Two small companies have developed new versions of the instrument flying hood, the view-limiting device intended to block pilots’ outside view while allowing them to see aircraft instruments during IFR training. These versions are designed to dramatically increase the hood’s effectiveness in helicopter training, and both use new technology to create a more realistic vision-reduction scenario for training.
Icarus Devices, based in Wisconsin, was started by Nick Sinopoli, an Army aviator who learned to fly when he was a teenager. Sinopoli is also a graduate aeronautical engineer, who decided to tackle the problem after attending the funeral of a friend killed in an inadvertent flight into instrument meteorological conditions (IIMC) accident.
“I wanted to apply current technology to create a hood that could be adjusted for whatever visibility the training scenario required,” Sinopoli said. His product is a simple hood and screen over the eyes that uses an iPhone app to control the amount of occlusion, gradually blocking the view of the outside until it is partially or fully obscured. According to Sinopoli, the lower skirts of the hood can be customized to various helicopter cabins to keep the pilot from seeing the outside view through chin bubbles and other windows, which is a major problem with existing hoods.
“I secured a patent on the design, then began talking to the helicopter community through the U.S. Helicopter Safety Team (USHST), of which I’m a member," he said. "Initial interest was positive and several members endorsed the Icarus hood.”
A breakthrough occurred when Metro Aviation, an air medical operator based in Shreveport, Louisiana, asked to evaluate the hood. Metro operates its own training center, supporting helicopter operator customers as well as air medical pilots.
Matt Johnson, a line pilot and check airman for Metro, has become the company’s subject-matter expert on the Icarus device. “Nick Sinopoli and I spoke several years ago when he envisioned this device,” said Johnson. “More recently, when he had finished designing the Icarus hood, he asked if we could evaluate it for him.”
Johnson’s first flight convinced him it would be a game-changer in IIMC training. “The timing was perfect," he said. "Our director of operations, Brian Bihler, was looking for a solution that would complement our biannual training events.” Sharing his conclusions on the Icarus device with Bihler led to a decision to buy one for each air medical program the company operates, resulting in an order for 60 devices.
“With an Icarus device available to every program, designated safety pilots will fly with each aviator assigned there during quarterly flight reviews on IIMC procedures,” Johnson explained. “Ultimately we’re going to see a higher, more consistent level of proficiency in IIMC avoidance and survival.”
Bihler feels strongly that the Icarus hood is a tool that will enhance his pilots’ instrument flying skills. “This device allows us to train as if we were encountering IIMC within the safety of the training environment, providing our pilots with a higher skill level so they can do the right thing and survive.”
AT Systems, founded by two pilots, is another new company that has developed what at first glance looks like an instrument hood but is more than that. Focused on military helicopter operators, the Visibility Simulation System (VSS) simulates flight conditions compromised by weather, dust, and other visual hazards. VSS is also capable of recreating mission profiles that ultimately lead pilots into decreasing visibility, requiring them to transition to instrument flight and land safely.
“We are both Black Hawk pilots in the National Guard. Flying in combat conditions, we’ve faced brownouts and sudden low cloud ceilings,” said Tyson Phillips, co-founder of AT Systems. “As instructors, we’ve watched experienced pilots struggle with inadvertent IMC and brownouts without a clear plan to react and survive. Even though we train in simulators, somehow, when we encounter those conditions in the real world, it’s hard to get it right.”
The AT Systems team saw a need for a specialized training device that would provide a compromised visual experience while retaining the vestibular inputs of flight. The solution is a device similar to a hood to control visibility—the visual inputs—while the pilot is experiencing the vestibular inputs of flying, physical cues that cannot be recreated in a simulator. The hood design includes roll, pitch, and yaw inputs from an integral attitude and heading reference system to dynamically create mission flight profiles.
The helicopter community has been using flight simulators for training for 10 years. Simulators have become effective training tools to build pilots’ basic instrument skills to a survival level, at the minimum.
But simulators also have a significant benefit for IIMC training, and this has been proven by larger helicopter operators that have formalized the use of simulators for this valuable training. The level of success with simulators as IIMC training tools directly depends on the quality of those devices. While flight training devices and other lower-fidelity systems are useful in training pilots to basic levels of instrument competence, there is some evidence that training in full-motion Level D simulators provides pilots with the higher-level instrument skills needed to survive an IIMC encounter.
The high cost of Level D simulator training, however, limits their availability to a few large helicopter operators. Icarus and AT Systems are focusing on the need for training systems that are more affordable, easily available, and beneficial for IIMC mitigation.
Icarus’s backlog is an indicator that the helicopter community recognizes the need for affordable IIMC training. The product’s retail price is $1,500, and battery life is about six hours.
The AT Systems VSS has generated interest from several government agencies, according to the founders, and the U.S. Army is testing the VSS in the field. There is no official retail price for the VSS as it is available in a variety of configurations. Battery life is four to five hours.