of important operating information,” explains Antolovic. “This ‘flying in front’ is part of their situational awareness and it helps riding in the air-plane to develop a sense of issues that confront flight crews and how dispatchers can best be helpful and interact with the cap-tain.” Once checked out, dispatchers complete annual recurrent training. International dispatchers typically study additional mod-ules specifically geared towards their respective geographic areas.

recognizedThe pride American has in its flight crews is readily apparent at the Flight Academy. The spartan entry has relatively little deco-ration. What immediately catches your attention, though, is a display for the Order of the Eagle award. Since 2005 pilots have been recognized by their peers for both extraordinary feats of airmanship and personal community efforts. Captain Bill Crooks and First Officer William rodriguez for skillfully recovering from an engine power loss on take-off at Medellin, Colombia last Jan-uary. Or Captain Peter Underwood for introducing 2,000 at-risk children to new opportunities through the reach for Tomorrow organization. Plus 18 others over the past five years. The award is reserved for “pilots who have distinguished themselves in a superior manner while bringing great credit upon themselves and our airline.” cat

Simulation technology Feature Writer

CAT Magazine seeks a writer with a simulation and training background capable of accepting six to ten assignments throughout the editorial year. The ideal candidate will have ten plus years of simulation and training industry background, acquired through positions which may include simulation engineering, program management, training operations or marketing.

Candidates must be comfortable working virtually, and should have a personal contact database covering simulation vendors, training providers and airline operators. Knowledge of publishing is a definite asset, as is an objective writing style. Some domestic and international travel may be required.

Interested candidates should contact: Chris Lehman, Editor in Chief, CAT Magazine. Email: [email protected]

is now part of Applied Research Asso-ciates, suggests the most critical deci-sions are based on natural intuition but supplemented by the ability to recog-nize patterns and interpret cues. Even if an expert pilot has not encountered a specific situation previously, he has probably “seen it before” in a sort of mental simulation – much like champion athletes visualize positive performances and winning results.“We used to think that experts care-fully deliberate the merits of each course of action, whereas novices impulsively jump at the first option,” says Klein. The opposite is true. “It’s the novices who must compare different approaches to solving a problem. Experts come up with a plan and then rapidly assess whether it will work. They move fast because they do less.”

Novices need a decision-making framework, i.e. weighing options, to help them think their way through a dilemma. But the way to get people past the begin-ner stage is to “accelerate the growth of their experiences” so they can more rap-idly accumulate “memories” and cues that enable faster, better decisions.CAE’s Jeff Roberts, group president, civil products and training and services, proposed a “closed-loop” system in his keynote address at the recent WATS conference. He outlined closed-loop training as a continuous learning and improvement process driven by statis-tics (both in-flight and simulator data). “We use this data to understand how pilots are operating their aircraft and how they are responding to the cur-rent training syllabus. It allows us to constantly adjust the training process based on this information.“The closed-loop method,” Roberts added, “becomes more important as overall levels of pilot experience decline, because we can no longer count on long apprenticeships to convey the necessary knowledge.”

Keeping PaceSometimes the training challenge is machines that do not communicate well with other machines. And the solution may also be modular.

“One of the biggest challenges simu-lator providers are faced with in the age of glass cockpits, is updating avionics systems to match the latest manufac-turer’s release,” explains Mark Limbach,

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business development VP for Fidelity Flight Simulation. “Software upgrades to the avionics device can give the sim manufacturer fits. Data sent to the avi-onics devices is totally different [from] what happens in the aircraft. Placing an avionics upgrade configuration card in the appropriate slot in a simulator typi-cally does little except render the device inoperative.”Significant avionics upgrades “are happening with much greater fre-quency,” Limbach notes. For example, Garmin announced recently at the EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, that a scaled version of its synthetic vision “3D virtual reality” technology would be available on the G600, along with a new autopilot interface and optional GWX weather radar. At the business aircraft convention late 2008, Garmin touted FAA approval for G1000 retrofits.Less than a year ago Rockwell Col-lins unveiled a program to upgrade Pro Line 4 flight decks to the newer Pro Line 21 configuration. It is currently in flight test for the next-gen Pro Line Fusion, which incorporates synthetic and enhanced vision, heads-up guid-ance display, and multi-scan hazard detection. Voice recognition is seen as a future capability. Updates for automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast

(ADS-B) transponders for bizjets were made available in April.Avionics are typically simulated: “They are so tightly integrated, they are very hard to simulate properly. Training companies want their simulator avion-ics to match what is sitting on the flight line,” Limbach advises. “This process is much harder if the sim manufacturer no longer has the simulator and avionics at its facility for testing.”

Avionics upgrades have often required “a lot of software re-write, more trial and error than we really want,” Lim-bach says. So they have developed a “compartmentalized” approach, building the simulator avionics software in a more modular way with relatively independent sections of code.Fidelity production manager Ron Kostosky says, “Our plug-and-play design allows for the switching of the avionics components as individual pieces. For example, if a customer switched cockpit displays from an Avi-dyne Entegra to Garmin G1000, we would change the cockpit hardware and then just switch the software drive for the displays we want to run. Sepa-rate software pieces allow us to easily support different avionics, or different versions of the same avionics suite, all driven off the same core code.”

Aerosim director of product devel-opment, Phil Brown acknowledges, “With technology constantly evolving, it becomes ever more challenging to keep each training device in sync with the fleet configuration. Depending on complex-


AboveTricom’s A380 maintenance flight training device.Image credit: Tricom Technologies.

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Cyclist and cancer survivor Lance Armstrong, winner of a record seven Tour de France titles (and something of an expert on training regimens for his sport), declared in his autobiography, “It’s not about the bike”.And now, after decades of putting full flight simulators on a pedestal as the quintessential be-all and end-all of technology-driven training, those who develop professional pilots for airlines, bizjets and the military are stating, nearly in synch, “It’s not about the machine”. In truth, it never really was.

“The machine is generic,” Andy Morris of Rockwell Collins suggests. “It could be any device, including a mainte-nance or flight trainer. What we’ve cre-ated is a fundamental simulation envi-ronment designed to support all training - military or commercial.” Morris, direc-tor of international business develop-

ment for Simulation & Training Solu-tions (STS), is referring to Rockwell’s recently announced Common Open Reusable Elements (CORE) simulation architecture strategy.The unveiling of RC’s long-antici-pated civil aviation training thrust follows on the heels of Thales Training & Simula-tion’s “New Reality” concept, which civil marketing and strategy director, Mark Dransfield describes not as a technical revolution but more “a change of the way of doing business…. Technically the cus-tomer liked us. But the customer base is changing.” There’s less of an emphasis on engineering, he explains, more on the business and financial aspects in deci-sion-making.

On the surface, the common thread between the Rockwell design, Thales, and CAE’s Series 5000 and 7000 announced two years ago may seem to be their modularity – a motion base

module (or “docking station” in the new parlance), a visual systems module, and an aircraft-specific cockpit module in the case of an FAA Level D/ICAO MPL Level 7 flight simulation training device (FSTD). But all three major sim manu-facturers quickly emphasize the flexibil-ity for the customer and “more focus on training value and performance aspects,” as CAE chief technology officer Adolfo Klassen phrases it.

CORE BeliefsRockwell Collins’s CORE architecture is the culmination of a five-year sequence of acquisitions in the training market by the Cedar Rapids, Iowa-based avionics

Enamored as we are with incredibly realistic computer-generated visual scenes and the capability

of cockpits on stilts to imitate crisis scenarios that stress even the most veteran of captains, what it all

comes down to is training, observes Rick Adams.

It’s Not About The Machine –Pilot and Maintainer Training Equipment

AboveCTC will be the first CORE customer – with the new architecture featuring on two FFS.Image credit: Rockwell Collins.

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Brand RealityThales Training & Simulation (TTS) went through some structured soul-searching during the past year, assisted by a Lon-don marketing research firm, focused on “understanding the customer’s business drivers,” Dransfield relates. “We’re look-ing for the right combination of flexibility – product and support – that will work for them.”

The result is a cornucopia of realities: reality integrated solutions, reality com-mercial options (financing), reality sup-port solutions (cover / traditional, assist / customisable, and shield / turnkey), and reality equipment solutions. “Everything from completely in-source to completely out-source, and everything in the mid-dle,” Dransfield says. “But we stop short of providing instruction, car park secu-rity, receptionist, and putting our name on the door.”The formal launch in February of Thales’s RealitySeven simulator was timed with the transition into new facili-ties in Crawley, UK, and required “a lot of change management with staff.” The TTS culture is described as “different [from] the rest of Thales Group” despite a 10-year ownership of the former Rediffu-sion / Hughes Training and Singer Link-Miles. Nonetheless, Dransfield says the New Reality investment demonstrates the “very strong commitment” to simula-tion by the 12.7bn Euros revenue parent company.

Thus far TTS has announced 14 orders for the RealitySeven Level 7 device, including half a dozen A320s for Airbus and the two most recent for Turk-ish Airlines (THY). One of the THY sims will be a traditional A320. The other will be “swapped” between A330 and A340 types, highlighting the modularity / flex-ibility of the design.Dransfield envisions various integra-tion and relocation options for the cus-tomer. “We build the cockpit module almost as an FTD.” If an airline’s fleet changes, they could buy a new cockpit and put it on the existing docking station / motion system (and perhaps use the old cockpit as a high-end FTD). A training center operator whose business for a cer-tain aircraft type shifts from one region to another could reposition just the cock-pit module, not an entire simulator - “not overnight, but maybe once a year.”Among the technical features of the Seven, are digital electric motion and

products are pilots.” Unlike its device-focused competitors, CAE offers the gamut of pilot screening, training cent-ers for ab initio and type ratings, main-tainer and cabin crew programs, and of course the gamut of Series 5000 (regional and business aircraft) and 7000 simula-tors (widebody aircraft and helicopters), Tropos visual systems, flat panel trainers, courseware, and Simfinity web-based delivery.Klassen says CAE’s current techni-cal efforts include more content for visual cueing and new electric motion system algorithms for enhanced physical cues, especially for critical performance areas such as take-off, landing, and cross-wind conditions. Enhanced air traffic control elements and weather effects are also part of the roadmap.

CAE is initiating a research effort to explore “personalized instruction”, eval-uating how an individual candidate or pilot uses the available tools in the cock-pit, then incorporating the information into brief/debrief aspects of that person’s training.“We’re not quite there yet,” Klassen cautions. “The challenge is more logis-tics than anything else.”

Monitoring an individual pilot’s sessions might include traditional vid-eotaping. But it might also encompass collecting data, captured via eye-track-ing sensor technology that observes where the student is focusing, which instruments and controls, for example, and measuring response times, like how long it takes to react to a particu-lar situation.“We need to know what’s going on in the cockpit, what the pilot is doing beyond what an instructor can observe peering over his shoulder and taking notes.”

The individually tailored instruction research is part of a five-year, US$665m “Project Falcon” R&D effort announced by CAE and the Canadian government in March. Among the project’s primary goals are an augmented visionics sys-tem, enabling a pilot to take off and land safely even when visibility outside the cockpit is restricted, and simulation and modeling for new types of aircraft, unmanned vehicles, and replacement models for current aircraft.“We haven’t slowed down R&D spending,” Klassen says, adding that CAE is holding to its forecast. Citing

control loading, display mirror radii up to 11 feet, and an instructor / operator seat ergonomically designed for the optimum distance from the touch screen monitor (and adaptable for right-handers or “left-ies”). Its new ThalesView, unveiled last year for the civil market, has achieved Level D acceptance for three devices. A companion MPL Level 4 device is expected as well, likely to be labeled RealityFour.“The biggest change is that we’re listening,” Dransfield says. “We’re engag-ing customers more.” Incorporated in the new mindset is a customer involvement panel, a dozen or so key customer rep-resentatives who will meet two to three times a year, and the re-launch of techni-cal expert advisory groups.

Getting PersonalThe modular designs touted by Rockwell and Thales “seem very familiar to us,” notes CAE CTO Klassen. “We put these standards into the market a couple of years ago.” Modularity, he explains, can deliver to the customer with a shorter lead-time at reduced cost. The Montreal-based training company has occasionally moved simulator cockpits from one loca-tion to another within its global network, requiring only about a day for final inte-gration and validation at the new site. And for some military users, CAE has built multiple cockpits that can “roll on / roll off” a single docking station, enabling aircraft type changes within a few hours.But Klassen quickly points out, “Our 18 CAT MAGAZINE • ISSUE 4/2009

Launched in February – Thales’ RealitySeven simulator.Image credit: Thales.

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You say aerodrome, I say air-port; you say apron, I say ramp; you say taking off, I say departing. Sometimes there can be a big difference in the way air traffic controllers talk to pilots in the US com-pared to the phraseology used in the rest of the world, according to Jose aragon, atC chief instructor for Faa and iCaO at Pan am international Flight academy in Miami.the three contrasting terminolo-gies above are just a few among dozens of differences between approved iCaO phrases and their equivalents in ameri-can airspace. although there are only about 50 standard word combinations in the authorities’ tower and ground control guidelines, “there are numerous ways to issue a command,” says gary Pearson, VP advanced programs and product man-agement at adacel Systems’ Orlando, Florida. “there are 30 different ways to issue a taxi command and 18,000 ways, at last count, to issue a traffic command.”now add the sometimes heavy

accents of controllers for whom English is not a first language, the casualness of long-time pilots who cannot be corralled into using approved phrasing, and the tendency of speech patterns to acceler-ate in stressful situations, and you get a sense of the challenge of training for real-world atC environments.Unlike the emphasis in pilot train-ing on the technology and procedures of aircraft systems, “the core business of air traffic control is effective communica-tion,” aragon notes.

Somewhat neglected in decades past, the atC training environment has been getting considerably more atten-tion recently. ground side, iCaO man-dated that, as of March 2008, controllers must demonstrate Level 4 proficiency in English. On the airside iCaO’s multi-pilot licensing (MPL) street-to-right-seat scheme, and the proposed iCaO 9625 Edition 3 update for flight simula-tion training devices (FStD) are driving enhanced atC simulation into global pilot training requirements.

Coupling more congested airspaces from anticipated air traffic growth world-wide with the potential mass retirements of experienced US controllers in the com-ing years, the need for improved atC training - and more of it - is self-evident.

PrecisionPan am’s instructors see the lan-guage challenge every week, delivering refresher training in radar, tower and pre-cision approach positions to controllers from nearly every corner of the planet. “Students come from all walks of life,” says gary Laguardia, business develop-ment leader. Pan am has been approved by the World Bank’s European Commis-sion, enabling any member state to use the Florida facilities for qualified training.training is tailored to the national

Do you speak the lingo of atC? air traffic control training is all about clear understanding and

effective communication – no small challenge in ever-busier airspaces and hectic ground environments.

Rick Adams reports on the different approaches being taken.

Not Just What You Say, It’s the Way You Say It

aboveadacel’s MaxSim atC tSS (tower Simulator System).image credit: adacel.

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Rockwell Collins' cloud shadows on the ground will vary in intensity depending on the density of the cloud and light source.Image credit: Rockwell Collins.

<<Broom says AA’s simulator training equipment support (STES) team worked with Flightscape to figure out how to take the data collection one step further, porting it from a full flight simulator, then it could add interactive air traffic control com-munications and replay the scenario for pilots. Being able to do the data collection in a simulator of course opens up unlimited opportunities for what it wants to show the pilot.

Other challenging airports in AA’s system include La Paz, Bolivia; Guatemala City, Guatemala; and Quito, Ecua-dor. “These airports are challenging due to terrain and high elevations. American Airlines adds qualification requirements above and beyond that required by the FAA,” Broom explains. “These include reviews of our online airport familiarization programs, experience requirements for crewmembers, cur-rency requirements, and initial qualification with a check air-man, and are in addition to the FAA requirement to review approved pictorials of the airport.”

AA also uses Flightscape to create animations for not-so-challenging airports but with which American’s pilots may be less familiar.

OJ Treadway, manager, flight operations support, notes that Flightscape “also allows us to capture and study unusual FOQA events. Use of the Flightscape system in both programs improves safety and generates significant cost savings.”

Flightscape’s Insight was originally developed to analyze flight data for accident investigation. It processes the raw binary flight data from the FDr for maximum fidelity. It can also be used to study simulator sessions. Flightscape, which is owned by CAE, also offers a web-based data analysis service through the International Air Transport Association (IATA).

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The flight crew licensing pro-cedure is well underway but it is likely to be year-end

before revised notices of proposed amendments (NPA) are available. This is seriously eating into the time available to implement changes to FCL regulations, which still need to be com-pleted by April 2012. The problem is not limited to those who are regulated but also to the national authorities, which are required to ensure compliance with the new EAsA regulations.

Historically national authorities have been unable to adjust with the speed now required. It should be remembered that the EC legal process is tortuous and the process time needed from acceptable NpA to European law will be at least one year – likely date is now at some point in 2011.

The situation is far worse with flight operations. The closing date for com-ments in this area was significantly later than FCL and therefore the timescales rather more compressed. Many of the

proposed changes in this area will be very time consuming for operators to introduce, not least in the area of flight time limitations.

In just a few years operators have moved from national requirements to JAR Operations to EU Operations, and now to EAsA Operations. One really does begin to wonder if there is an ele-ment of over-regulation in this sector.

Times are financially very difficult for most of the world’s airlines and they are no longer in a position to employ the required numbers of staff to ensure speedy adoption of new requirements. Indeed, it is important that those issues with safety considerations are given pri-ority attention.

ApproachThe time has come for the European Commission to adopt a more rational approach to the new regulations. When it instructed EAsA to take over the rule-making process for FCL and flight opera-tions it had no idea what it was asking,

and EAsA failed to understand the scope of the task with which it was presented. Thus we have had many delays and changes in response dates. And yet the Commission will still not agree to an extension of the implementation date.

The problem was compounded by the addition of extra tasks for EAsA, including aerodromes and ATMs, before earlier requirements were completed and without adequate funding or staff num-bers to meet the time-scales laid down – a rather typical political approach.

The fault is not all with the Commis-sion. some believe that the Agency took on board some responsibilities, which were not required by the Commission and that this dissipated staffing arrange-ments at a time when everyone’s hand was needed at the wheel.

It is still difficult to understand why so few EAsA staff were allocated initially to the task of introducing the regulations for FCL and flight operations. Even more difficult to grasp is the current complete lack of practical professional FCL and

Closing dates for comments on flight operations and flight crew licensing NpAs have passed. EAsA is now intent on responding and making amendments in light of the responses. But the process is proving slow and painful, writes Peter Moxham.

EASA Flight Ops And Flight Crew licensing – Where Are We Now?

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flight operations expertise in Cologne. Having a balance of legal and practical expertise available within the Agency could have saved a good deal of time and difficulty.

This is not a criticism of the lawyers actually involved, all of which have given more of their own time to these matters than anyone has a right to expect. Where will you find staff of national authorities handling telephone enquiries at 21.00 on a Friday, or dealing with extensive e-mail communications way outside normal work hours?

Despite the foregoing it is becom-ing clear that some mechanisms will have to be installed to spread the introduction of the new EAsA regula-tions over a longer period, perhaps by the acceptance of grandfather rights or some similar rule. It will be for EAsA to make proposals to the EC and for the Commission to lay these before parlia-ment. But it remains very important for those in the front line of flight opera-tions and training to lobby for these proposals when they are made public, to be given due consideration by those in Brussels who are responsible.

It is most important for industry to be kept informed by EAsA of its thoughts and for meaningful consultation to take place before proposals are passed to the Commission.

There is very good reason for all to closely watch developments over the next few months and to give very care-ful consideration to the revised NpAs when they become available.

ExchangeIn a recent exchange between the Agency and the Commission, it was apparent that the Agency was aware of its deficiencies and problems. The Com-mission completely failed to understand that by continually adding to EAsA’s tasks without providing adequate fund-ing it was creating a future problem, which would probably leave industry with many pieces to pick up. Although many national authorities have reduced their workforces in expectation of EAsA taking regulatory control, they will be forced to undertake their present respon-sibilities for longer than originally envis-aged, with all the consequent difficulties this will cause.

In september 2009 the situation was recognised by the Commission

and jointly with EAsA, they produced a document for submission to EAsA management board on the way forward. This document recognised the need to prioritise the process, in particular to concentrate on areas which affect commercial air transport. It is yet to be decided exactly how this will work in practice but if carried through, the pro-posals could lead to more time for both the national authorities and industry to address the various changes and pro-vide a greater chance for the new regu-lations to be introduced in a practical manner.

FailingFrom an industry standpoint EAsA seems to be failing to communicate and discuss some of the more serious issues.

In professional pilot training the requirement for all persons involved in pilot training outside the EU to hold EAsA appropriate licences and ratings led to one of the highest levels of com-ments in the recent NpAs. Concern is mounting at the complete lack of com-munication with stakeholders on this subject. Indeed the implication is that EAsA believes that there is a serious safety issue here. There is no evidence, however, to support this and, if it is applied, then the European airlines and more significantly the corporate aviation sector will be seriously affected.

some 33% of all European pilots gaining

their initial licences receive some training

outside of the EU.

Image credit: CTC Aviation.


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pean pilots gaining their initial licences receive some training outside of the EU. There is nothing new in this, it has been the case for many years, but in the cor-porate sectors the number of simulators available for corporate aircraft is minimal. Indeed for almost all types the only type rating simulator capability is outside Europe and using largely FAA qualified instructors.

Again there is no evidence of any safety implications, but if EAsA contin-ues on its present course then type train-ing will revert to using actual aircraft, and that most certainly is a safety issue.

It is essential that EAsA discusses its proposal with stakeholders, not just by giving its own presentations at its own events, but also by undertaking mean-ingful discussions with those involved. It has long been recognised by industry that EAsA may employ first class legal minds but it has totally failed to include in its staff people with practical back-grounds in either flight operations or flight crew training.

In one area EAsA is making some progress and that is in establishing a process of standardisation to be applied across all EC member state national authorities. This is key to the future standing of EAsA regulations. There must not be allowed to occur techni-cal situations, which allow those being regulated to “shop” around the various authorities to achieve the most satisfac-tory technical solution. It is likely that there will be shopping for the best finan-cial deal, but it is extremely important that the actual regulations are applied in the same manner across all members of the EU. This is well recognised and the standardisation inspection teams are already being established with regard to FCL and flight operations. These teams need “teeth” to ensure that the system works or all the advantages of EAsA over JAA will disappear.

It is hoped that the EAsA breakout session at EATs this year will allow the concerns of industry to be better under-stood by those in positions of responsi-bility in Cologne, and that delegates will raise their concerns face-to-face. EAsA has agreed to this breakout because it accepts that there is a lot of misun-derstanding and misinformation in the industry. Hopefully industry will respond with a meaningful input. cat

1Executive Corner

NEWSCIVIL SIMULATION & TRAINING

Issue no.21 Fall/Winter 2009-2010

one step ahead

CAE’s Training Centre Operations

IN THIS ISSUE

Executive Corner From the dream to the Dreamliner

Featured Service CAE’s training centre operations

Technology Developments New CAE engineering capability to reduce risk for

prototype aircraft development

Training DevelopmentsCompetency-based aviation training solutions –

a potential standard for a non–standardized world

Regional Spotlight CAE Brussels training centre

Customer FocusCAE’s new 360° Command Centre

News & Notes

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2 Feature Story

At CAE, our mission is to help fulfill this passion. Our focus is to continually develop the knowledge and skills that enable pilots, cabin crew, maintenance technicians, and dispatchers to deliver the utmost in customer satisfaction with ever-improving safety and operational efficiency.

We offer the complete range of training resources that can transport you from “the Dream” to the captain’s seat in the Dreamliner … or an A380 or any other advanced technology commercial or business aircraft of today and tomorrow.

Our entire portfolio of products and services is aviation career-centric. If you are just starting on the path to a commercial aviation career, we offer ab initio programs through CAE Global Academy – the world’s largest network of ab-initio schools. If you are a professional pilot transitioning to a new aircraft, we provide operationally oriented type rating training on more than 115 configurations at 23 training centres, as well the most flight simulation training devices (FSTDs) fielded with airline and corporate aviation customers on five continents. Is it refresher or recurrent you need? CAE’s e-Learning courses can save travel time and expense. Our CAE Flightscape software can translate your real-time flight data into operations and training curriculum enhancements. And if your flight department is seeking to fill short- or long-term staffing slots with the highest-quality crews available, we have proven pilot screening and pilot provisioning programs.

No one else has CAE’s flexibility to meet your training needs. For example, if your fleet requires 2.5 simulators to handle transition and recurrent regulatory demands, you could opt to purchase three CAE 5000 or 7000 Series simulators, and we can assist you in marketing the spare time to third-party clients. Or you might purchase two simulators and use one of the training centres in CAE’s global network to address your additional crew needs until your fleet growth justifies another in-house device. We can even help you finance your training infrastructure needs, and manage the schoolhouse for you so you can concentrate on your core competencies of passenger and cargo service.

Our full-flight simulators and CAE SimfinityTM integrated procedures trainers (IPTs) and flight training devices (FTDs) – which use the same software as our full-flight simulators – lead the industry in technology innovation and life-cycle cost. We’ve just completed in-plant acceptance for Japan Airlines’ first Boeing 787 Dreamliner simulator. Our engineering team has successfully met the complexity challenge of developing more than 40 prototype aircraft simulators. Some simulation equipment manufacturers have yet to attempt a prototype project.

In the current difficult economic period, our Customer Advisory Board is emphatically telling us they need partners like CAE to help lower their operating costs and enhance efficiency. A few in our industry suggest that airlines can perhaps save with

less-capable training devices. But will a less-for-less approach meet the critical need for improving safety and effectiveness as aircraft are becoming more complex, airport terminal areas more congested, and the pilot pool less experienced?

At CAE, our goal and our customers’ goal has always been more for less. We want to understand our customers’ evolving business models better, and be ever-closer to your philosophies and procedures. That is why we have shifted more of our resources to the regions where our customers are located. We are empowering front-line regional leaders with the flexibility and responsiveness to leverage the entirety of CAE’s holistic capabilities to tailor operator-defined training solutions.

We offer the civil aviation industry’s only comprehensive, integrated suite of products and services because one solution cannot fit the diverse needs of our customers. Prospective students, pilots, cabin crew, maintainers, dispatchers, airline and corporate flight departments, and training organizations will choose the options from CAE’s portfolio that best suit their unique requirements and keep them one step ahead.

There is, of course, one common dream that we will all continue to share: the passion for safe flying.

– Jeff Roberts

From the Dream to the Dreamliner

2 Executive Corner

Our entire portfolio of products and services is aviation career-centric

The passion for flying that people in the aviation community share is often part of a lifelong pursuit. It may have begun with the first sighting of a silver bird cruising overhead or that maiden aircraft flight as a child. “That’s what I want to do. I want to fly airplanes.”

Jeff Roberts, Group President, Civil Simulation Products, Training and Services, CAE

3Executive Corner

CAE’s Training Centre Operations On-site technical and engineering support enables JetBlue to focus on core competency

Core competencies. Businesses in every sector of the economy are seeking to focus on what they do best and task reliable partners to handle the rest.

At JetBlue, their core competency is flying passengers safely and efficiently on a growing number of routes across the Americas, including training highly qualified pilots, cabin crew, and aircraft maintenance technicians for their Embraer E190 and Airbus A320 fleets. “Since JetBlue’s inception, our mission has been customer service excellence delivered by the airline world’s finest crews,” said Mike Barger, Senior Vice President Fleet Operations for JetBlue.

To support their network of 15 training devices at the airline’s Training Campus in Orlando, JetBlue turned to a partner whose core competencies include simulator engineering and maintenance – CAE.

CAE provides support for all of JetBlue’s training equipment at the Training Campus: seven Level D full-flight simulators (FFS), six Level 5 flight training devices (FTD), two full-size cabin trainers, and a 2,500 square-foot, 110,000-gallon swimming pool for ditching and water survival training.

CAE’s team of technicians and engineers in Orlando keeps the equipment available 99 percent of the time in a 24/7 operation, serving not only JetBlue crews, but also JetBlue’s third-party business partners.

The technical team follows a strict scheduled preventive maintenance schedule, developed and refined by CAE with its vast experience in training equipment support. Ask any flight instructor at JetBlue what to do when help is needed, and the answer is “2310”; that’s the extension to call at the Training Campus anytime an unexpected incident occurs, and a CAE team member is soon on the scene to resolve the issue.

CAE’s Training Centre Information System (TCIS) helps maintain accurate records of data required for annual and quarterly tests – as well as daily preflights, deficiencies, and corrective action for all training devices – to comply with Federal Aviation Regulations (FAR) Part 60. CAE’s system provides real-time metrics and reports, enables maintenance scheduling, and provides web access to all simulator information. The CAE support team at JetBlue also has an on-site engineering capability, enabling a more rapid response to changes in training requirements. For example, check airmen at JetBlue rely on CAE engineers to translate their lesson plans for standardized training

into the automated instructor page system. This permits the instructor to devote more time observing the flight crew.

The engineers at JetBlue’s Training Campus provide improvements to simulation software to meet ever-increasing demands for realistic training scenarios, including malfunction development, new instructor station features, software revisions, visual database updates, and conformance with airplane fleet configuration (such as the autoland and steep approach enhancements to Embraer’s E190 aircraft). CAE’s engineering and customer service organizations are also available to assist the on-site team.

CAE has developed an unprecedented expertise in all areas of training centre operations from managing a global network of 23 training centres on five continents, equipped with more than 140 full-flight simulators. In addition to JetBlue, CAE supports training centre operations for Air Canada, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and UPS.

CAE’s training centre operations offers airlines an array of services from turnkey solutions to specific services depending upon the customers’ unique operating needs and requirements:

• Training centre management and software • Instructor services • Third-party sales • Facility management consulting and services

CAE can efficiently handle every aspect of the day-to-day operation of a training centre, from customer greeting to crew training and everything in between. Alternatively, CAE can offer a more targeted scope, such as simulator maintenance.

Now in its fifth year of operation, CAE at JetBlue’s Orlando Training Campus continues to excel in its mission to meet the training needs for the flight and cabin crews of JetBlue Airways. Lee Baldwin, CAE Manager of Engineering and Maintenance, notes, “CAE’s engineering and support team has demonstrated remarkable ability to improve the crew training environment while minimizing interruptions and maximizing reliability.”

3Featured Service

4 Feature Story

New CAE engineering capability to reduce risk for prototype aircraft development

Prototype aircraft present a unique, high-risk development challenge. Now aircraft original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) have a new suite of tools to help reduce risks through key phases of a new aircraft’s progression.

“CAE’s Augmented Engineering Environment™ (AEE) leverages the company’s expertise in modelling and simulation, systems integration, and testing of multiple generations of avionics systems. Our partnerships with many OEMs to develop training solutions in parallel with aircraft development have provided CAE an in-depth understanding of this dynamic environment,” says Mark Soodeen, Head of New Business Initiatives for Civil Aviation Services at CAE.

The benefit of CAE’s Augmented Engineering Environment to the OEM is the capability to identify and resolve integration issues as early as possible in the aircraft development program, minimizing more costly downstream risk. The AEE accelerates the cockpit design cycle by integrating control panels, avionics, all aircraft systems, a visual environment, and aircraft dynamics. Flight test time can be optimized via cockpit procedural evaluation, windshear testing, and aircraft operational evaluation in the simulator. And select certification tests such as head-up display and enhanced vision can be performed on the ground.

CAE has delivered full-flight simulators and other training devices and services for more

than 40 prototype aircraft. Elements of the AEE capability have been applied to the Airbus A340/A380 for flight test rehearsal and the Embraer E170 fly-by-wire control laws and aerodynamics models, as well as other programs.

Bombardier’s CSeries Complete Integrated Aircraft Systems Test Aircraft (CIASTA) program will apply the full AEE capability to an engineering development simulator and a prototype FFS, as well as additional CAE engineering design and support services. The CSeries, which Bombardier estimates will consume 20 percent less fuel and be the “greenest” in its 100-149 seat class, is scheduled to enter service in 2013 with launch customer Deutsche Lufthansa AG. “CAE’s modelling and simulation-based solutions will help us accelerate and enhance the efficiency of the CSeries aircraft development, all while reducing cycle time and overall costs associated with testing and validation,” stated James Hoblyn, President, Bombardier Customer Services & Specialized and Amphibious Aircraft.

The CSeries engineering development framework will initially be populated with generic simulation models to evaluate system design and integration concepts. As supplier hardware and software become incrementally available, the generic models will be replaced with actual aircraft components.

“Today’s commercial aircraft have a high degree of complex systems, not only in

the cockpit, but networked with real-time maintenance data and cabin crew systems as well. CAE understands the complexities of new aircraft development, the iterative updates, and configuration management challenges. We have the proven ability to integrate multiple supplier elements that use different computing languages, operating systems and interfaces,” notes Soodeen.

“The AEE capability enables CAE to manage the test environment using a higher level of integration. This allows the aircraft manufacturer to concentrate their resources on aircraft development activities,” Soodeen says.

CAE Augmented Engineering Environment™ to enhance design, system integration, flight tests, and service entry phases for today’s complex aircraft

4 Technology Developments

Nathalie Bourque, CAE Vice President, Public Affairs and Global Communications (3rd from right), at the groundbreaking for Bombardier’s CIASTA facility in Mirabel, Canada. From left to right: Mr. Jean Teasdale, Vice President, Real Estate and Commercial Services, ADM, Mr. Hubert Meilleur, Mayor of Mirabel, Mr. Guy C, Hachey, President and Chief Operating Officer, Bombardier Aerospace, Mr. Mario Laframboise, Member of Parliament of Argenteuil-Papineau-Mirabel, Mr. Benjamin Boehm, Vice President, Programs, Commercial Aircraft, Mrs. Bourque, Mrs. Denise Beaudoin, Member of the Provincial Parliament of Mirabel, Mrs. Madeleine Caron, Assistant Deputy Minister, MDEIE. (Photo courtesy of Bombardier)

Image courtesy of Bombardier

Great strides have been made within the industry to improve airline safety standards over the past 20 years. Today’s airplanes are well designed, reliable and have ample redundancy. These advancements have increased the flight crew’s situational awareness and reduced their workload, leading to 20 percent fewer crew-related incidents.

However, the aviation training community has seen other challenges emerge. Pilot training technology has significantly outpaced training regulations. Training providers recognize that prescriptive hourly requirements, pilot training methods and evaluation criteria have not kept pace with the huge improvements made in training technology and simulation fidelity.

One potential solution that simulation and training forums around the world are discussing is competency-based training, a method that places emphasis on benchmarked standards of performance focused on what a pilot will do in the workplace after completion of training.

Is competency-based training realistically achievable throughout today’s global aviation community? And, ultimately, is standardization possible in a non-standardized world? At CAE, we believe globally standardized competency-based training is achievable.

Although most modern military training is “mission-oriented,” competency-based application to civil flight training is still fairly new and its true potential is still being investigated. Competency-based programs mandate the continuous assessment of knowledge, skill, and attitudinal (KSA) competencies against benchmarked standards, using state-of-the-art tools such as learning management systems (LMS) to ensure the trainee continuously matures

as he or she progresses through a given program of instruction.

Existing prescriptive training programs actually do very little to confirm that the trainee has mastered the required KSAs associated with a specific task. Seasoned instructors and examiners acknowledge it is difficult to fully evaluate a pilot in a narrow window of four hours with a limited set of maneuvers. Current tests and checkrides are basically “spot checks” along the training path. By contrast, competency-based training is a powerful methodology that provides the training organization with significant tools to customize, adapt and steer the training to achieve optimal results for any given individual.

CAE’s in-depth involvement with the development of an MPL (Multi-crew Pilot Licensing) program has provided an opportunity to investigate alternative means of training using competency-based training and assessment as a foundation. CAE has focused on features that form the core of competency-based training, such as:

• comprehensive aircrew selection process;

• aviation English language training; • application of instructional systems

design processes; • benchmarked standards of

performance, focusing on the end goal;

• scenario-based training; • standardized testing and a satisfactory

completion of training based on the achievement of all specified components.

To help address the dramatic rise in the need for qualified pilots in the coming years, CAE is readying deployment of its MPL program using competency-based training solutions to address essential training methods and

supporting evaluation criteria so that pilots are fully prepared for their job at an airline.

CAE’s proposed MPL and existing airline transport pilot license (ATPL) programs will incorporate the CAE Aircrew Selection System (CASS). The programs will also feature a robust global quality system that supports managers with a set of tools and priorities in day-to-day operations. This system is specifically designed to augment safety initiatives, reveal latent threats to the organization, confirm program execution and instructor proficiency and provide guidance for long-term actions. All of CAE’s MPL and ATPL programs will include a comprehensive and fully integrated planning and data collection system as well as a flight operations manual with common practices and procedures to be used throughout CAE’s global network of flight training organizations.

Another essential for competency-based training is program oversight. National Aviation Authorities (NAAs) must keep a continuous look at a training program’s processes, quality system, courseware, training tools and instruction. Testing of students must consist of a comprehensive evaluation of developing knowledge and skills. CAE places a tremendous emphasis on coordinating with regional and local aviation authorities, since many International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)-recommended training standards are actually taskings to the NAAs.

The overarching objective of competency-based training is to provide the airlines with pilots qualified to operate a multi-engine, turbine-powered, multi-crew aircraft in all expected operational environments. CAE’s training programs will deliver a competency-based solution that ensures the highest global standard.

– Adapted from a presentation at the 2009 Asia Pacific Aviation Training Symposium by Kris Van den Bergh, Vice President, Pilot Provisioning, CAE.

5Training Developments

Competency-based aviation training solutions – a potential standard for a non–standardized world

6 Feature Story

CAE Brussels Training Centre: excellence in the capital of Europe

6 Regional Spotlight

More than 80 years ago, in 1927, the year Charles Lindbergh flew across the Atlantic Ocean, the first pilot school in the Benelux countries was established – the Nationale Luchtvaart School (NLS), or National School of Aviation. Today the tradition of aviation training innovation in the heart of Europe is carried forward by the dedicated expert team at the CAE Brussels Training Centre.

The Brussels centre provides type-rating initial, recurrent and cross-crew qualification training for flight crews and maintenance technicians from nearly 100 passenger and cargo airline customers throughout Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and other regions.

The facilities include high-reliability, Joint Aviation Authorities (JAA)-approved full-flight simulators and training devices for: • A300-B4• A320• A330• A340• ATR 42• ATR 72• AVRO RJ 85

• AVRO RJ 100• B737NG• B737 Classic• B757• B767• C130H/L382G• Dornier 328TP

The CAE Brussels Training Centre also delivers EASA-approved Part 147 maintenance training (Category B1, B2 and C type) for various aircraft types: B737-300/400/500, B737-600/700/800/900, B757-200/300, B767-200/300, Airbus A318/319/320/321, L382 (Hercules) – both civil and military.

Brussels is the headquarters for the CAE Global Academy, an alliance with leading ab-initio flight schools in strategic locations

around the world. The academies’ training environment is practical and focused on the operational aspects of commercial flying, using modern technology and aircraft as well as industry best practices for consistently high-quality graduates.

The CAE Global Academy at Brussels was part of CAE’s 2008 acquisition of the Sabena Flight Academy (SFA), which included Flight Training Organization (FTO) and Type Rating Training Organization (TRTO) components. Originally Sabena Airlines’ in-house operation since 1953, SFA is one of Europe’s oldest and most respected pilot training organizations.

In 1991, the Brussels leaders launched an ab-initio training school halfway around the

world in Arizona. With a capacity for 400 cadets a year, the Mesa facility is now part of the CAE Global Academy network and is approved by the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), JAA, the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC), and India’s Directorate General Civil Aviation (DGCA). The Brussels academy has an additional capacity for 200 students. SFA Africa (Douala, Cameroon) is now also part of the 10-site CAE Global Academy alliance.

CAE acquired the Schreiner Friendship Simulation Company (FSC) resources in 2001, including facilities at BRU which are now part of the CAE Brussels Training Centre, and the NLS in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, which also operates as part of the CAE Global Academy.

The Brussels team also initiated CAE’s pilot provisioning service, and provides flight crews with demonstrated skills and competence to meet operator staffing needs. Pilot provisioning reduces flight departments’ recruiting and training costs, and helps ensure continuity of flight operations.

The CAE Brussels Training Centre is conveniently located at Brussels Airport (IATA: BRU, ICAO: EBBR) in Zanventem, about 11 kilometers northeast of the city center. The Brussels Airport has been selected in a passenger survey as the “Best in Europe” by the Airports Council International / International Air Transport Association (ACI/IATA). And, thanks in part to Brussels’ central role in European Union government affairs, pilots and maintainers who train at the Brussels centre can enjoy some of the best food in the world.

CAE builds on the pioneering legacy of Sabena Flight Academy and Schreiner FSC with world-class simulator training, ab initio academies, and pilot provisioning to meet airlines’ crew needs.

7Executive Corner

Early every morning, the CAE customer service team gathers in front of one of several large display screens in an expansive room in the commercial aviation hub in Montreal. The screens provide a complete visual representation of every active customer simulator project around the world – performance data, repairs and spares issues, warranty claims, safety items, installation handover status.

CAE supports more than 900 training devices for 100+ customers in 40 countries on five continents.

The new CAE 360° Command Centre, where the daily stand-up customer support meeting is conducted, is the latest of multiple steps CAE has taken to capture and coalesce simulator data and provide unprecedented visibility for both the company and its customers. The initiatives are an outgrowth of ongoing feedback from CAE’s Customer Advisory Board, Technical Advisory Board, User’s Conferences, and individual customers.

The CAE 360° Command Centre was unveiled at the most recent CAE User’s Conference this past summer, and complements these support implementations:

• CAE 360° Customer Report Card: the customer’s window into the Command Centre with a full listing of deliverables in an easy-to-read dashboard.

• CAE Customer Portal: customized, up-to-date information on a customer’s current and past projects, parts repair status, and access to our new on-line spares ordering system, as well as reference material such as the Field Service Bulletins (FSB) library.

• Hand-Over to Customer Support (HOTCS) process: providing a smooth, complete and consistent transition from pre-RFT (ready-for-training) to the operational phase of the flight simulation training device. The process incorporates remote access so technicians in Montreal can collaborate in real-time with CAE and customer colleagues at the installation site.

• Voice of the Customer report: bringing feedback and lessons learned from our customers’ experiences to CAE’s design groups to enable continuous improvement of the current simulator fleet and influencing future designs.

• Increased Field Service Bulletin releases: highlighting solutions to issues our customers share in common to keep everyone’s fleets up to date.

The CAE 360° Command Centre provides a new level of problem-resolution efficiency and communication of customer service priorities throughout the enterprise. CAE President and Chief Executive Officer Marc Parent has a dedicated screen in his office which constantly displays the Command Centre big picture. Jeff Roberts, Group President, Civil Simulation Products, Training and Services, has a dedicated screen in his office as well.

“CAE has been recognized for many years for providing our customers with the most innovative, industry-leading support solutions,” says Jean Bergeron, Manager, Customer Support. “The 360° Command Centre is one more game-changing tool for CAE to continue to leverage our global technological capabilities and raise the bar on customer focus.”

Command Centre is one of a series of initiatives to raise CAE’s best-in-class service to a new level

CAE’s new 360° Command Centreprovides comprehensive customer support view

7Customer Focus

8 Feature StoryCAE, St-Laurent, Quebec, Canada H4T 1G6 • [email protected] • cae.com • Civil Simulation and Training News is a publication of CAE. © 2009 CAE All rights reserved. NC921 – 0401-P03

Chris Stellwag, Rick Adams, Heather Dane, Editors Cynthia Gallo, Jimmy Tigani, Graphic Design

Reader feedback and contributions welcome

Marc Parent succeeds Robert E. Brown as President and CEO of CAE

Marc Parent succeeded Robert E. Brown as President and Chief Executive Officer of CAE as of September 30. Mr. Brown will continue as an advisor until the end of December 2009.

Under Mr. Brown’s leadership since 2004, CAE’s annual revenue grew 77 percent to C$1.7 billion in fiscal 2009. CAE also launched more than C$1.6 billion in R&D projects. “I am privileged to follow in Mr. Brown’s footsteps,” said Mr. Parent. “I am also proud to work with the men and women of CAE who are the best in the world in their field. Together we will continue to grow our company by leading in our core markets, listening to our customers, leveraging our core competencies in other industries, and investing in innovation.”

Mr. Parent joined CAE in 2005 as Group President, Simulation Products, responsible for the design and manufacture of simulation products for the civil and military markets. His role was expanded in 2006 when he was appointed Group President, Simulation Products and Military Training & Services. He was promoted to Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer in 2008 and became responsible for all four of CAE’s segments as well as new growth initiatives. He also became a member of CAE’s Board of Directors.

Mr. Parent has 25 years of experience in the aerospace industry. He began his career at Bombardier Aerospace where he held senior positions of increasing responsibility in engineering, management, product development, and operations at Bombardier’s facilities in Montréal, Toronto, Wichita, and Tucson.

Mr. Parent is Chairman of the Board of Directors of Aéro Montréal, Montréal’s aerospace cluster. He is also Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Aerospace Industries Association of Canada (AIAC) and a member of the Board of Directors of the Canadian Association of Defence and Security Industries (CADSI).

CAE, the Solidarity Fund QFL, and SGF create a financing tool and fund for civil flight simulators

CAE, the Solidarity Fund QFL, and Société générale de financement du Québec (SGF) have created a limited partnership to provide qualifying customers competitive lease financing for CAE’s civil flight simulation equipment. The investments of the Solidarity Fund QFL and SGF are within the framework of a new joint fund of C$500 million announced in the latest budget of the Québec Government.

Qualifying customers may access financing under this structure, which would be in addition to financing of up to 85% of the equipment value available from Export Development Canada.

“The Solidarity Fund QFL is convinced that this new financing tool will allow CAE to improve its service offering with turnkey solutions for its customers. This initiative comes at the right time, in the current economic climate where capital is more difficult to find,” said Yvon Bolduc, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Solidarity Fund QFL.

“This innovating financing solution boosts Québec exports and represents the opportunity to preserve jobs in a sector of activity with high economic impact,” said SGF President and General Manager, Pierre Shedleur.

“Customers expect CAE to lead the market with innovative solutions to help them manage ever-changing conditions. This new financing tool and fund make our solutions even more accessible,” said Jeff Roberts, CAE Group President, Civil Simulation Products, Training and Services.

CAE Achieves In-Plant Acceptance on first JAL Boeing 787 Full-Flight Simulator

The first of two Japan Airlines (JAL) full-flight simulators (FFS) for the Boeing 787 “Dreamliner” aircraft has achieved in-plant customer acceptance at CAE’s production facility in Montreal, Canada, and is ready to ship to JAL’s training centre at Haneda Airport.

JAL has ordered two CAE 7000 Series Boeing 787 simulators, which feature CAE’s TrueTM electric motion system and next-generation visual solution, including the CAE Tropos-6000 visual system and Liquid Crystal on Silicon (LCoS) projectors. JAL’s Boeing 787 simulators also feature the CAE True™ Environment air traffic control simulation. In addition, JAL has ordered a CAE Simfinity™ Boeing 787 integrated procedures trainer (IPT) and a suite of CAE Simfinity™ virtual maintenance trainers to provide a comprehensive Boeing 787 training solution for both flight and maintenance crews.

News & Notes Marc Parent (right)

has succeeded Robert E. Brown

as President and CEO

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Simulator buyers today are increasingly into counting “beans” rather than pixels,

being more focused on life-cycle cost than the front-end acquisition price tag. And they are more inclined to out-source pilot and maintainer training to independent providers. But they never, hopefully, allow operating profit consid-erations to override the essential qual-ity necessary to maintain safety in the skies and around the terminal.

“The three criteria we always see from customers are quality, price, and after-sales support. But quality is still the first consideration,” says Dean Fisher, CAE’s vice president, sales and marketing, civil solutions. With the emphasis shifting from the Level D/Level 7 full flight simulator (FFS) to applying a suite of devices to the train-ing task, “customers are looking for quality and fidelity across the product line” – including fixed-based trainers,

desktop, classroom, and even internet delivery.

“You want to be able to transfer more training to lower level devices,” notes Fisher, “but with consistency, so there is no negative training taking place. Over the course of time, the investment pays for itself much quicker and keeps the training program in lockstep with the aircraft fleet.” Fisher estimates 80-85% of recent procurements involve multi-device solutions.

Buying simulators and lower-end training components piecemeal from multiple suppliers can make keeping concurrency more difficult, and users may lose confidence in the training they are receiving.

BrotherlyFisher suggests one area of cost savings is for flight departments to “talk with your brothers on the other side of the hangar.” Maintenance and pilot devices can share some simulation software and even combination hardware.

“Commercial acquisition techniques

Training departments are becoming increasingly cost-conscious. But training fidelity still drives safety. Rick Adams reports on global tendencies in buying and selling flight simulation training devices, a complex process muddied by economics, convenience and sometimes, even politics.

Buyers’ Market –Or How To Get More For Less

Above

Quality is still the first consideration when

purchasing simulators.

Image credit: FlightSafety International.

Left

Customers are looking to apply a suite of

devices to the training task.

Image credit: CAE.

are all over the board,” Mike Coligny comments. Coligny is vice president, new technology, Merlin Simulation. With major air carriers in North America, Western Europe and Australia, the competitive procurement process is fairly well defined. Regional airline partners tend to piggyback on the majors’ process – American Eagle with AMR, for example, or Jazz with Air Canada. The acquisition sequence in North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) nations is described by most as generally tightly control-led to prevent unfair competition and fraud.

But in other parts of the world the ground rules are, shall we say, “less defined.” One industry veteran, whom we’ll call John Smith, says that Eastern Europe and developed Asia (China, Japan, Korea, Singapore, India) “are more ‘flexible’. There are often inconsistencies in the procurement process depending on what organization is in control.” He adds that “South America and the Middle East have very undisciplined processes, and buy-ing decisions are often made on the basis of personal relation-ships or very subjective criteria.”

In some countries, Smith says, “Our price has leaked to the competition. Decisions in our favor were reversed because of personal relationships at high levels. And I’ve seen decisions made solely on politics with little regard for performance, cost, or delivery.”

Coligny, who was previously CEO of desktop trainer devel-oper FlyIt, agrees. “Each country has its peculiarities. Trying to win a competition not on your home soil and with a company that does not know you, is time consuming and costly.” Coligny says a typical practice is to contract with representatives who are “familiar” with the customer and local buying nuances.

CAE’s Fisher says: “The goal is to make sure we are as close to the customers as we can [be] to understand their training model, and to anticipate their needs in advance.”

Above

Bell 206B3 simulator featuring motion and dome-shaped 180º visuals.

Image credit: Merlin Simulation, Inc.


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www.aerosociety.com/conference

International Working Group Conference

Fixed Wing and Rotary Wing FSTDs: On the Road to Harmonisation

This Flight Simulation Conference will examine and progress the issues raised by the progress in the design, use and accreditation of Flight Simulation Training Devices (FSTDs). The main emphasis will be given to lower order, fi xed base devices.

Commercial pressures are ensuring that fl ight crew training is conducted in the most cost-effective training devices. Concerns over rotary wing operational safety trends are moving regulators to consider more extensive use of fi xed base simulators. This trend is in the civil and military world.

Wednesday 18 – Thursday 19 November 2009No.4 Hamilton Place, London W1J 7BQ, UK

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CAE, which has delivered simulators to more than 100 air-lines, training organizations, and aircraft manufacturers (accord-ing to the Civil Aviation Training magazine census), has sales and engineering support resources deployed worldwide. “Hav-ing a local presence in the region provides the level of lifecycle support more carriers are looking for.” It also avoids the potential bottleneck of a single central supply depot.

SkewerA subsystem vendor who prefers anonymity, but whom we shall name Jones, says it is not just the buyer who can skewer a deal. “There have been times when our product was clearly superior and offered the most benefit to the customer, but the integra-tor selected the system that yielded the highest gross margin for him. Even out-of-spec products have been selected just to put more margin in the pocket of the integrator.

“It’s very frustrating when a competitor wins by offering a ridiculously low price or by promising performance he knows he cannot achieve. But once the contract is awarded the customer must save face by agreeing to contract additions or by ultimately accepting an out-of-spec system.”

Subsystem vendors often end up “selling [themselves] twice” – first to the system integrator, then to the end user. Fortunately, Jones adds, “most end users care a lot about what system is pro-posed to them through the integrator.”

The economics-driven “good enough” philosophy of some training departments is potentially dangerous, Jones suggests. “The consequences of poor training are severe, even life threat-ening, when performance trumps cost.”

“You can only cut down on so much ‘fringe’ before the device becomes less than perfect for the requirement,” adds Merlin’s Coligny.

“The most unreasonable demand is the requirement to design, develop, and fabricate a simulator to a high-end require-ment and fund the entire effort up front,” Coligny states. “Only the largest companies can do this, and it leads to high-priced simulators and limited competition.”

The buyer’s simulation technical gurus still tend to have the

most influence, writing the specification and evaluating proposals. Some less-experienced airlines, which have not yet bought an FFS, will bring in a consultant. Other players at the table usually include pilots, training center manager and a senior executive with budget responsi-bility; sometimes flight instructors, simu-lator engineers, and quality assurance. On the vendor side, a proposal team leader, subject matter experts, finance, and contracts personnel.

Industry consensus is that “there is clearly more emphasis placed on cost.” When nice-to-have training device fea-tures are discussed, a buyer’s financial representatives more often ask: “Are these really necessary?”

Like most businesses in the strug-gling global economy, carriers want more for less. “They expect a level of dif-ferentiation,” Fisher explains. “But any premium for such features is no longer valid.” cat

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When procuring complex training systems, there is great potential for mis-understanding to arise between buyers and sellers. Here are a few buyer-beware / seller-beware issues to consider when writing specifications, evaluating bids, nego-tiating contracts, and managing program execution – recommended by a veteran of “countless” simulator procurements.

“Consider the full package,” he advises. “Be very clear about what work must be done, what level of performance must be met, when it must be completed (and how completion is determined), how much is paid and when payment is due once the work is complete, and what happens if things break after completion.”• Scope of Work. Be clear about what is included and what is not included. Defining what is not included removes much ambiguity and potential for costs for items that don’t need to be delivered.• Technical Specifications. Research what is available in the market before specify-ing performance. “Some customers write pie-in-the-sky specifications that current technology simply cannot meet.” Vendors may respond with no bid, bid with a very high price, or bid with a good price but hope to convince the customer to accept lower performance once under contract.

“Specifications that are too general or vague are often no better than no spec at all.” Vendors will respond according to their own interpretation. “Some will plan to win the deal first and then, after receiving a contract, let the customer know what they are really getting.”

Specs too biased towards one particular vendor will cause others to no-bid the deal. Or some vendors may offer a compellingly low price but with a strategy to cut corners and try to “upsell” during program execution.• Be clear on how the technical performance will be measured. • Delivery Schedule & Payments. Some common ambiguities: Is payment due at shipment or on delivery? What defines “delivery” -- when the goods arrive or when the goods are fully tested?

If payment is tied to completion of an acceptance test, what discrepancies are allowed? What types of discrepancies will hold up payment?

If a down payment applies, when is it due? Once a milestone is reached, is pay-ment due X days after invoice date or X days after completion of an activity or test? What’s the penalty for late payment?• Testing and Acceptance. In many cases actual test procedures must be defined. Some specifications can be met or “unmet” depending on the testing procedure.• On-site Support. Be clear about what on-site support is needed during the installa-tion and integration of the system. For example, a display system provider may finish his on-site work, but his support is needed for the integration of other subsystems, like the image generator, motion system, host computer, etc.• Warranty. Clearly define warranty coverage and when warranty begins.• Terms and Conditions. Be sure that both buyer and seller understand and agree to the legal terms and conditions that apply to the deal.

Caveat Emptor, Caveat Venditor

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Reading the accident investi-gation report of the Spanair MD-80 crash at Madrid airport

makes one think: “it seems that nobody learns from history”.

taking off in an MD-80 without the flaps in t/O position has happened sev-eral times in the past, sometimes with the same catastrophic results. if one reads human factors literature, one notices that apparently similar situations provoke similar types of error and recurrences of similar accidents. this phenomenon is not restricted to aviation; other transport categories such as shipping and rail-ways experience the same [events], and of course we should not forget medicine (how many people lost the wrong arm or leg during amputation procedures?). What makes people do this? think about the following:

When i drive my car in indonesia,

the steering wheel is on the right hand side; in [mainland] europe it is on the left. When i went to europe recently, i opened the car door regularly at the wrong side. When indicating, [frequently] the wip-ers became active (to the great joy and applause of my son), since these handles are reversed with the indonesian rH driving vehicles.

When i returned home to Jakarta, again the same happened. this wrong behaviour pattern lasted several days, and occasionally (especially when tired) it happens unintentionally.

it seems that training for this kind of procedural event is not provid-ing a complete and satisfying result, especially not in the highly automatic cockpit of an aircraft, where we can basically “invent” failure combinations without any limit.

in classical training we have been

made to learn systems, sOPs and by-heart items until we were satisfactory in our aircraft knowledge. in the simu-lator we went through numerous v1, vr “cuts” and spent many hours flying on one engine only in twin-engine aircraft.

Honestly, what are the chances that an aircraft engine stops at v1, with zero thrust and an inextinguishable fire? engines normally fail with an observ-able history or a big bang, seldom at vr or v1. Of course there is plenty of value in these exercises and [they] are neces-sary, but i doubt if aircraft “fall out of the sky” due to engine failures.

Accidents [involve] a long chain of events before matters really go dramati-cally wrong. it is much more the complex systems and the man-machine interface and dialogue, which are the starting point of matters, and which in the end go wrong, often because pilots are faced

reading the accident investigation report of the spanair MD-80 crash at Madrid airport makes one wonder if anybody learns from history, writes Capt. Cor Blokzijl, director flight operations, Mandala Airlines. is it time to update conventional training?

Training For The automatedCockpit – Knowing OrUnderstanding Your aircraft?

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with situations which are difficult to comprehend or to understand.

For these reasons shouldn’t we focus on comprehending and understanding aircraft “behavioural patterns” and sys-tems integration with the human, instead of learning to know the aircraft?

My personal experience is that no matter which “magic” tools are used to train pilots, it is not equivalent to expos-ing pilots to scenarios, which have happened (worldwide). this approach was used during the enhanced safety through situation Awareness integra-tion in training (essAi) research in early 2000. this research proved that exposing the crew to day-to-day scenarios and equipping [them] with the right tools enhanced sA significantly. consider the following example:

We all are aware of the tragic acci-dent of AF447. Nobody knows yet what really happened. therefore pilots were exposed to a scenario with severe thun-derstorm turbulence, combined with unreliable speed indication in the simu-lator. After several seconds, due to tur-bulence, AP and AtHr were lost. Most pilots needed all their skills to keep “blue up” and “brown under”. Matters turned fatal when they tried to make a 180° turn to get out of the “unintentionally” entered cb.

this became an experience they would never forget and one which, i am confident, will help them cope, should they ever face such circumstances in real life. Any other teaching / training would not have had the same result.

Another example is the sr111 near Halifax. exposing pilots in the simulator to continuous smoke, which becomes so thick that one has to be within inches of the PFD to be able to control flight, is an experience they never forget.

these are dramatic examples, but even the simplest events can become valuable lessons when pilots are exposed to [them] and learn to understand the system and its interface.

it is therefore a legitimate ques-tion: should we not change our way of training pilots in the highly automated cockpit towards training based more on the man-machine interface and man-machine dialogue, rather than the mainly conventional way of training?

systems understanding is a way to solve problems. it clarifies relationships and interactions and departs from the

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should training be based more on the man-machine interface and dialogue?

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traditional way of knowing systems. it regards systems as integrated sets with irreducible attributes, and seeks to understand how systems maintain themselves in a changing environment - not by adapting randomly but by balancing available resources against the pressures, goals, constraints and opportunities.

the functioning or non-functioning of individual components in complex systems determines system-level out-comes. Understanding the dynamic influence of one system on the various other systems, will contribute towards the outcome of events. A key concept is that of system-level functionality or behaviour, which arises from the inter-dependencies in and among complex systems and which cannot be predicted on the basis of the (non) functionality of individual systems.

it would be very interesting to hear from experts in the field (readers of this magazine) if their companies have adopted a similar approach and the results, or simply to receive their opinions. Please send your reactions to: [email protected]

Capt. Cor BlokzijlDirector Flight OperationsMandala Airlines

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Right from the start the ideas kept flowing, with the keynote speech from Sherry Carbary, vice

president training and flight services, Boeing. She clearly expressed the Boeing view on the way forward. For decades simulator manufacturers have laboured to produce full flight simulators mounted on sophisticated motion platforms of increasing complexity and cost. Carbary asked: “Why is it pilots in the military around the world can train to fly and operate one of the world’s most complex flying machines - the Apache helicop-ter, in a fixed-base device with a motion cuing seat, at significantly lower cost and higher mobility, and yet we require a full six-axis motion base device to learn to fly a B737NG or A320?”

Soon after that question had bounced around the room, Jacques Drappier, vice president Airbus Training, clearly made the point that the industry as a whole

should never forget to train for the basics of manual flying, and that training pat-terns should reflect that.

There was an interesting juxtaposi-tion of views here: on the one hand, Boe-ing advocated that conversion training times could be reduced through the use of more effective training tools; Airbus stated that it would not seek reduction of training time if it compromised the abso-lute of safety / quality.

Both views are valid and the two viewpoints prompted lively debate around the conference. The drive to cut costs was fine, but there were several worried references to proposed increases in charges for the software provided by some aircraft OEMs to equipment manu-facturers and training providers. That might reduce costs for OEMs but not to end-users.

Another issue in which the industry must be proactive was identified by CTC, which pointed out that the generation of young talent now coming into the indus-try thinks and behaves differently from earlier groups. We would be well advised to understand how they learn and what they need to learn. We need to ensure that we either already have, or are willing to develop, appropriate learning tech-niques and tools. We must play to the undoubted strengths of this generation while being prepared to boost training in areas where there may have been less emphasis in earlier iterations of training.

ChallengesAlthough accidents and incidents are still statistically low in number, the decrease in the accident rate over recent decades seems to have slowed down. Technolo-gies such as GPWS and TCAS in their latest variants have significantly reduced events, and the integration of the “soft” skills such as CRM has brought consid-erable improvement. However, it is still a fact that in some 75% of accidents human factors have been a contributory cause. The conclusion is, therefore, that the next breakthrough in reducing the accident rate will have to come by addressing HF training in greater depth.

Safety management systems are key to establishing and maintaining a safety culture, and the way to do this was illus-trated by presentations from both ICAO and the local regulator, the Hong Kong Civil Aviation Department. Cathay Pacific Airways operators then described how to

Halldale conferences and CAT magazine aim to provide a stage for inventive thinking in training, preferably through the recognition of best practice. APATS 2009, an event run alongside Asian Aerospace in Hong Kong, was no exception. Chris Long reports.

Speaking In Absolutes – APATS 2009 Champions The Cause Of Safety

Left

Delegates enjoyed two busy days of Asia

Pacific training-related presentations.

Below

Norman Lo, Director-General of Civil

Aviation, Civil Aviation Department of

Hong Kong.

Organised by:

Silver Sponsors Bronze Sponsors

translate that principle into day-to-day operations. One critical step is to gather hard data to determine areas of potential weakness, and to address them before they lead to incidents or accidents.

The idea of evidence based training (EBT) is gathering momentum and Brit-ish Airways quoted excellent examples. This depends on creating a “just” cul-ture, where openness in reporting human error, which may not have lead to an inci-dent but which, in other circumstances, could have done so, allows the training system to address the potential problem before it becomes critical.

The importance given to this topic was reinforced by the presentation given by IATA on the IATA Training and Qual-ity Initiative (ITQI) progamme, which relies heavily on EBT. Its reach is grow-ing as the industry realises the potential benefits of adopting new approaches to safety and training.

ExhibitionThere was a wider range of exhibi-tors at APATS 2009, and the closeness of the conference room helped the flow between the constituent parts of the symposium, albeit amidst the bustle of Asian Aerospace. Networking was vis-ibly vigorous in the downtime between sessions. The opportunity to talk through any thought-provoking comments in the presentations with the peer group, and perhaps to find answers with exhibitors, makes for a profitable experience.

At a time of uncertainty and hard choices in the industry, APATS brought together experts and delegates alike to look closely at how the industry can not only survive, but also improve ready for the predicted demand for crews, which will follow the delivery of new aircraft fleets.

At APATS 2010 in Bangkok, there will no doubt be evidence of progress in these areas, and new issues to examine. We hope to see you there.

Facts and FiguresIn total 342 people attended APATS 2009 over the three days of the conference and exhibition including 79 airline staff repre-senting 33 international and regional air-lines, five national civil aviation authori-ties and five airframe manufacturers. Attendees’ time was split between the conference and exhibition, providing opportunities for both learning and busi-ness discussions.

Top

Keynote speaker – Boeing’s Sherry Carbary.

Center

Jacques Drappier, vice president Airbus

Training.

Below

Networking within the Training Pavilion at

Asian Aerospace.

All images: David Malley/Halldale Media.

In the teeth of difficult economic conditions, APATS continued its unbro-ken record of year-on-year growth with just over 20% increase in total attend-ees over 2008, indicating the strength of the event and the importance that is attached to training in the Asia Pacific Region.

This bodes well for the next APATS, which will take place at the fabulous Shangri-La Hotel in Bangkok on Septem-ber 14th and 15th 2010. cat


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The present decline in demand for pilots was foreseeable as most airlines never returned to

sponsoring changes since the last down-turn seven years ago. the collapse of the banking system, however, could not have been foreseen and the combination of these two events has caused the number one problem today.

to this scenario must be added other factors: Europe will have a new regulator whose proposals will affect any training for the European market; a new qualifica-tion (MPL), which has important advan-tages for airlines but significant cost increases for flight training organisa-tions (FtO); and the fact that, as a voca-tion flying for airlines, on call 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, is not always seen as the best career option. in the light of the aforementioned, anyone can see that the industry has more than its share of problems.

it always amazes that airlines spend many millions of dollars buying equip-ment and yet refuse to invest in the peo-

ple to fly them. Even airline accountants must realise that sooner or later they will have aircraft sitting on the ground due to insufficient flight deck crew. Yet they continue to believe that some magic tree will spring up and a whole new supply will be there for the picking.

Following discussions with a number of FtOs i have been struck by the fact that they provide ever more services for cadets but with fewer guarantees of a placement on graduation. in 10 years the market has changed from the FtO being a wholesale supplier of pilots to airlines, to becoming a retail industry trying to persuade individual students to enter the profession in the first place and then buy-ing their services.

During a recent visit to the aircrew selection center at raF Cranwell in UK, it was apparent that the number of ex-service pilots leaving the armed forces has dropped to an all-time low. the armed services these days offer excel-lent employment packages as well as the opportunity to fly some sophisticated

airframes. Compare this with the career structure of most airlines and it is obvi-ous that there is no great incentive to move into civil aviation.

So what can be done to resolve the problems of supply for the future?

Investmenta recent visit to Oxford aviation acad-emy’s (Oaa) ab-initio training facility at Oxford revealed exactly what can be achieved, but also what is required to per-suade individuals that a career as a pilot with airlines is the thing for them. these days the students themselves fund almost all of the training. With the cost of a course, accommodation and living expenses for the 16-month period approaching £80,000 it is apparent just how much commitment and dedication is required.

never has there been so much confusion for the pilot training industry in Europe, writes Peter Moxham. Many factors have combined to make this arguably the most difficult period in the history of this sector of the industry.

The Changing Face Of The Ab-initio Professional Pilot Training Organisation

above

individuals making the investment will look

carefully before leaping into this career.

image credit: Oxford aviation academy.


Furthermore, it has to be accepted that the chances of finding a position immediately on graduation are almost non-existent and therefore the funding required is unlikely to see early repay-ment. no airline or training organisation will give any guarantees of employment, indeed not even conditional offers of employment, and one has to ask how potential students are able to raise the funds, even though most receive a lot of help from their parents. the problem is compounded by falling property values and the attendant lack of sufficient col-lateral security.

Oaa costs have not declined, indeed operating costs have increased year on year over the past decade. Fees for train-ing have had to increase, but Oaa has put in place measures, which should help students eventually to gain suitable employment.

Oxford airport is manifestly not an amateur flying club, nor is it a school there simply to take students’ money. a recently commissioned Centre for Career Development features a lecture theatre together with a conference room where initial briefings on choosing this career path are given to both students and their parent sponsors. all questions are answered with no notion of hiding the very serious issues that exist today. Experienced and senior staff give brief-ings and also explain the positive side of selecting Oxford.

Many would say that this is the func-tion of a training organisation, but few go to the lengths that are offered here. there are no guarantees of jobs on graduation, the college track record is very good and most graduates until late last year found employment quickly. Excellent links

FtOs provide ever more services for cadets

but with fewer guarantees of a placement

on graduation.

image credit: CtC aviation.

have developed between Oxford and all the UK airlines and many others around Europe, but if these are not recruiting then today there is no job.

DecisionsOaa has taken a number of bold deci-sions that seek to alleviate the future employment situation. For example, an essential prerequisite to any employment is a valid instrument rating. if, however, no employment is found within about 11 months of graduating then it is likely that the rating has lapsed. Oxford pro-vides both training and irr testing on its FnPtii simulators to enable its graduates to renew their SPa i/r at cost. it goes a step further by providing time on either B737 or CrJ simulators to maintain mul-tipilot aircraft skills (MCC and JOC) in the event that a job opportunity occurs, which requires a simulator assessment – and these days that includes most employers.

another significant benefit is hav-ing senior staff time to keep in touch with airlines and remain abreast of pilot recruitment requirements. this is no mean task but is part of the service that has to be given.

While all this has been taking place, it has also been important to look ahead. recent agreements between FlyBe, FtOs at Oxford and Flight train-ing Europe in Jerez have been signed to provide part sponsorship for the new MPL. in fact Oxford is also providing

http://www.2flyplanes.com

mailto:[email protected]

its own sponsorship to students for the MPL, which must be a first for any FtO. this MPL course is a “first” for any UK airline and FlyBe is investing significant sums in the programme, which will see the first graduations in Q3 2010.

the MPL, however, is not a panacea for everyone since graduation means lim-iting one’s employer to the operator spon-soring the course and the aircraft type specified, which has its own problems. Schools have been quick to point out that in the event of the failure of the airline to employ the successful graduates within a specified period, further training at no cost will be provided to convert their MPL into a standard “Frozen” atPL – another benefit to students in what is, as previ-ously stated, a retail business.

InitiativeBut this is not the end of developments required to reinvent the training offered and to try to ensure that all graduates complete their training with the best employment opportunities. another recent initiative has been the introduc-tion of a foundation degree in air trans-port management, working with two local universities. the structure aims

to provide accreditation for the studies undertaken by Oxford students when training for their atPL. it is a sign of the times that many students have already completed the foundation degree, which should significantly enhance their own prospects.

Oxford is not alone in adding new dimensions to training for a career as a professional pilot; all other leading Euro-pean training organisations are seeking to enhance their programmes in various ways. never has it been more apparent

Left

Students fund almost all of the training

themselves.

image credit: Oxford aviation academy.


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that since the airlines seem unwilling to support training initiatives, then training organisations must bring new ideas to the table if they are to retain a good busi-ness profile. if individuals are to make the investments called for today then they must have some secure foundations for their choice of training establishment. it is therefore of great importance to look carefully before you leap into this career.

Pilots will be required in the com-ing years. it cannot be right that only 18 months ago the world was talking of a pilot shortage with many thousands of new graduate pilots required over the coming months. those positions have not disappeared; they have been put on hold. But it is easy to foresee that in just a short space of time there will be too few graduate pilots to meet demand. One would like to think that the airlines would then have to compete for what is available if they are to retain viability by keeping their aircraft flying. cat

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Frasca international received Faa level 7 qualification on its as350 B2 flight training device installed at Flightsafety’s helicopter learning center in Tucson, ari-zona. This is the highest level of qualifi-cation for FTDs and the first FTD quali-fied to the level 7 standard.

The device is fixed-based with a vibration platform that provides tactile cues related to normal and emergency operations. it is integrated to Flight safe-ty’s Vital X visual system using Frasca’s spherical display screens to provide a 200 x 70 degree field of view.

Flightsafety’s learning center will use the trainer to offer initial and recurrent

Edited by Lori Ponoroff.For daily breaking s&T news - go to www.halldale.com.

seen&Heard

Frasca international’s as350 B2 flight

training device.

image Credit: Frasca international.

training for the american Eurocopter as 350 B2, which includes aircraft systems, emergency and abnormal procedures, human factors and specialty training such as inadvertent iMC.

Frasca’s flight test department col-lected the aerodynamic data required for the qualification by installing dozens of sensors in the aircraft and flying hun-dreds of specific maneuvers. The compa-ny’s aero engineering department used the data to precisely model the aircraft’s performance.

Frasca is completing two more FTDs for Flightsafety, which will also undergo Faa level 7 qualification.

MoVes AT PIloT TrAInInG neTworKPilot Training network is changing the location and emphasis of part of its oper-ation in 2010 to assist growth in student enrollment. The wholly owned subsidi-ary of lufthansa Flight Training will train its students according to a new concept that will emphasize better efficiency at two flying schools combined under the Pilot Training network umbrella, Flight-Crew academy and interCockpit. The practical part of aTPl training for airline pilots will take place in Rostock-laage, Germany and Vero Beach, Florida, Us, instead of in Zadar, Croatia.

FlIGHTsAFeTY GeTs rUssIAn APProVAlFlightsafety international has received approval from the Federal air Transporta-tion agency of the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation for the training programs it offers at Flightsafety acad-emy in Vero Beach, Florida.

agency representatives reviewed the private pilot and commercial pilot license training programs offered at Flightsafety academy. They concluded that they meet the requirements of the state Civil aviation authority of the Russian Fed-eration, citing the academy’s training methods, course content, the quality of the instruction, and the skills students develop during training.

FrAsCA FTd GeTs leVel 7 APProVAl


THREE B737-NGs FOR TURKMENISTANBoeing confirmed a $192m order for three Next-Generation B737s from Turkmeni-stan’s national flag carrier, Turkmenistan Airlines. The carrier’s all Boeing fleet includes B717s, Classic and Next-Gener-ation B737s, B757s and one B767.

Since the B737 program’s inception, Boeing has sold more than 6,000 air-planes to 250 customers. The B737-NG, which entered service in 1998, has notched more than 5,000 orders from more than 100 customers. The advanced aircraft family is successful in the market, according to air finance investors, due to its wide market base, fuel efficiency and low operating costs for its class.

MEXICANA TO JOIN ONEWORLDMexico and Central American airline Mexicana will become part of the One-world airline alliance on November 10, 2009. Subsidiaries MexicanaClick and MexicanaLink will join oneworld at the same time as affiliate members.

Oneworld partners include such airlines as: American Airlines, British Airways, Cathay Pacific Airways, Fin-nair, Iberia, Japan Airlines, LAN Airlines, Malév Hungarian Airlines, Qantas and Royal Jordanian and almost 20 affiliated members. Russian domestic carrier S7 Airlines is on track to join during 2010.

AIR CHINA RNP VALIDATION FLIGHT Air China, with support from the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC) and Naverus, successfully completed a performance-based navigation (PBN) validation flight to Linzhi airport in an A319. This comes two months after the airline contracted Naverus to design the route, and three years after the first suc-cessful required navigation performance (RNP) flight was flown into Linzhi using a Naverus-designed procedure for an Air China B757.

The flight used RNP departures and approaches, an advanced form of PBN. RNP procedures will enable Air China to begin scheduled services with its fleet of A319s into the mountainous Linzhi airport in the Tibet Autonomous region of China. Linzhi Airport, completed in 2006, has an elevation of 9,760ft, among the towering 17,000-20,000ft Himalayan Mountains.

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The airport’s 95-mile RNP approach is one of the longest and most challeng-ing commercial jetliner landing paths. RNP is necessary for successful com-mercial operations at the airport; without RNP, Linzhi is accessible by air on only 100 days a year, only in daylight, due to weather and terrain challenges.

RNP procedures can be deployed at any airport. They allow pilots to fly pre-cise paths with an accuracy of less than half a wingspan and to land in weather conditions that would otherwise require them to hold, divert, or even to cancel the flight before departure.

AEROSIM INSTALLS EVPT Aerosim Technologies installed a B757-200 enhanced virtual procedures trainer at a leading commercial pilot type train-ing center in Miami, Florida. Aerosim’s eVPT is a flat panel based crew train-ing device designed to optimize training time and improve the learning process for pilots and maintenance staff. The VPT allows real-time interaction with aircraft systems in a structured training environ-ment or complete free-play.

AIRBUS AND IAE CELEBRATEHISTORIC TALLIESAirbus delivered its 4,000th A320 family aircraft in August to Brazilian flag carrier TAM from its final assembly line in Ham-burg. The aircraft is fitted with IAE V2500 engines and, by coincidence, one of them


is the 4,000th to be produced by Interna-tional Aero Engines.

On the A319’s ferry flight from Ham-burg to Brazil, TAM transported goods for schools for handicapped children in the region. The equipment was donated by UK charity Aviation Without Borders and LOG, Germany, and facilitated by the Air-bus Foundation.

FORECAST FOR 25,000 NEW AIRCRAFT About 25,000 new passenger and freighter aircraft valued at US$3.1 tril-lion will be delivered in the next 20 years according to Airbus’s latest Global Market Forecast. Emerging economies, evolving airline networks and the growth of low cost carriers are factors driv-ing demand for new aircraft, as are the increasing number of mega-cities, traffic growth and the replacement of older air-craft with more eco-efficient transports.

The forecast anticipates passenger traffic RPKs will remain resilient to the cyclical effects of the sector and increase by 4.7% per year, or double in the next 15 years. This will require a demand for almost 24,100 new passenger aircraft valued at US$2.9 trillion. Airfreight tonne kilometres (FTK) are forecast to increase annually by 5.2%.

The greatest demand for passen-ger aircraft will be from Asia-Pacific and emerging markets. The region that includes the People’s Republic of China and India accounts for 31% of the total, followed by Europe (25%) and North America (23%).

Air traffic growth, greater frequen-cies, cost reduction, environmental con-cerns and airport congestion are increas-

Above

Mexicana will become part of the Oneworld

airline alliance on November 10, 2009.

Image Credit: Oneworld.

ingly influencing airlines to exploit the benefits of larger aircraft, particularly within aircraft families by minimizing training and maintenance costs.

lFT welCoMes A380 sIMa380 operators will soon be able to have their crews trained at lufthansa Flight Training. On september 17, an a380 cockpit simulator was delivered to the lufthansa Flight Training Center in Frankfurt. The first training sessions on this device are due to begin in January 2010.

The 15-tonne FTD was built by UK simulator manufacturer Thales Training & simulation at its plant in Crawley. it was disassembled into a few large sec-tions for transport and made the 700km journey from Crawley to Frankfurt by ship and low-loader.

FIrsT ATr -600 serIes AIrCrAFTaTR introduced the first aTR -600 series aircraft, an aTR 72-600, on October 1 in Toulouse. The new -600 series program, including the aTR 72-600 and 42-600, began in October 2007 and remains on schedule. The first aTR 72-600 began flight trials in July and flight trials for the first aTR 42-600 will begin next year.

aTR’s plan is for the first commer-cial 72-600s and 42-600s to begin serv-ice in 2011. it has received 59 orders for -600 series aircraft - five 42-600s and 54 72-600s.

The -600 series, powered with PW127M engines, take an additional 500kg on maximum take-off weight and maximum zero fuel weight. They will feature the lowest fuel consumption per passenger and the lowest CO2 emis-sions, which could position them as a

viable ecological solution for regional transport.

CPaT sells CBT/wBT To sTArT-UPCPaT has sold its B737-300 aircraft sys-tems computer based training (CBT/WBT) program to start-up airline Bolivi-ana De aviacion (Boa) in Cochabamba, Bolivia.

“The CPaT B737-300 flight training program increases the effectiveness of our B737 flight training program” said Captain adolfo Garcia, Boa training manager. “By preparing with the CBT/WBT program, our flight crews are able to take full advantage when climbing into a FFs as we will not waste valuable simulator time simply familiarizing train-ees with the functions and operations of the aircraft.”

Pss e-leArnInG ProGrAMCathay Pacific airways awarded Peak Pacific a three-year contract to design and develop the airline’s passenger serv-ices systems (Pss) elearning online pro-gram. Peak Pacific will design, develop and deploy more than 40 hours of elearn-ing content for the Pss program, which is part of the blended training initiative for Cathay Pacific’s new reservations system and departure control system’s customer management.

CITATIonsHAres seleCTs HIGHTToPCitationshares is coordinating a fatigue management awareness class for its pilots, schedulers, dispatch staff and command staff in its commitment to exceed Faa safety standards. HighTop Company will administer the course that is designed to teach staff how to rec-

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ognize, address and avoid fatigue. Cita-tionshares is also developing a sched-ule-fatigue alert tool that will give flight schedulers real-time information to help pilots avoid possible fatigue-inducing routes.

lBAs JoInT VenTUre ConTInUeslufthansa Technik, Bombardier aero-space and ExecuJet aviation Group is modifying and extending the terms of its joint venture arrangement, operat-ing as lufthansa Bombardier aviation services (lBas). lBas, based at Berlin schönefeld airport, was formed 12 years ago and specializes in the maintenance, repair and overhaul of Bombardier lear-jet, Challenger and Global business jets.

AeGeAn AwArds lUFTHAnsA MAInTenAnCe ConTrACTlufthansa Technik and aegean air-lines in Greece renewed their contract for C-checks for narrowbody short and medium-haul aircraft. This follow-up agreement calls for 19 aircraft to be serv-iced – 14 a320s, three a321s and two B737 Classics of the -400 model. The C-checks will be carried out from Decem-ber 2009 to February 2011 at lufthansa Technik Malta and shannon aerospace.

The agreement extends the busi-ness relationship between lufthansa Technik and aegean airlines that began in 2007. since then lufthansa Technik has provided total component support and engine maintenance for aegean’s complete a320 fleet. lufthansa Tech-nik is also providing maintenance and overhaul of airframe related compo-nents on the fleet at aegean’s home base in athens.


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sA318 wITH sTeeP APProACH CAPABIlITY For BAairbus delivered the first of two a318s equipped with “steep approach” capa-bility to British airways. The a318 is the largest commercial aircraft certified to land at steeper than usual gradients. its steep approach capability suits opera-tions out of mountainous or otherwise constrained locations such as urban area airports, where the aircraft also satisfies strict low noise regulations.

VIrTUAl AIrCrAFT VIsIT For BA linE Communication released the first of a series of virtual aircraft visits for British airways and is developing more programs for the airline’s other types of aircraft. The B777 training program was approved in concept by the Civil avia-tion authority (Caa) and is now under review for full Caa approval.

The virtual aircraft visit for the B777 was commissioned for new and return-ing Ba cabin crew as well as those con-verting to the B777 from other types. The program uses 360-degree panoramic zones linked with video and has 3D dis-play of icons, which launch instructional video segments within the zones. Users control their movement in a panoramic zone with up to three navigational meth-ods. Progress through the aircraft can be made linearly or via an interactive map.

Offering cabin crew a computer based course will save Ba about £20,000 a year in transportation costs currently incurred visiting grounded aircraft.

AVIATIon GrAdUATe FlYInG HIGHscott Bourke is one of the first students to graduate from the Bucks new University and Oxford aviation academy founda-tion degree in air transport management with airline pilot training program.

Bucks new University and Oaa formed a partnership to introduce this unique course in 2008. The program was developed to provide newly qualified air-line pilots with a foundation degree in air transport management, thus increasing their understanding of the industry and raising their prospects of employment.

CTC To delIVer ATPl GroUnd sCHool In UKCadets who start their CTC Wings train-ing after november 1, 2009 will receive


above

an EDM-built B787 cabin trainer.

image Credit: EDM ltd.

edM FoCUsed on FAr eAsTEDM recently delivered a B787 door trainer to China southern, and four B737 door trainers to Xian Feibao for Xiamen airlines. it is also currently making two simulators – a B737 door trainer and an a330 door trainer – for the shanghai Training school, run by the Civil aviation administration of China.

The company is working to expand its presence in the Far East, especially in China, where it has built a collabora-tive relationship with Xian Feibao airport Equipment Company, which organizes training support for Chinese airlines.

oAA GrowInG In HonG KonGOxford aviation academy is expanding its flight crew training capabilities in Hong Kong. it plans to open a dedicated training centre and increase the number of full flight simulators and other facilities available to customers.

Oaa aims to increase the number of FFss in Hong Kong to four through the addition of a second a320 device by end March, 2010. The new facility will accom-modate three FFss, is close to the Hong Kong international airport terminal and is easily accessible via the airport transport network. it will be equipped with exten-sive classroom and CBT facilities.

Michael G. Gaffney is the new direc-

tor of aviation training for FIT Avia-tion, the flight training arm of Florida

institute of Technology. He is respon-

sible for the direction of flight training

operations, including 36 flight instruc-

tors. Gaffney also leads development of

advanced flight training programs such

as scenario-based flight training, glass

cockpit training and advanced flight

training concepts. He will continue

to be a consultant for the Faa in the

development of internal training pro-

grams for Faa inspectors.

Scott Arnold is the new director of

AirCare Solutions Group Interactive

(asGi). His responsibilities include man-

aging production, marketing, research

and development of interactive based

training lessons and packaged training

modules. arnold was the director of air-

Care Crews and Emergency Procedures

Trainer with its sister company, Facts

Training.

Marc Parent, CAE’s executive vice

president and chief operating officer,

will become president and CEO of CaE

when Robert Brown retires on septem-

ber 30, 2009. Parent joined CaE in 2005

as group president, simulation Products

and was promoted to EVP and COO in

november 2008, responsible for all four

of CaE’s segments and new growth ini-

tiatives. He also became a member of

CaE’s board of directors in november

2008. Brown will continue as an advisor

until the end of December 2009.

Dr. Frank Ayers is the new executive

vice president of the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University’s Prescott

campus. He joined Embry-Riddle in 2000

after a 26-year career in the Us air Force,

becoming chairman of the flight training

department in the College of aviation at

ERaU’s Daytona Beach campus. in this

new role, ayers will lead a campus of

more than 1,600 students and over 300

employees. He will oversee a range of

academic, operational, and professional

activities and set strategic direction

in areas such as business operations,

enrollment management, academic sup-

port, financial aid, and student life.

Arrivals & departures

their aTPl theoretical knowledge training at CTC’s FFs facility at the crew training centre – nursling, near southampton. This change in the way CTC delivers training is part of the company’s drive to ensure airline standard procedures are followed through-out training programs. Cadets will have access to the school’s Boeing and airbus flight simulators, giving them the opportunity to practice theory on a simulator relevant to the type of aircraft they are potentially going to fly.

HIGH-AlTITUde FlIGHT TesTThe sukhoi superjet 100 sn 95003 successfully completed its high-altitude flight test in armenia, landing an sn 95003 air-craft in Zhukovsky. The international shirak airport at Gyumri is located at high elevation (5,000 ft/1,524m) and meets iCaO first class airport requirements. Mountains surround the airfield, so that take-off and landing is available only from the southern side. The runway is 3,220m long and 45m wide.

oXFord And GUlF AGreeMenTOxford aviation academy and newly formed Gulf aviation acad-emy have agreed to work in partnership to create a new air-line pilot training capability in the Kingdom of Bahrain. Under the arrangement, Oaa will help Gaa establish a ground train-ing facility in Bahrain capable of meeting the needs of the new cadet program and offering airlines throughout the Gulf region an increasing range of training services.

The first group of students to undergo training as part of the initiative began ab initio training at Oxford in september on Oaa’s aPPFO course. Up to 100 students will enter training dur-ing the course of the first year.

FlIGHTlIne GeTs eAsA APProVAl Flightline Training services was granted European aviation safety agency (Easa) Part 147 Foreign approval for its mainte-nance training programs, one of only four Canadian companies that have the Easa approval. Founded in 2001, Flightline cur-rently serves 60 customers in 17 countries on 17 aircraft types.

PACsIM And Ase JoInT VenTUrePacific simulators and aeronautical systems Engineering (asE) are joining forces to build cost-competitive FFss for the business jet market. Their first joint project is a Cessna Citation Mustang FFs, a level C simulator that will be ready by august 2010 and will be available for demonstrations at asE’s showroom in Odessa, Florida.

Pac sim will focus on replicating the precise hardware, while asE will provide control loading, motion base, flight testing and software to bring the whole package together. The companies believe this will result in a competitive product at all points on the spectrum of flight simulation.

Is-BAo BesT For BUsInessFacts Training, a division of airCare solutions Group, has created a training program designed to assist corporate flight depart-ments meet full compliance with the international standard for Business aircraft Operations (is-BaO).

in addition to aircraft-specific emergency equipment famil-iarization, the training meets is-BaO guidelines, covering HF and CRM, in-flight fire and smoke procedures, emergency egress train-ing (land and water), hypoxia awareness training, crew and pas-senger briefings and a review of passenger / crew health issues.

is-BaO is a voluntary process for corporate flight depart-ments aiming to achieve high levels of safety and professional-ism through adoption of institutionalized best practices world-wide developed by the international Business aviation Council. it sets a professional standard for new business jet operations and raises the safety bar for existing flight departments.

new deAls For AlsIMalsim’s modified strategy of conforming to the needs of flying schools has paid off with several deals. The Tunisian Ministry of Defence chose alsim to train its future elite pilots for the sec-ond time; air Kuffra in Tripoli, libya received and installed its first alX, making it the first alX operator in the Maghreb; and in istanbul, ayjet unveiled its new al200-D42.

eAsA sAFeTY reVIewThe European aviation safety agency 2008 annual safety Review reports three fatal accidents involving aircraft regis-tered in member states of Easa and performing commercial air transport operations – the same number as in 2007. it is one of the lowest rates in this decade, with the average number of fatal accidents per year being six.

in 2008, 5.5% of all fatal accidents in commercial air transport worldwide occurred with airplanes registered in an Easa mem-ber state. This low number was overshadowed by the accident of a McDonnell Douglas MD-82 aircraft in spain, which involved 154 fatalities. The 160 onboard fatalities recorded in 2008 was above the decade average of 105, due mainly to the MD-82 accident.

The number of fatal accidents in the same type of operation in the rest of the world decreased from 53 in 2007, to 51 in 2008.


http://www.abaris.com

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FlIGHTsAFeTY sIMs For sInGAPoreFlightsafety international won a contract from singapore Flying College, a wholly owned subsidiary of singapore airlines, to design, build and support two Cessna Citation Mustang FFss and an advanced integrated procedures trainer.

The FFss will be equipped with Flightsafety’s 60-inch electric motion and control loading technology, advanced Vital X visual system, and new simiO and simPWR systems. These devices will be used for primary and advanced pilot training programs and are scheduled for delivery in 2010 and 2011.

sIMCoM MU-2 VIsUAl UPGrAdesimCom Training Centers has installed new visual systems on its two MU-2 simulators to give them visual imagery equivalent to that used on level D simu-lators for business jets and commercial airlines.

selected airports were modeled with features that represent the real operat-ing area. Both Denver and aspen airports are included for training in a challenging mountainous environment. Converging traffic on the ground and while airborne lets operators train for conflict recogni-tion and avoidance. Weather phenom-ena features include dynamic thunder-storms with rain shafts, ragged ceilings, blowing snow, patchy fog and scud. The MU-2 simulators were made by simCom and are located at its training center in Orlando, Florida. They are designed to provide type specific training for the MU-2 series aircraft.

AIr TrAFFIC MAnAGeMenTUFa has delivered its aTCoach Terminal Edition Radar simulation product with support for automatic dependent surveil-lance – broadcast (aDs-B) to Raytheon as part of the Federal aviation admin-istration standard Terminal automation Replacement (stars) program.

The stars program is a joint Faa and Department of Defense program to replace capacity-constrained, older tech-nology systems at Faa and DoD termi-nal radar approach control facilities and associated towers.

The simulator was customized to meet the requirements of the Faa terminal environment and is deployed with each Faa and DoD stars system.

and more instructors. EsMa is plan-ning another investment at end 2009 to further expand the aircraft fleet and its student capacity.

sUPerJeT CerTIFICATesuperJet international received Easa Part 147 certification from the italian aer-onautical Civil authority (EnaC). This, together with the flight training organi-zation (FTO) certification it received last year for pilot training, makes superjet international’s Tessera training center fully operational.

The certification authorizes superJet international to organize technical train-ing courses as an approved maintenance training organization. it can host training courses specifically designed for aero-nautical engineers who have a license of aeronautical maintenance (aMl) and are responsible for the maintenance and release to service of aircraft.

AlTeon GeTs A new nAMeBoeing has announced that the com-pany’s training organization, alteon, will be renamed Boeing Training & Flight services. The new name, to be phased in across the organization’s global net-work in the months ahead, reflects the organization’s expanded capabilities in flight, maintenance, cabin safety and flight operations training. With the addi-tion of flight services, the organization’s expertise now includes customized flight and dispatch documentation, airplane performance data, operational consulting and safety analysis.

The delivery supports enhanced aDs-B sensor definitions, multiple service volumes, service volume grids, multi-ple radio stations, asterix categories 23 and 33 messaging, the Universal access Transceiver (UaT) link, and the multi-sector Mode-s Extended squit-ter (1090 Es) link. The UaT and 1090 Es links are two aDs-B data links adopted by the Us.

dIAMond delIVers To MAlTADiamond aero sRl delivered a Da40 TDi and a Da20 Eclipse to Diamond Flight Training, a new flying school in Malta. Diamond Flight Training will operate exclusively Diamond aircraft and simu-lators. The aircraft will be used for pilot training, pilot hour building and charter business.

esMA Adds Two new sIMUlATorsEsMa aviation academy added two new Mechtronix flight simulators con-figured for the Diamond Da-42 Twin at its Montpellier site. The purchase of these simulators is part of an 8 million Euro investment in 2007, which resulted in the increase and update of the com-pany’s aircraft fleet; the creation of branches in Paris, Vietnam and China;

above

The new visual system installed on

simCom’s two MU-2 simulators.

image Credit: Rsi Visual systems.

new CrM CoUrsealteon/Boeing Training has launched a crew resource management (CRM) course. it includes training flight crews to communicate effectively and work as a team to recognize problems that might arise during flight and develop solutions to resolve issues.

This CRM course features threat and error management (TEM) and will help crews understand the threats they may face in flight-environmental, organiza-tional, expected, unexpected, hidden and other scenarios. additionally, it will show crewmembers how they can mitigate potential threats and errors before they become real problems.

The course’s nine disciplines are: captain’s authority, crew climate, crew-member training and development, problem definition, decision-making, situational awareness, resource manage-ment, workload management, and com-munication.

AerosIM TrAIner In CHInAaerosim Technologies installed a B737-nG / a320 model virtual proce-dures trainer at Hainan airlines training center in China, the first one located in an airline training center there. The trainer is convertible between the B737-nG and a320 aircraft.

AIr FrAnCe CAdeTs TrAInInG AT oXFordEight air France cadets began training at Oxford aviation academy on september 1. They will complete 26 weeks of JaR-FCl aTPl theoretical training at Oxford and will then take flight training with sEFa, the Government sponsored FTO based in Toulouse.

ATMs User ConFerenCeaQT solutions hosted the first aTMs users’ conference in september, invit-ing its customers to present, network and learn. a diverse agenda containing product roadmap, customer roundtable discussions and customer presentations was geared to help customers take home new ideas and best of breed usage of aQT solutions’ aviation Training Man-agement system (aTMs).

sIM leAse FInAnCInGCaE, the solidarity Fund QFl and soci-ete generale de financement du Quebec (sGF) have created a limited partnership

to provide qualifying customers with competitive lease financing for CaE’s civil flight simulation equipment.

The partners invested Us$3m (C$3.3m) in equity to create the limited partnership. Qualifying customers may access this financing tool and additional financing of up to 85% of the equipment value from Export Development Canada.

FIrsT AVIATIon PhdEmbry-Riddle aeronautical University is launching its first two PhD degree pro-grams, in aviation and engineering phys-ics. its aviation PhD is the first one in the United states. The new degrees will blend theory and applied research.

The PhD in aviation is for working professionals who want to enhance their contribution to the aviation and aero-space organizations that employ them. The program combines advanced ana-lytical and research tools with a broad understanding of the issues affecting

the aviation industry. Courses are offered online and students will complete a six-day residency experience each year they are in the program.

The PhD in engineering physics is designed for those looking to conduct cutting-edge research ranging from the remote sensing of the Earth’s upper atmosphere and space weather, to the engineering of spacecraft control sys-tems and scientific instruments. stu-dents in the PhD in engineering physics program will be enrolled and in residence at Embry-Riddle’s Daytona Beach cam-pus for at least two semesters per year, although internships at an aerospace corporation or government laboratory will be allowed with university approval and supervision by the student’s research advisor.

FlYBe MPl CoUrse sTArTs AT oXFordThe first UK-based MPl course for European regional airline Flybe started in september at Oxford aviation acad-emy (Oaa) in UK. six cadets began a 70-week training course that includes 90 hours of core skills flight training, fea-turing multi-engine flying. This will be followed by 150 hours in new generation flight simulators.

BoMBArdIer Q300 sIM QUAlIFIed To leVel dThe Japanese Civil aviation Bureau qualified Flightsafety international’s new Bombardier Q300 aircraft simulator to level D. The simulator, located just out-side Tokyo at Haneda airport, is currently available for Bombardier Q300 aircraft training and is expected to be quali-fied for Dash-8-100 and Q200 training in October 2009. it will serve Bombardier Dash-8/Q series aircraft operators based in Japan as well as those from Russia, Taiwan and the Philippines.

TUrKIsH AIrlInes orders B777-300ersBoeing and Turkish airlines finalized an order for seven B777-300ER (extended range) airplanes valued at $1.9bn. This order is in addition to the five B777-300ERs Turkish airlines ordered in april 2009, bringing the airline’s total B777-300ER orders to 12. The airline currently operates a fleet of 65 Boeing airplanes including next-Generation B737s and leased B777-300ERs.

A330-200F 2 MNGAirlines

A330-300 7 TurkishAirlines

A350 12 EthiopianAirlines

B737NG 3 TurkmenistanAirlines

B737NG 7 Egyptair

B777-200 5 EthiopianAirlines

Q400 3(1Opt.) AirNuigini

Commercial Aircraft sales

July 29 to October 6, 2009

Aircrafttype Number Operator/Buyer

above

aerosim’s virtual procedures trainer (VPT).

image Credit: aerosim Technologies.


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10-11 November 2009EATS 2009 - European Airline Training SymposiumClarion Congress HotelPrague, Czech Republicwww.halldale.com/EaTs

3-4 March 2010ADTS 2010 – Aerospace & Defence Training ShowDubai, United arab Emirateswww.adts.aero

27-29 April 2010WATS 2010 - World Aviation Training Conference &TradeshowRosen shingle Creek ResortOrlando, Florida, Usawww.halldale.com/WaTs

14-15 September 2010APATS 2009 - Asia PacificAirline Training Symposiumshangri-la HotelBangkok, Thailandwww.halldale.com/aPaTs

20-22 October 2009NBAA 62nd Annual Meeting & ConventionOrlando, Florida, Usawww.nbaa.org

15 – 19 November 09Dubai Airshowairport Expo, Dubai, UaEwww.dubaiairshow.aero

18 – 19 November 09Flight Simulation Group Conference - Fixed Wing and Rotary Wing FSTDsRaes, london, UKwww.raes.org.uk

ADvERTiSiNG CoNTACTS

Business Manager:Jeremy Humphreys[t] +44 (0)1252 532009[e] [email protected]

Business Manager, North America:Mary Bellini Brown[t] +1 703 421 3709[e] [email protected]

Index of Ads

AFrIQIYAH AIrwAYs GeTs FIrsT A330afriqiyah airways has received its first a330-200 to serve long-haul opera-tions on routes from Tripoli to africa and Europe. The new a330-200 is the first of three ordered in 2006. The airline will take delivery of 10 more a320 family air-craft in the coming years, along with six a350-800s ordered in 2007.

TrAInees sTArT AT lUFTHAnsA TeCHnIK lufthansa Technik is stepping up its training program, even with the airline industry slowdown. in september, 307 young people began careers with the lufthansa Technik Group in Germany, up from 285 in 2008. The company cur-rently has 927 trainees in Germany par-ticipating in 16 career paths and prac-tice-oriented degree programs.

This year lufthansa Technik logis-tik is offering positions in transport and logistics services for the first time. With 33 places in six practice-oriented degree programs, the company is increasing its collaboration with higher educa-tional establishments. another career path involving a master of science in mechatronics is planned for 2010.

FInAlIsT For eleArnInG AwArdsKishor Mistry, chief executive officer of Peak Pacific, is on the short-list of the elearning age awards. He is one of five finalists for the Outstanding achieve-ment award for an individual.

Mistry’s nomination was based on his highly regarded work in the elearn-ing industry over the past 25 years. He transitioned from the simulator indus-try to the CBT industry and shaped the direction of elearning at Cathay Pacific airways. He found Peak Pacific in 2008, a spin-off from Cathay Pacific’s corpo-rate elearning division. The award win-ners will be announced on november 12 in london.

eAsA PIToT dIreCTIVeThe European aviation safety agency issued an airworthiness directive on august 31 mandating all airbus a330/a340 aircraft currently fitted with Thales pitot probes to be fitted with at least two Goodrich probes, allowing a maximum of one Thales Ba type probe to remain fitted on the aircraft (each aircraft is


2FlyPlaneswww.2flyplanes.com 29

Abariswww.abaris.com 35

ADTSwww.adts.aero 12

Aerosim Technologieswww.aerosim.com 23, 25 & 27

Air France www.airfrance-flightacad.com 11

Bizjet Trainingwww.bizjet-training.com 33

Boeingwww.boeing.com/tfs iFC

CAEwww.cae.com Centre spread & OBC

CAT Magazinewww.halldale.com/cat 30

Delta Air Lineswww.delta.com 3

FlightSafety internationalwww.flightsafety.com 6

Oxford Aviation Academywww.oaa.com 13

RAES Training Conferencewww.aerosociety.com/conference 22

Sim-industrieswww.sim-industries.com 17

Thaleswww.thalesgroup.com 4

WATS 2010 Conferencewww.halldale.com/WaTs iBC

equipped with three pitot tubes). The older Thales probes of type aa will no longer be fitted.

all three types comply with the appli-cable safety standards and the agency’s proposals are intended as a precaution-ary measure.

The agency’s proposals, which have been agreed with airbus, are based on pitot probe performance data, which the agency recently analyzed.

JAA APProVAl For AYlAayla aviation academy in aqaba, Jor-dan received Jaa approval to conduct aTPl theoretical knowledge training at its ground school. This makes ayla aviation academy the only Jaa aTPl (a) approved ground school in the Mid-dle East. cat

The World’s largesT gaThering of aviaTion Training Professionals

The World aviaTion Training ConferenCe & TradeshoW27-29 april 2010 • rosen shingle Creek resort • orlando, florida

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gold sponsor: silver sponsors: Bronze sponsors:

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gold sponsor: silver sponsors: Bronze sponsors:

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PARIS

CAE has led the way in simulation technology and training solutions innovation for more than 60 years. By offering our customers the most comprehensive suite of simulation products, training, and services across the industry’s widest global network, CAE helps ensure the safety and operational efficiency of your business.

CAE is at the forefront of providing complete, integrated solutions for all your aviation training needs, making us the ideal partner to help keep you one step ahead.

The industry’s only end-to-end civil aviation integrated training solutions partner: pilot candidate screening, ab initio academies, courseware, instructors, e-learning, CAE Simfinity™ desktop trainers, integrated procedures trainers (IPTs) and flight training devices (FTDs), CAE 5000 and 7000 series full-flight simulators, CAE Tropos™-6000 image generator and CAE True™ Airport visual database service, CAE True™ electric motion system, CAE True™ Environment automated air traffic control simulation, cabin crew trainers, CAE Flightscape flight data analysis software, CAE 360 customer support command centre, infrastructure and equipment maintenance and upgrades, financing, crew placement, global pilot and technical training centres.

Come see us at EATS 2009, Booth 31.

one step aheadcae.com

Aviation training solutions tailored to your requirements

http://www.cae.com

cat magazine - issue 5/2009

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