The Air Force has a new 32,000-square-foot facility designed to
train flight crews that operate E-3 Airborne Warning and Control
System (AWACS) aircraft.
The facility includes two new AWACS operational flight trainers.
Flight crews—consisting of a pilot, co-pilot, and flight engineer—can
practice takeoffs, landings, aerial refueling and emergency procedures.
The operational flight trainers provide a high-fidelity simulated
cockpit, a six-degree-of-freedom motion system that replicates the
aircraft’s flight attitudes and out-the-window, computer generated
imagery.
The flight simulator can replicate weather conditions, wind turbulence
and even generate smoke in the cockpit.
The training facility is located at Tinker Air Force Base, Okla.
If the simulator passes the required tests, AWACS crew members
will be able to receive some flight certifications without having
to leave the ground.
“Civilian airline pilots can get certified in a simulator
today, walk out to a plane tomorrow, and land it with a planeload
of passengers,” said Pat Donley, director of the E-3 simulation
certification program. “You, as a passenger, would never know
that it was your pilot’s first time landing a real jet.”
The AWACS flight simulator came online in June, replacing the wing’s
1960s technology. The pilot, co-pilot, navigator and flight engineer
can practice takeoffs, landings and emergency procedures with a
full-motion system and computer-generated images.
“The simulator works just like a real plane, except it has
a new-car smell,” Donley said. “It can simulate night,
day, turbulence and ice on the runway. We can even use graphic images
that depict the areas to which AWACS crews deploy.”
The simulators will not fully replace actual flying training, since
Air Force pilots also must practice tactical maneuvers and midair
refueling, but simulator training saves maintenance and fuel costs.
“This will replace the need for flight crews to fly, and
for the Air Force to maintain, TC-18 training aircraft that crews
have had to fly before transitioning to the operation of an E-3
AWACS,” said David Williams, vice president of training services
for Link Training.
The company’s $60 million facility houses two full-motion
E-3 flight trainers and one E-3 flight-training device. Link Training
is responsible for operating and maintaining the facility and equipment,
as well as providing instructors and training material.
A team of testers from Eglin Air Force base certify that training
in the simulator actually replicates training that could be done
on an actual aircraft. The testers, working with E-3 experts, rate
each simulated task. If a task is rated a “1,” then
that simulated task can take the place of the aircrew member having
to do the task in a real plane. If the certification team rates
a simulator task as a “2,” then that task can only be
used for training purposes and cannot be used to keep an aircrew
member’s training up-to-date.
CAE Military Training and Simulation, of Canada, designed and manufactured
the suite of E-3 training devices. The equipment was ordered in
November 1999 and delivered in September 2002.
The two E-3 operational flight trainers, which exceed the FAA’s
Level D qualification standards, feature a 225-degree by 50-degree
field-of-view display system. It has sophisticated aircraft simulation
models, such as the downwash effects of air-to-air refueling.
Both the E-3 operational flight trainer and the E-3 flight-training
device can be networked so aircrews can practice and rehearse team
exercises and joint missions. The AWACS flight-training device,
which lacks a motion or visual system, is a realistic cockpit replica
that will enable aircrews to receive instruction in essential elements
of cockpit resource management and crew coordination.
Link has been the prime contractor for E-3 flight crew training
since 1993 and currently is operating the program under a $158 million
contract awarded in 1999 that could extend through 2014.
Link is revising and producing new instructional courseware that
will be delivered via computer and paper-based materials.—Compiled
from Air Combat Command News Service reports and company news releases.