Helikoptersimulering

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S-92 simulator

Sikorsky and FlightSafety International will deploy new S-92 flight simulators in Norway, Brazil, Southeast Asia and the U.S. Gulf Coast to serve the deepwater oil and gas market.

In parallel with global business jet sales, pilot training activity is, for the most part, stable and growing somewhat, particularly in new markets. At the same time, flight-training providers are reporting unprecedented growth in the civil helicopter sector, with much of this being driven by a surge in demand for rotorcraft support in the booming offshore oil and gas industries, plus the deployment of new-generation helicopter simulator Technology.

But beyond these developments in the bizjet arena, the action in training and simulation is almost all helicopters. With oil and gas rigs moving further offshore, as much as 200 or more miles, and the requirement to ferry 15 to 20 workers at a time, demand is spiking for larger, long-range transport helicopters such as the Sikorsky S-92, Eurocopter EC225 Super Puma and AgustaWestland AW189, which is expected to be certified this year.

Going Offshore

"We are seeing tremendous growth and opportunity in the helicopter training market, especially in offshore oil operations," said FSI communications vice president Steve Phillips. "The large fleet operators are looking to have simulators located close to their bases. In addition, the number of flight crews per helicopter tends to be much greater than it is with fixed-wing aircraft. [The operators] are much less willing to have their pilots and technicians travel to get their training."

In March, FSI and Sikorsky announced six new simulators for the civil rotary-wing market. Four of the new trainers are S-92, and are to be deployed in Norway, Brazil and Southeast Asia-all new helicopter-centric training facilities-as well as in Lafayette, Louisiana, on the U.S. Gulf Coast. FSI currently offers S-92 training at its Farnborough facility in the UK and in West Palm Beach, Florida.

CAE (Booth 372) is building an AW189 for its Rotorsim joint venture with AgustaWestland and has announced plans for an S-92 flight simulator in a new facility in Stavanger, Norway, as well as an interchangeable cockpit S-92/EC225 trainer for São Paulo, Brazil. "Brazil is exploding, and there's always a lot of activity in the North Sea," said Rob Lewis, CAE's vice president and general manager for business aviation, helicopter and maintenance training. "The helicopter training market has a better near-term outlook than in business aviation. We're very bullish on the opportunities."

The Montreal, Canada-based group recently installed the first civil helicopter level-D flight simulator in Asia, an S-76 model at its Zhuhai Flight Training Center joint venture with China Southern Airlines. The manufacturer also has positioned an S-76 device in São Paulo, together with Brazilian partner Líder Aviação, the largest helicopter operator in Brazil. A new AW139 simulator at Rotorsim in Sesto Calende, Italy, recently received level-D approval from Italian authority ENAC.

The AW139 and two S-76s represent the first full-motion versions of CAE's 3000 Series helicopter simulation technology. The most striking design feature is a direct-projection dome display (rather than traditional collimation), coupled with a helicopter-specific visual database. The display bowl, which enables a vertical field of view of 80 degrees by 210 degrees horizontal, can present a seamless image out the cockpit windows as well as through the "chin window" beneath the pilot's feet.

"Customers wanted a larger field of view, especially in the vertical, so they could see the landing," explained Peter Cobb, CAE global operations leader for helicopter training. According to Cobb, the 3000 Series whole-cockpit vibration platform represents a completely new, all-electric design to go with the electric six-degrees-of-freedom simulator motion system.

FlightSafety (Booth 471) has opted for glass-mirror displays, which Phillips claimed, "provide superior optical performance, sharper image clarity and long-term reliability, and are night-vision capable." The glass technology derives from FSI's acquisition four years ago of Glass Mountain Optics in Austin, Texas. According to the company, the true collimated images they present are free of visible distortions and artifacts out to mirror edge and "ground rush" distortion in the bottom field of view. FlightSafety's new level-D AW139 simulator in Lafayette is equipped with a glass-mirror display.

FSI's Eurocopter EC135 simulator in Dallas, Texas, is now FAA-qualified for night-vision-goggle (NVG) training. The New York-based company also moved its S-76B simulator from West Palm Beach to Dallas.