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Virtual Reality Pilot Certification Why Not?


By Randy Rowles


Our company recently partnered with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and U.S. Helicopter Safety Team (USHST) to combat unintended/inadvertent IMC (U/IIMC) fatal accidents using virtual reality (VR) simulation. The training is conducted in the HeliMOD Mark III VR simulation system developed in partnership between Precision Flight Controls, a U.S. company, and Ryan Aerospace based in Australia.


Although the intended purpose of the training is U/IIMC and more specifically spatial disorientation, our staff found the device and VR training method to outperform conventional flight training proficiency models on many levels. As I observed the safe, efficient, and comprehensive ability to provide flight training to students using a VR platform in a controlled environment, I could not help but wonder how far this technology will move aviation forward.


This led me to look at the initial pilot certification process within the civil aviation helicopter training market. The current training model uses small helicopters to conduct pilot training. The primary purpose of using these smaller helicopters is cost. The price of helicopter training is at an all-time high. Many experts in the labor force are questioning the viability for the average person to become a helicopter pilot due to the income/debt ratio they will encounter. Can VR pilot training be a viable solution to increasing flight training costs?


I believe the answer is easy: Yes!


Imagine for a moment completing all flight training in a VR device. In conjunction with flight training, the student pilot would complete all the other requirements to obtain a pilot certificate including ground training, knowledge testing, etc. Once the flight training is completed, the student would take a practical test in the virtual world using the VR device. Upon successful completion of a virtual proficiency-based test, they would receive their pilot certificate with a limitation (e.g., “flight in aircraft limited to category/class 61.56 completion”). This would complete the pilot certificate process.


Once the pilot certification process is completed, the pilot would receive in-aircraft flight training until they exceed minimum proficiency standards for the grade of FAA pilot certificate they hold in accordance with 14 CFR 61.56. This process is remarkably similar to how the industry functions today. As an example, a pilot may now train in a small-piston helicopter, however they will not fly in a more advanced helicopter as PIC until they have flown with a qualified instructor, receive some level of a certificate or endorsement, and demonstrate proficiency. Why couldn’t we replace the small helicopter with a VR device?


The ability to alter flight environments to include weather, air traffic, performance, aircraft emergencies, and many other factors that pilots deal with in post-training flight are available in other simulation systems, so why would VR training be different? The answer is: immersion!


Randy Rowles has been an FAA pilot examiner for 20 years for all helicopter certificates and ratings. He holds an FAA Gold Seal Flight Instructor Certificate, NAFI Master Flight Instructor designation, and was the 2013 recipient of the HAI Flight Instructor of the Year Award. Rowles is currently the owner of the Helicopter Institute. He can be reached at randyrowlesdpe@gmail.com


If you have any comments or questions, please let me know at randyrowlesdpe@gmail.com


80 July/Aug 2021


Unlike traditional simulation, VR places the pilot in another realm of awareness. Every human sense can be engaged. The ability to place a pilot in the VR world with all the decision-making required in actual flight would significantly reduce aeronautical decision- making (ADM) accidents.


I am excited to see where VR pilot training can take our industry. Improving safety by allowing pilots to learn ADM in a VR world will have a direct impact on how actual aircraft decisions are made. It is poor decision-making that often drives the helicopter accident rate needle upward.


My concern is that regulatory agencies will find a way to make VR training complex, costly, and unattainable. In aviation, there has never been a more appropriate time and opportunity for use of the K.I.S.S. principle. May common sense prevail!


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