Hoist operations are not restricted to search and rescue (SAR), Ian Bonthrone, Managing Director of Air Rescue UK, pointed out, dropping engineers onto wind turbines being an example of other work. What is different with SAR is the environmental conditions that can come with the task – for example, night, poor visibility, high winds, rain and choppy seas. In this situation, the target vessel is moving in six planes in the water, then there is the movement of the water itself and the wind and its effect on the vessel, the helicopter and the person on the hoist. This is dynamic hoisting on a reactive operation.

In contrast, delivering an engineer to a wind turbine will take place in good weather and involves coming to a 15ft hover beside the nacelle, moving sideways above it to winch out, repeating the process to winch in. This is static hoisting on a planned operation. Of course, the pilot workload is also significantly reduced in this case – they may as well be over an airfield, Bonthrone said.

In fact, both European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) regulations are written for commercial air transport hoisting, and require just six lifts from an airfield to qualify, enabling people to carry out duties such as pilot transfers to/from ships. Although there might be some movement of the vessel, the lifting area is usually clearly marked with plenty of space.

Bonthrone said there should be a responsibility on the operators to ensure that hoist operators are suitably trained and qualified for the company’s operations. One of the most important reasons for this is that command of the aircraft changes on scene. The hoist operator becomes the eyes of the pilots, calling directions to reach the best position for lifting while monitoring obstacle clearance.

Initially, a hoist tower was sometimes used but everything is fixed, so it is unrealistic. It can be useful in learning how to manipulate the cable and in getting people or a stretcher in and out of the cabin but not much else.

Indeed, even using the helicopter can have its drawbacks, as training can only be carried out in the conditions on the day and there are stricter aircraft safety standards, such as being ‘single engine safe’, which requires planning around escape routes in case of an engine failure. These do not apply on real missions. In addition, for a training sortie, there is transit time to and from the exercise area, perhaps some time for the pilots to practice search patterns and then a brief period of hoisting.

The value of immersive training

The value of simulators includes standardized training – every student can be put through exactly the same scenario, whereas, on the helicopter, wind or sea conditions might quickly change

Bonthrone said that simulators can be used for static and dynamic hoist training. Haptic feedback on the cable means the operator can feel the effects of weight and environmental factors and is as useful as a flight simulation training device (FSTD) for a pilot, while adding virtual reality (VR) allows immersion in the operation. In this way, training can be more diverse and operations can be made more complex as the student progresses. However, the value of simulators includes standardized training – every student can be put through exactly the same scenario, whereas, on the helicopter, wind or sea conditions might quickly change. As the training sessions can be recorded, there can be an objective analysis of the student’s performance, allowing focus on weaker areas.

Of course, full VR and haptics are cheaper than using a real helicopter, but there is still a big cost difference from a static trainer, he commented.

His company uses the Hoist Mission Training System (HMTS) from Bluedrop, which can also be wet leased to other operators, with Air Rescue UK providing instructors, or dry leased, the operator providing their own training staff. It is building a new training center in Harwich to open later this year to be close to offshore wind farms.

Bonthrone is a trustee of the Mike Holman Foundation, a scholarship set up in memory of a former colleague who was a technical crewmember and paramedic with wide experience of SAR. The scholarship will initially provide ground training and simulator flight training to one selected candidate per year to bring them up to ‘pre-operator conversion standard’ as a technical crewmember for employment on hoist operations. The next step is a scholarship winner who has aviation experience and aptitude but has never formally qualified as a hoist operator. Air Rescue UK will help candidates find employment.

The company provides crew for a number of operators worldwide, including Heliconia of Morocco in Senegal and Weststar Aviation Services of Malaysia in Namibia, both for SAR operations supporting the oil and gas industry, as well as working with Bristow in the Falklands. Training services are also provided to Alidaunia in Italy.

Jean-Claude Siew, Vice President of Technology and Simulation at Bluedrop Training & Simulation, said that instead of going from a static hoist tower to a real helicopter, the company’s HMTS provides initial, recurrent and mission training capabilities that allow a winch operator to practice mission-critical skills in a safe, true-to-life environment.

It is a fully immersive, high-fidelity virtual/mixed reality simulator with full cable haptics, using a digital model to realistically display the interior of the helicopter and the outside world, the latter being a very accurate geographical representation of the user’s area of operations.

Another advantage of the virtual world model is that it can be adapted to match changes in the operational environment. This might be a new high-rise building, where evacuation from the roof might be needed in case of fire, or, due to climate change, some areas are experiencing flash flooding. Being able to simulate a swollen river allows practice in lifting someone off the roof of a house or a submerged car.

It also makes use of data from monitoring the trainee’s behavior, allowing the trainer to quickly identify where mistakes are being made and correct them. For example, eye movement: in a simulated SAR mission, trainees have a tendency to look around randomly, trying to spot the survivor in the water, while experienced crew follow a deliberate visual search pattern. Early on, trainees also tend to pull too much on the cable. Siew said it might be possible to introduce biometrics, to show stress levels. As it is, the level of realism can sometimes be too much for people unaccustomed to being in an open helicopter doorway in flight.

The data is used to provide an objective assessment of the trainee’s skills when it comes to pass or fail, rather than the trainer’s personal opinion

The data is used to provide an objective assessment of the trainee’s skills when it comes to pass or fail, rather than the trainer’s personal opinion.

Different helicopter types and practice scenarios

There are variations in the HMTS for each helicopter type – currently Boeing CH-47 Chinook, Leonardo AW101, Leonardo AW169, Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk / Firehawk and Sikorsky S-92, with an Airbus Helicopters H145 under development at the moment – to replicate the rear cabin layout. Although everything is virtual, door sizes and where to stand to operate the winch differ between types, so it needs to be physically accurate. Operating panels can also be installed to allow emergency procedures to be practiced, such as hoist overheating or even a cable cut.

Although everything is virtual, door sizes and where to stand to operate the winch differ between types, so it needs to be physically accurate. Operating panels can also be installed to allow emergency procedures to be practiced, such as hoist overheating or even a cable cut

The simulator flight model uses generic data representing small, medium and large helicopter types, which is adequate for this type of training – full-flight simulator data is much more expensive to acquire, Siew noted. The instructor flies the simulator, responding to the trainee’s instructions once over the target. This allows trainees to practice realistic rescue and hoisting operations in challenging scenarios complete with realistic cable behavior that responds to flight dynamics and operator inputs. Training can include advanced live cable management, crew communications, mission rehearsal, the physics of swinging loads, seamless integration with a variety of flight training devices, use of night vision goggles (NVG) and changing environmental conditions.

While the HMTS is usually installed at the operator’s main training base, there is a smaller, Portable HMTS version that can be loaded into a truck and taken to an airfield. It has the same features as the full system but the helicopter fuselage is more generic.

One operator with both types is the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE), which provides varied emergency services in 36 of the US state’s 58 counties via contracts with local governments. It has a fleet of 12 Sikorsky S-70i Firehawk helicopters, which can drop water but are also used for SAR. Siew noted that, on this helicopter, the rear crew often exit the cabin and stand outside on two steps, and these have been replicated in the full-size device.

The fixed full-size HMTS is at CAL FIRE’s aviation training facility in McClellan, California, where it will be integrated with a flight training device to provide full crew training for missions carried out by both the flight crew and the rear crew. The Portable HMTS is deployed to different sites for recurrent training.

Cougar Helicopters in Canada uses Sikorsky S-92s to provide SAR cover for the offshore oil and gas industry and has integrated an HMTS with a full-flight simulator.

Mountain rescue training in Bavaria

There is another sophisticated training device available, the Rescue Hoist Trainer (RHT) from AMST. This first entered service in 2008 at the Bergwacht-Zentrum für Sicherheit und Ausbildung (BW-ZSA; Mountain Rescue Center for Safety and Training) in Bad Tölz, near Munich. This is run by Bergwacht Bayern (Bavarian Mountain Rescue Service). AMST has supplied similar systems for military use but these have more focus on fast roping and speed rappelling than SAR.

The RHT, which is a BW-ZSA patented design, is essentially a crane that can travel across the ceiling of the center and can raise and lower a mock-up helicopter cabin suspended underneath. Originally, this was an MBB BK117, using a real aircraft donated by Airbus and representing the most common type of rescue helicopter used in Germany at that time. This gives an accurate representation of the door size and skids for access/egress training but is really only a ‘skin’. Inside the fuselage is a safety cage with a structure that can stand up to the extensive use it undergoes for about 300 days of the year, with 4,000 trainees annually.

Tobias Seidl, Subject Matter Expert at AMST, explained that over 95% of rescue personnel in Germany are volunteers. In the past, the several operators that would respond to calls for helicopter assistance would each come with their own standard operating procedures (SOPs) for hoisting operations, making it complicated. There is now one standard for everyone as a result of BW-ZSA. In addition, training sessions with actual helicopters can be subject to cancellation for weather or operational reasons, as well as burning fuel and consuming airframe life. In fact, running the entire center for one day is less than the cost of running some helicopters for one hour.

In the past, the several operators that would respond to calls for helicopter assistance would each come with their own SOPs for hoisting operations, making it complicated

As demand grew for training, requests came in from organizations with larger helicopters and, in 2016, AMST entered into a partnership with BW-ZSA for a generic mock-up to represent these types. This included port and starboard opening doors, with a central winch that can be deployed on either side, while, to add to the realism, the cabin can move ±10° in pitch and ±8° in roll, with fans to simulate rotor downwash, and speakers inside and outside to produce engine noise. Seidl said this reflects the philosophy of the company, which manufactures a range of other simulators at its facility in Ranshofen, Austria, that “you have to see it, touch it, feel it, hear it” to get the best out of training.

Such is the demand, the large cabin trainer has accumulated more than 120,000 winch cycles to date (the BK117 racked up more than 300,000 winch cycles). To put this in context, 12,000 rescue missions are carried out just in Bavaria each year, of which 2,000 are in difficult terrain requiring helicopter support.

Earlier this year, the BK117 was replaced by a mock-up of an Airbus Helicopters H145, which is now used by most German organizations with SAR operations and throughout Europe, with the same special effects as the larger cabin device.

The downwash and noise effects are a useful and alarming introduction for first-timers but, Seidl noted, except for the military, most training sessions are used without them, allowing instructions to be shouted if necessary.

In addition to acquiring basic skills for additional aircrew members, especially rescuers, doctors and winch operators, the RHT can be used for familiarization and practicing of the whole rescue hoist procedure, the use of rescue equipment, like stretchers, rescue slings, harnesses and restraint systems, and training in different environmental situations. One of these is rescue from a cable car or chair lift, and these are represented in the center.

Teams can also learn to run an entire mission, from waiting in a crew room through receiving the alarm, getting aboard, flying to the scene, lowering to the casualty and assessing injuries to recovery with the winch, onboard treatment, unloading the patient, and passing through hospital doors and an elevator to hand over in the emergency room

While there are no specific models in the center, winch training is also available for applications such as repair and maintenance work on cable cars, electrical pylons, cranes, wind turbines and telecommunications equipment. There are models of several types of roof (flat, tiled, metal). Teams can also learn to run an entire mission, from waiting in a crew room through receiving the alarm, getting aboard, flying to the scene, lowering to the casualty and assessing injuries to recovery with the winch, onboard treatment, unloading the patient, and passing through hospital doors and an elevator to hand over in the emergency room.

The center is 60m long, 25m wide and 20m high, with 13m between the helicopter landing gear and floor level. The walls are a transparent honeycomb foil, while no heating or air conditioning has been installed – a simple, green way to carry out training 24/7 as and when required. For five to six weeks of the year, a trench in the floor is filled with water to practice water surface evacuation, with pumps producing a current but no waves.

Overall, training intensity is 10 times higher than using a real helicopter, with trainees getting 10–20 cycles over a weekend. Step by step and scalable training conditions and workload take students from the floor progressively higher as the course progresses. If there is a mistake or misunderstanding, the session can be stopped, rebriefed and recommenced, with direct feedback from the instructor.

Seidl pointed out that RHT is not intended for pilots, although they can be included for crew resource management, as it has the slower dynamics of a crane. Combined with a non-representative cockpit, this could be negative training for flight crew. Instead, an instructor from the outside organization or BW-ZSA ‘flies’ the crane and controls the session.

A physical job

One BW-ZSA customer is Bristow, which has been sending trainees for five years. Alec Aspden, Bristow SAR Technical Crew Manager, oversees about 120 winch paramedics, who are leaving at a rate of about 10% per year, mainly due to retirement, although there are opportunities elsewhere in the world. These people are mainly ex-military SAR personnel who transferred to HM Coastguard when it took over from the Royal Air Force (RAF) and Royal Navy – Bristow has had the operating contract with the UK’s Maritime & Coastguard Agency since 2012. It also operates SAR helicopters in Ireland, the Netherlands and the Dutch Antilles.

Realistic training is very important. SAR is a physical job that also requires some aircrew skills and a need to learn SOPs

Aspden said realistic training is very important. SAR is a physical job that also requires some aircrew skills and a need to learn SOPs. VR can teach SOPs but there is no system at present that has the fidelity required to teach people how to physically do things. If a VR rear-crew trainer is linked to a flight simulator, it can teach those aircrew skills, such as crew resource management, but these are few and far between.

That means the only way to train is under a helicopter. However, that introduces cost, CO₂ emissions and a degree of risk. Hence the use of BW-ZSA, but this is really designed for land-based operations. Bristow’s SAR missions include 30% at sea and 20% in coastal areas, so a wet training facility was also required. This is the Meriturva Maritime Safety Training Center in Lohja, Finland, which features a helicopter cabin suspended over a large wave tank, with a deck area as a target. Different sea states can be simulated, making the training realistic.

Aspden designed the course as a series of modules, with the intention that, if the company decided to build its own training center in the UK, it could be introduced a module at a time. In fact, construction of just such a facility has started at Lee-on-Solent airfield in southern England, expected to open next year. Lee-on-Solent is the location of one of the company’s SAR bases and also the HM Coastguard training center (although this has no connection to the Bristow facility). A multi-million-pound investment, it features the AMST Rescue Hoist Trainer as well as a wave tank, and a simulated moving deck as well as wind and rain effects. It will also be available to other organizations.