The Air Force is moving more and more towards training their pilots in simulators.
I'm not sure if this is a good thing or not. It certainly will likely be cheaper,[1] which will satisfy the flag officer/bureaucrats in Ft. Fumble. The airlines were early adopters of simulator training because it's supposedly almost as good, it's a lot cheaper to do it that way and their stockholders don't like training crashes.
But airlines fly the same routes. The crews bid on those routes. The Air Froce suppsedly has to be ready to go anywhere at anytime. Flying real airples has the potential to introduce elements that are not in the lesson plan for that day's flight, which may teach adaptability. And it may concentrate the mind to know that fucking up a flight could lead to going home in a box.
But maybe not.
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[1] Air Force procurement can't even buy a fucking tanker without incompetence and massive cost overruns. The Air Force procurement offices should be moved to Stockholm.
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4 comments:
Honestly, once you get past the Private Pilot VFR stage, it matters little how you train.
Maybe the maneuvers for the Commercial rating, but those are pretty much VFR maneuvers. IFR is pretty much the same in a simulator as in the seat of the airplane.
I disagree,
Simulator is excellent for procedure and other repetitive
training cases. IFR simulation and things one has just
got to be able to know and use without referring to
the book. it may get some disciplines worked in like
keeping a good scan. Its certainly enough to get you
to the door and flying at the basic level but it misses
the queasy feeling you get when the view in the window
goes white and you realize your in the stuff. Then
add the your butt and ears lie to you while gauges
say straight and level or worse the other way around.
It cannot duplicate a F-mumble pulling more than 4Gs
in a climbing turn. Or the sudden deceleration of a
gear up landing. Maybe the kick of going to METO power.
For the dynamic environment of dodging stuff and
putting energetic things on target I think TopGun
and similar schools are still going to be a thing.
Most of them will be flying routes for air refuel
or material/logistics. So ATP style training makes
sense.
Eck!
And then there are the aircraft designers (Airbus) that design for every possible contingency and produce an aircraft that doesn't let you fly outside the envelope. Which works pretty well...until it doesn't.
After all, just like programming: code always runs fine after it's been rigorously tested. That's why it never needs updates or bug fixes.
The iron rule of reality: train for the WTF moments, so that the pilot has a chance of pulling things off.
Simulators are great for developing flow, Practicing procedures, doing check rides that require demonstrating proper recovery and CRM during emergency events. In that scenario they're irreplaceable. I believe one can acquire a type rating in a sim. But training in a sim up to pinning on a set of wings? that doesn't seem safe to me.
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