Earning Their Wings
Written by Kenya McCullum
MT2 2011 Volume: 16 Issue: 6 (September)
Practice makes perfect—and military pilot training is no exception. But in order for the practice to make a difference in the performance, it must be rigorous and challenging enough to prepare military pilots for the difficult missions they face once they earn their wings.
For example, in the Air Force, trainees have a mountain of material that they must master in a short amount of time—about one year—before they can go on to train on the specific aircraft they will be working with in their real missions. During this time, trainees will complete about 400 hours of ground training, 150 hours of simulation training and a couple hundred hours in the air flying real aircraft.
Military pilot training is intense, said Lieutenant Colonel Lance Kent, chief of undergraduate pilot training programs in the Air Force, and frankly, not every student is going to make it to the end.
“There is not a whole lot of extra time or additional training that can be allotted to each student if they are unable to keep up with their classmates,” he said. “The students that are able to meet the course training standards—in other words, they have a steep learning curve and are able to keep pace—continue on, but for those who don’t, there are other places that the Air Force may need people to serve, so they are assigned in accordance with the needs of the Air Force.”
The Air Force’s training includes courses on topics such as systems on an aircraft, like electrical systems and engines; navigation; flight safety; and the rules that pilots must follow based on both FAA and Air Force safety standards. In order to reinforce these topics, trainees are required to participate in computer-aided instruction and take tests to demonstrate their knowledge. As the training progresses, students learn about common mission events, such as refueling an aircraft, or making a drop from a plane.
In addition to the classroom instruction, Air Force trainees get practical experience from working in simulators. During these exercises, students get familiar with the aircraft and learn flying skills—such as how to take off and land a plane, how to fly through clouds, and what to do when an aircraft malfunctions.
But training for airmen does not end with what goes on in the classroom or in the cockpit—a large part of preparing to become a pilot involves regulating what goes on between the ears. The human factors associated with being a pilot are also important—so training addresses issues like dealing with stress, risk mitigation and how to recognize performance deficiencies. These are all important skills that pilots—as well as air traffic controllers and maintenance personnel—must work on throughout their careers.
“The human factors component is something that the Air Force focuses on all the way through your aviation career,” Kent said. “It starts as a student and it doesn’t stop—you get refreshed on human factors all the time because as aircraft increase in capability, the human is now the limiting factor in high altitude environments and long duration missions.”
Training the Candidates
Before prospective airmen enter training at the Air Force, they must first participate in flight screening, which is available through defense contractor Doss Aviation Inc. at its Pueblo, Colo., facility. This training, which takes about five weeks to complete, is unlike courses that are offered by many other flight schools because it is based on the Air Force’s curriculum and is designed to mirror the training that students will experience in the military.
“It is purely a military flight training program. You can go out to your local aircraft dealer, show up in flip flops and shorts, pay 150 bucks and they’ll teach you to fly. But at our company, 75 percent of the instructor pilots in Pueblo are ex-military and so we mirror exactly what they do in the Air Force,” said Ken Smith, the company’s president and CEO. “All of our guys that work down there, who were instructor pilots in the Air Force, have built this program so that it’s military-oriented and very structured.”
This structure isn’t for everyone: Just as with the Air Force, some students will not be able to complete the training provided by Doss Aviation. In fact, Smith said that one in 10 students will leave the training—and that’s exactly what the military wants. Because the company uses aircraft that is much less expensive than what is actually used to train in the Air Force, Doss is charged with weeding people out, so that the military does not spend money taking on trainees who will ultimately leave anyway. This attrition is also beneficial for students, as those who decide that being a pilot is not for them based on their experience in Doss training can decide right then and there to pursue an alternative career path in the military.
Those who do get through the training in Pueblo can expect to learn basic flight requirements such as taking off, landing, making turns, and talking on aircraft radios. The classes are designed to prepare students for the Air Force experience— down to the appearance of the classrooms they will see—so that their transition into military training is seamless.
Training the Trainers
In order to teach future pilots, all trainers must be trained. The Hawker Beechcraft Corporation helps the military train these instructors, so that they can go on to teach students how to fly in the company’s T-6 military trainers.
“Most of the instructor pilots that come here to transition into this new airplane are already experienced military pilots and they’ve either been instructor pilots in a different airplane, or they’ve been combat aviators in a different airplane,” said Russ Bartlett, director of business development for the company’s Government Business Division. “So, really we teach them how to fly the T-6— how to operate it, how its systems work and how to teach a student how to fly the airplane.”
During this training, instructors learn about the aircraft from both the front seat and back seat points of view—which allows them to learn the instructors’ and the students’ perspectives. In addition, trainers are taught how to recognize any problems that their students are experiencing in the aircraft and how to rectify those problems quickly.
“It’s so unusual to operate with such freedom in three dimensions, and so when you’re doing things like acrobatics, perhaps a loop where you’re upside down at some point, it can be confusing to a new student,” said Bartlett. “So you have to teach your instructor pilots how to recognize when a student pilot might be getting confused—for example, they learn the typical mistakes that might indicate a loss of situational awareness.”
Training on Specific Aircraft
When the military wants to train students on a specific aircraft, they often go directly to the source. So in order to prepare students for aircraft, such as the F-15, F-16, F-22, or F-35, the military uses the training services provided by Boeing.
“We offer up a whole spectrum of training solutions,” said Matt Mayer, director of Air Force programs for Boeing’s Training Systems and Services. “We have courseware that the students get exposed to with an instructor in a classroom and a full spectrum of training aids—like laptop computers with self-regulated computer based training, all the way up to full motion flight simulators for a fully immersive environment that the students, although they know they’re sitting on the ground in a flight simulator, really act and react to as if they’re in an airplane.”
By using the curriculum provided by the Air Force, Boeing is able to create a safe environment for students to develop their skills, so that when they go on to their training command, they are not learning everything from scratch. This also has huge monetary benefits for the military because it reduces the amount of live flight hours that trainees need.
Modeling Simulation: The Engine of Flight Training
One of the most important factors that contributes to the success of flight training is the realism of simulation. Thanks to companies like Presagis, the military is able to give its training the fidelity that is needed to truly prepare pilots for what they can expect in the aircraft.
Presagis creates modeling software that is used by military contractors that produce simulation, or by the military itself. The company’s products help users create realistic scenarios that include everything from buildings, cars, mountains, rivers and roads to even entire cities and countries. As a result, these products give users the ability to create high-fidelity simulation that replicates the real world and does not introduce any negative training into the courses—a problem that not only instills bad habits, but can also make training pilots physically ill.
“Imagine that you’re sitting in your car and you turn the steering wheel and nothing happens. That’s kind of an unexpected event—I turn my steering wheel and the car should turn,” said Nick Giannias, the company’s vice president of research and technology. “In a pilot’s world, when they’re moving the control stick and the action is slightly delayed, something is happening that is different from what they’re used to and it starts to make them nauseous. Because of that, a lot of them will actually throw up in a simulator if you don’t get all of the effects exactly right.”
Giannias said that another advantage of using Presagis’ products is that they give users the flexibility that they need to create simulation. The company’s products can be easily used with each other, or even with tools from other companies, so that users can pick and choose the capabilities that they need and confidently know that these solutions will work seamlessly with one another.
“You can grab them, take advantage of what already comes out of the box, and then add the little bit of extra that you need,” he said. ♦