“There are a couple of senses that are more critical to get right in a helicopter simulator than they are in a fixed-wing sim: the seat-of-the-pants feeling and the visual,” says Troy Fey, vice president and general manager of business and military simulation at Textron’s TRU Simulation & Training. TRU is moving into the civilian helicopter realm in a big way, building and deploying helicopter simulators for Textron’s Bell Helicopter subsidiary and working to provide other OEM simulators to third-party training providers, this summer signing a contract with Finland’s Coptersafety to provide simulators for Airbus and Leonardo products. TRU’s full-motion simulators are built around the Odyssey H platform, which combines a wide 240- by 80-degree field of view and high visual resolution with an added secondary six-degree freedom of motion system that complements the primary 62.5-inch motion system.
TRU combines the physical sensory and the visual in such a way that its simulators provide a “unique” training experience, according to Fey. “How we integrate the motion and the field of view provides more realistic and immersive training and expands some of the mission envelope,” he said. “Technology is making simulation more and more realistic, starting with the visual component. Everyone sees that. You’re starting to see 4K television technology roll into projectors. For helicopter training in particular, that means you can see blades of grass move when you are at low speed close to the ground. Not just that, but all the databases are getting more accurate and there is more computational power. Obstacles tare more accurate and the NVG capabilities are becoming native in the databases instead of additional special effects. The realism is improving and the price for that realism is reducing, so consumers benefit from that.”
The switch to electrical motion actuators is also making for more realistic and cost-effective simulator training, he said. “We’ve moved from hydraulic to electric and it has matured. You are getting the same feeling from electric you were getting from hydraulics. From a green and maintenance standpoint, it’s much more effective. We have put in the secondary ‘vibe’ platform, which provides some ancillary cueing. The other thing we are doing with secondary motion is putting it on the ground for FTDs. We’re adding small cueing to what historically was an FTD with a three-axis kind of vibe. The capabilities of Odyssey H are so comprehensive that all the training tasks can be performed in the sim. The realism provides more immersive training, more specific mission capabilities for approaches to oil rigs and landing on buildings.”
Customer-specific Options
TRU has built the Bell 505 FTD for the Bell Training Academy in Fort Worth and is currently building the 30,000-pound, $10 million level-D simulator for the 525. Fey thinks there is a big market for 505 devices custom-tailored to customers’ specific fidelity needs. “You can build mini-motion cueing on the 505 sim. You can build different levels of fidelity for different customers. They might not need the more expensive visual system or the six degrees of motion. They might want only a procedures trainer to get familiar with Garmin G1000H. Whatever their preference, we are ready to roll when we get the order.”
TRU’s Odyssey H simulator for the 429 is currently being assembled at the Bell training center in Valencia, Spain, and will begin training students in January. Certification by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) is expected shortly. The Odyssey H offers a roll-on/roll-off capability, which makes the simulator reconfigurable for other helicopters. The simulator flight compartment is an exact replica of the 429 cockpit, from forward of the pilot’s anti-torque pedals to aft of the pilot seats. All controls, panels, instruments, avionics, equipment and furnishings will be identical in appearance, feel, location and operation to those of the actual aircraft. Fey said it will respond exactly like the aircraft in all flight conditions (day, night, VFR, IFR and NVG) as well as accurately simulate malfunctions and emergency procedures. Seventy 429s are currently based in Europe.
With the Coptersafety contract, TRU will deliver five level-D Odyssey H full-flight simulators representing the Airbus Helicopters H125 and H145, and the Leonardo (AgustaWestland) AW169 and AW189 for training by late 2018. The fifth FFS will be decided in the coming months in response to market conditions. Coptersafety has the option to convert the H145 simulator to be H135/H145 interchangeable in the future. All of the simulators will be certified to EASA/FAA Level D. The simulators and debriefing stations will have Rockwell Collins EP-8100 image generation systems and laser-illuminated high-fidelity projectors.
Fey said his 80-strong engineering team at TRU’s simulator design and manufacturing facility outside Tampa in Lutz, Fla., is nimble and responsive. “We are able to reduce industry standard times by several months.” By way of example he notes that his team designed and built Bell’s V-280 cockpit demonstrator in just eight months.
Fey believes that wider use of simulators—even in light singles—will play a key role in further reducing the helicopter accident rate. “As simulation capability improves, you will see more training pushed into simulators. There is a big influence in safety culture and this might encourage some to incur the up-front cost, the safety dividend. The more simulators you produce, the more volume there is and the more the price will come down over time.” Fey thinks the industry can get the simulator per-hour cost equal to or below that of the in-aircraft cost for light singles, an economic tipping point seen as key to their wider acceptance in training. “We are working to achieve that,” he said.
Fey said TRU is looking at other helicopters, among them the 407 and the 412, adding that per the Copersafety contract, TRU is open to building sims for other OEMs’ aircraft as well.