Students from the Pilot Training Next Program conduct drag training at Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas, March 2, 2018. This training simulates a parachute dragging the pilot on the ground after landing. The goal of this training is to familiarize pilots with parachute disconnect procedures so they can avoid injuries while being dragged by a parachute after landing. The Pilot Training Next program is putting 15 officers and five enlisted members through a new pilot training program geared toward creating what is being termed fighter trained unit-ready Airmen. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Robert L. McIlrath)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n\u201cWhat we\u2019re finding is that \u2026 some of the things that we\u2019re expecting to be hurdles\u201d aren\u2019t a problem, Van De Water said. For example, \u201cI can\u2019t reach out and grab the gear handle [because] there\u2019s nothing physically there. But because of the level of immersiveness in the visual environment, your brain makes the connections.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sometimes, he said, students get so lost in the simulator that they try to grab something in the virtual cockpit to help them turn around in the seat, forgetting that it\u2019s not actually there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On that day, three instructors guided about eight students through lessons on aerial combat. The students softly chattered to one another, occasionally whipping their goggled heads around without warning to look over their shoulders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Air Force considered several commercial off-the-shelf VR headsets, like the Oculus Rift, but chose the VIVE Pro because its organic light-emitting diode display had the best resolution. It\u2019s not yet at perfect \u201ceyeball resolution,\u201d Van De Water said \u2014 there are still some details of instruments that are a little blurrier than they\u2019d like \u2014 but it\u2019s good enough, and the technology is getting better all the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite its greater authenticity, the new technology is much cheaper than legacy simulators. Each VIVE costs less than $1,000. And when the seat, computer, software, display screens for instructors, stick, throttle, and other equipment is factored in, each VR simulator setup runs about $15,000. So, the entire suite of 20 simulators in the \u201csim bay\u201d cost about $300,000.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A legacy simulator, on the other hand, would cost about $4.5 million, he said. And students would still have to stand in line to get their shot at the controls, one after another.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the Pilot Training Next classroom, there\u2019s nothing keeping all 20 students from flying at the same time \u2014 even alongside or against one another in the same virtual airspace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the end of the day, they can squeeze in a little more flight time back at the dorm rooms. Every two students share their own additional VIVE Pro, stick and throttle setup at home for after-hours practice. The system\u2019s AI will see if a student is developing a bad habit when practicing by himself and correct him before it sinks in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Van De Water said that students in a traditional pilot training environment typically average 1 \u00bd sorties per day, both in the simulator and flying trainers such as the T-6 Texan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pilot Training Next students, on the other hand, average two sorties per day, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And there are other advantages as well to this kind of a simulator, Van De Water said. If an aspiring pilot needs to practice flying a loop in a T-6, he\u2019s got to wait until a Texan is available, fueled up and ready to fly. He\u2019s got to spend time taking off and landing, and other activities that have to be done when flying a real plane, which limits how much time he can spend flying loops.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But in a VR simulator, he said, there\u2019s no wait. The instructor can start him off in mid-air, and he can get right to practicing his loops. So when it comes time for that Pilot Training Next student to fly in a real trainer, he\u2019s already got the fundamentals of flying a loop down cold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey have unfettered access,\u201d Van De Water said. \u201cThey can come down [to work on flying] whenever they want, as opposed to having a very limited resource, that they only get a certain number of touch points throughout the course of instruction.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And because the simulators are side-by-side, barely feet from one another, a single instructor can easily sit between two students, observing them both and offering guidance, Van De Water said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Instructor pilot Capt. John \u201cFlop\u201d Joern said Pilot Training Next is a much less linear way to learn than the traditional model, which usually has a set, year-long syllabus of one lesson after another that must be followed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But under Pilot Training Next, instructors can tailor the lessons to what each individual student needs, Joern said. That means, if a student is a natural at one flight technique, but is lacking in another, the instructor has the freedom to concentrate on the student\u2019s deficient skill and not waste time on something he\u2019s already good at.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe found that just by unchaining the students from the syllabus, they can progress much faster,\u201d Joern said. \u201cI don\u2019t need to go out [with a student] for the next seven rides and practice that one maneuver [he\u2019s already mastered]. Whether it\u2019s a cloverleaf, a Cuban eight, a barrel roll, the list goes on. We spend, in the traditional model, a lot of time trying to get students proficient at these maneuvers, when they really could be focusing that time on other things such as instrument flying, formation flying, or introducing new concepts to them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\nSenior Airman Kristyn Widger, 82nd Aerospace Medical Squadron physiology technician, gives instructions to Pilot Training Next students during a hypobaric chamber flight at Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas, March 1, 2018. The chamber is used to let aircrew members experience hypoxia in a controlled environment. Hypoxia is a deficiency of oxygen to vital organs, causing inability to sustain bodily function. Pilots go through this training prior to flying so they are better able to recognize symptoms and correct them if they occur. The Pilot Training Next program is putting 15 officers and five enlisted members through a new pilot training program geared toward creating what is being termed fighter trained unit-ready Airmen. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Robert L. McIlrath)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nJeorn also said that tailoring lessons to each individual student \u2014 as opposed to following a set syllabus \u2014 forces him to be more creative in how he teaches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If the students can more quickly move on to greater challenges \u2014 such as flying with another aviator in the same airspace \u2014 they rise to meet those challenges, Joern said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The expensive hydraulics used in a standard simulator to move a cockpit around don\u2019t add much to the learning process, Van De Water noted. And as the graphics of a simulation get better and better, the value of recreating physical motion decreases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t simulate five or six [G-forces], even with a motion simulator,\u201d Van De Water said. \u201cYou\u2019d have to put him in a centrifuge, or on a roller coaster. Our eyes do a pretty phenomenal job of tricking our brains into thinking that the motion is there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lt. Gen. Steven Kwast, head of Air Education and Training Command, agreed, and suggested the days of the hydraulic-operated simulator that physically feels like the real thing may be coming to an end.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe human brain does not care about motion,\u201d he said. \u201cYou do not need perfect fidelity in the way it feels to your fingers, or the way it feels to your body. The human body learns those things fast. What the body needs is a lot of cognitive repetitions. So now, instead of spending millions of dollars on a simulator that is anchored in one location and can only have one person at a time in it, I can afford to give everybody their own simulator that they can take home with them in their pocket. And they can go through as many cognitive reps as they want.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sometimes, the accuracy of old-style simulators is \u201cmore than lacking,\u201d Kwast said. For example, the F-35 simulator used by the Air Force is \u201cnothing like the real aircraft.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhy? Because we can\u2019t afford it, because it\u2019s too expensive to upgrade the software in the simulator, and upgrade the software in the jet,\u201d Kwast said. \u201cSo we upgrade it in the jet, so the jet is leading edge. But the entire training pipeline is training on something they know does not exist in the jet. \u2026 And when they get to their fighter squadron, they kind of have to start all over. What a waste.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pilot Training Next uses commercially-available flight simulator software like X-Plane and Lockheed Martin\u2019s Prepar3D program to recreate dozens, or even hundreds of different civilian and military aircraft \u2014 anything from a T-6 Texan trainer, to a C-130 Hercules, to an H-60 helicopter, to an F-35.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And with all those options, Van De Water said, instructors can throw curveballs at a student who\u2019s getting a little too comfortable, and put her in an unfamiliar aircraft. That way, she has to figure out quickly how fast to fly, how to land, and other techniques unique to that strange plane. This will make her more of a \u201cgeneralist\u201d with the aviation skills needed to fly most, or all airplanes \u2014 not limiting her to a specialization in one particular plane.<\/p>\n\n\n\nT6 Aircrafts taxi toward the runway at Randolph AFB.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nBut while the first batch of Pilot Training Next graduates learned to fly much more quickly than students in the traditional year-long curriculum, Van De Water said the Air Force isn\u2019t aiming to completely replace pilot training as it exists with this new program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe overall objective [is], how do we expedite learning, how do we increase the durability of the learning?\u201d Van De Water said. \u201cAs they\u2019re learning these concepts, how do we arrive at the end point faster? How do we become more efficient with our resources, not for the sake of resources, but for the sake of student time \u2014 getting them out to the Air Force \u2026 quicker so that we have more time with them as viable combat aviators.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The second test class of Pilot Training Next students will begin next January, Kwast said. When they\u2019re finished, Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson and Chief of Staff Gen. Dave Goldfein will review the data from the two classes and decide whether and how to use this kind of a model throughout the Air Force.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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