We’re not talking about mind-bending substances or immersive gaming, but about cutting-edge and ever-evolving new technologies.

Sometimes referred to collectively as ‘extended reality’ (ER), virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR) simulation or ‘synthetic training’ allows search and rescue (SAR) winch operators to train for different scenarios and conditions without the risks and costs attendant on ‘real-life’ training operations.

Typically, VR is totally immersive, allowing the trainee to interact with the surrounding virtual environment using headsets and specialised controllers.

AR uses smart glasses or smartphones with ‘pass-through’ vision that allows data to be overlaid onto the user’s physical surroundings or lets the user step out of the VR experience to view the real world, while MR uses VR headsets and goggles in combination with using actual controls. Latest systems employ haptic technology for added realism – creating the physical sensation of touch, vibration and motion in three dimensions.

Multi-variable complexity

Simulation technology adapts readily to SAR training, and the latest high-fidelity tech has the potential to revolutionise rear-crew training, according to companies that use it, such as Bluedrop Training and Simulation.

Nearly 70% of SAR missions take place in a marine environment, where the hoist rescue is often accomplished using complex procedures and equipment amid wind, rain, spray, and rotor wash, and locations such as a sinking vessel with many snag points for the hoist cable, pointed out Jean-Claude Siew, Bluedrop’s Executive Vice President Technology and Simulation.

Training on an aircraft, it is impossible to expose a student to every possibility and to ensure they have built sufficiently strong mental models to adapt procedures to a given situation

“Yet the first time a rescue operator hoists in these perilous environments is often during live operations. Until now, there has never been a training device able to provide the multi-variable complexity representative of SAR hoisting. Bluedrop’s Hoist Mission Training System (HMTS) has already changed the landscape of rear-crew training,” he said.

Bluedrop’s HMTS combines the VR/MR immersive environment with full haptics and a fully dynamic cable to provide real-time training for multiple hoisting situations, such as heavy winds and high seas, hoisting to a moving platform, and managing a turbulent flow zone. It's a world first as the HMTS enables real-life helicopter hoist operations training, while saving flying time, reducing costs, and providing better safety, Siew claims. “We have recognised that the addition of VR/MR alone is not sufficient. Most existing cable simulations are either elastic band or a cable with only up-down movement and fixed tension. The training outcome is too limiting if the objective is to reduce live training flights and improve efficiency.”

As Ian Bonthrone, Managing Director of Air Rescue UK, pointed out, in helicopter SAR operations, no two situations are identical. “Weather conditions change, aircraft performance can change, sea states can change, hazards can change, and the actors involved in a situation – whether they are other rescue assets, coordinating assets or others trying to assist – are unlikely to have similar training,” he said.

“Training on an aircraft, it is impossible to expose a student to every possibility and to ensure they have built sufficiently strong mental models to adapt procedures to a given situation. As a result, training has focused on standard operating procedures compliance and relying on experience on the job to build the mental models that enable the hoist operator to make safe, timely decisions in a complex environment.

“Some will be exposed very quickly to multiple scenarios on the job. However, many others may spend long periods of time not doing any operational hoisting or only completing simple operations.

“Until recently, a fairly low level of fidelity was accepted for simulation,” continued Bonthrone. “Most training was done on static or low-fidelity trainers and then in the actual helicopter. New-generation hoist simulators with full-fidelity cable haptics can transform the training continuum from initial to advanced training and decrease live flights, improve safety and allow trainees to practice low-repetition high-risk missions.”

High-fidelity simulation

Historically, the levels of lifelike fidelity that simulations can provide have been constrained by the available technology, Bonthrone pointed out. Advances in computing power and display technology, though, have resulted in significant changes in the simulation landscape. “The key risk benefit of high-fidelity simulation is that the helicopter hoist operator, whether in initial training or in continuation training, can be exposed to ever more challenging situations, which may pose significant risk in training on a helicopter but which is perfectly safe in the simulator.”

A group of students can be exposed to the same scenario, in the same conditions, to ensure standardisation of teaching and learning, Bonthrone pointed out. Cost is another significant benefit, especially to operations using medium, super-medium and heavy helicopters.

The ability to link simulator systems can allow high-fidelity, high-quality training to be provided for pilots, hoist operators and mission specialists, within the same training exercise, and promote effective crew resource management

“New technologies can provide a very high level of fidelity, combining high physical, task and functional fidelity,” he said. “Dynamic cable haptics can replicate aircraft physical characteristics in all details, including location, size, shape, appearance, variable cable tensions and forces, and 3D cable movement.

“Virtual reality headsets provide high-quality visual representations of the task environment at considerably reduced cost compared with traditional display technologies.

“Mixed reality simulations combine virtual reality headsets with physical representation of system elements, such as the cabin doorway, hoist controls and the hoist cable, to provide high levels of physical and functional fidelity and allow for a high level of physical interaction with other aircraft components while remaining in a virtual environment. New-generation hoist simulators can offer all of these.”

The ability to link simulator systems can allow high-fidelity, high-quality training to be provided for pilots, hoist operators and mission specialists, within the same training exercise, and promote effective crew resource management.

“Of course, that leads to two key definitions of principles that relate to simulator use, both of which are often misrepresented,” Bonthrone cautioned. “Positive training transfer occurs when task performance in the live environment is improved after training in the simulator compared with prior performance in the live environment. Where new tasks are being taught, or for ab initio students, it will manifest as the students’ ability to perform the new tasks correctly in the live environment after simulator training.

“Two main factors affect training transfer: the degree to which the task environment presented by the simulator matches the live task environment, and the instructor’s ability to use the simulator effectively,” Bonthrone continued. “The first is closely coupled to aspects of fidelity, whilst the second is related to instructor training.

“Ironically, simulation can provide more fidelity than an aircraft when it comes to practicing those things which cannot be carried through to completion in the air, for example cable cut, hoist emergencies and cable entanglements.”

There is, though, a point at which the level of fidelity in simulation reaches its limits, Bonthrone conceded. The biggest challenge for those training with new simulators is adapting to achieve the most effective learning from simulation, he suggested.

“Our experience with our Bluedrop HMTS has prompted a change in our training philosophy from teaching a procedure and expecting trainees to build their mental models for applying the procedures over time to being able to develop the mental models in the trainee so that they can make the most suitable and safe decisions when they are first faced with complexity on a mission. Advances in simulation will come from the use of AI to measure the data points available. Done correctly, a lot of the subjectivity can be removed from the training environment and trainee progress can be measured against a target,” he added.

“Rear-crew training using high-fidelity simulators may be a long way behind the training of pilots, but the technology we have now and in the near term means that the future has arrived and we can revolutionize rear-crew training,” Bonthrone concluded.

Cost implications

Training in virtual reality is highly time- and cost-effective compared with ‘real-world’ training, providers point out. According to Priority 1 Air Rescue (P1AR), a Bordeaux-based SAR mission training specialist which in February signed a second four-year contract to provide enhanced SAR/tactical mission training for the French military’s helicopter aircrews, synthetic mission training reduces live flight training time by an average of 50%, providing significant cost savings.

Announcing the contract, P1AR’s Chief Operations Officer, Steve Barreau, underlined the benefits of simulation training. “Employing a virtual simulation component provides not only realistic immersion, but, more importantly, a more graduated learning process that also includes accurate context to the skills and scenarios being practiced and employed during actual live flight, which will significantly enhance our partners’ ability to train for their complete range of missions,” he said.

Training in simulation is also more climate-friendly. A helicopter emits around 500kg of CO2 per hour; a VR simulator’s carbon footprint is minimal. “Operating a simulator is more environmentally sound,” Bonthrone said.

In some parts of the world, though, the capital cost of importing VR technology is considered unaffordable due to high taxation on imports, while low flight crew pay makes simulation training less effective cost-wise, said Chris Sharpe, Chief Aircrewman of Guatemala-based Black Wolf Helicopters, which offers SAR services and training, rotorcraft crew training and SAR medical training.

“Most Latin American countries have a minimum of 100% tax before [the equipment] arrives at the airport, so anything is literally too expensive,” Sharpe said. There are no hoist simulators within Central and South America, he pointed out.

Hoist sim training is the best option, as it allows the hoist operator to understand the fundamentals and drills prior to a live actual aircraft operation

“Absolutely, hoist sim training is the best option, as it allows the hoist operator to understand the fundamentals and drills prior to a live actual aircraft operation,” Sharpe said. “There is no such thing as an ‘exercise’ with real aircraft operating.”

Budgetary constraints, though, mean simulation training is unlikely to become a viable option for companies in the region. “A pilot earns on average $1,000 a month, and $25 per flight hour. Compare that to the cost of a hoist simulator. Simulators for hoist operators will at a guess never happen down here,” he predicted.

“Mexico City Police’s helicopter unit, Agrupamiento Condores, has a gantry tower with a pickup-type winch to allow limited training. Apart from that, the only simulators available are pilot-only simulators, so, as a training provider, we need to rigidly stick with ground school, static drills and then actual operations,” Sharpe concluded.

Virtual reality training may be slow to reach some parts of the globe, but for many SAR operators it already offers a brave new world in simulation.