search.noResults

search.searching

saml.title
dataCollection.invalidEmail
note.createNoteMessage

search.noResults

search.searching

orderForm.title

orderForm.productCode
orderForm.description
orderForm.quantity
orderForm.itemPrice
orderForm.price
orderForm.totalPrice
orderForm.deliveryDetails.billingAddress
orderForm.deliveryDetails.deliveryAddress
orderForm.noItems
My Two Cents Worth


By Randy Mains


HERE’S A QUESTION FOR YOU: WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A $14 MILLION FULL-MOTION, LEVEL D FLIGHT SIMULATOR AND A $5 HUNDRED COUCH? AS I WAS TO FIND OUT, THE ANSWER TO THAT QUESTION IS … NOT A LOT. In the January 2014 issue of Rotorcraft


Pro, there were several very well written and informative articles about flight sim- ulators. Lyn Burks, the editor-in-chief of Rotorcraft Pro, had written an article about his experience flying a S76 C+ flight sim at the CAE training center in Whippany, New Jersey. Ryan Mason wrote an insightful article entitled “Trends in Helicopter Simulation.” Reading those two articles reminded me of the couch, and what a wonderful training tool it is. Abu Dhabi Aviation needed copilots for


a new Saudi helicopter EMS contract they’d just landed and, to their great credit, they decided to bring in some new blood to the organization by hiring pilots who had recently acquired their airline trans- port license. Many of them had never flown a turbine-engine helicopter, let alone a medium-twin engine helicopter like the


8 March 2014


shocked me how effectively it taught two- crew ops. This high-tech training device is called … a couch. The other sim instructor, Philippe


Bell 412EP. It was a big gamble for the company because of the expense to train them, and because it was a very big step for these guys. Most of them were com- ing from a Robinson R22 background. To our great delight, they did just fine.


Ironically, the few pilots who didn’t make it through training were the older, suppos- edly more experienced pilots. The new pilots, who had only flown


single-pilot, had to learn how to operate in a two-crew environment, a major step for them. For example, when the copilot read from the checklist and came to the part where it said, “Captain’s Brief,” the guys who’d only flown single-pilot were at a loss as to what to say. Understand- ably, most of them were not clear about their role when flying as captain, or as copilot. So I came up with a training de- vice for them that was so simple, it


Berling, would fly his two new pilots dur- ing the four-hour evening sessions and I would fly my two guys during the four- hour morning sessions. When Philippe and I had time between sessions to talk, we both remarked how the new pilots did- n’t know what was expected of them in their respective roles. So, I hatched a plan. We were staying at a hotel in Dubai


during training at the CAE training center. I had us all meet in my hotel room for a training session. I taped to the wall in my room a poster of the Bell 412EP cockpit that I’d taken from the Flight Safety Train- ing Manual. Turning the couch to face the wall, I had one of the new pilots sit next to me on my left, while I took the captain’s seat to his right. The other three pilots sat behind the couch, observing. The new copilot read the pre-start, start,


and after-start checklists, while I demon- strated what the captain should be doing and what he should be saying. Then I


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54