Training Archives - The Rotary Wing Show Podcast

May 10, 2022May 10, 2022

RWS 110 – Better Weather Situational Awareness with Matt Johnson

Matt Johnson heads up a weather training program for Metro Aviation. He is a Gold Seal FAA Flight Instructor and FAA Designated Pilot Examiner.

Have you applied the idea of situational awareness to weather before? Knowing what the weather was doing, what the weather is now and what it will be in the future. With access to the right weather products and knowing more about how they are developed you can level up your pre-flight weather assessment.

Weather is a contributing factor to a significant number of helicopter accidents. It is easy to see why looking at the photo below – even without considering flying into cloud, just the reduced visibility and the reducing ceiling that poor weather brings with it can up the work rate and concentration that it takes to get the task done.

For many aircrew we stop learning weather theory after qualification and only brush up on it before check rides. And we can get rusty at it. Same goes for making the most of the different weather forecast products that are available for reference before going flying.

In this podcast Matt Johnson walks us through some of the weather briefing considerations and useful briefing products that are covered in the weather training program that is run in-house for Metro Aviation’s several hundred staff pilots. Matt’s own experience covers flying for law enforcement and 12 years in the helicopter aeromedical sector.

Yuck! You can already feel the workload increase, taking away free mental cycles from other decision making tasks.

One of the things we talk about is the limitations of weather radars especially for lower level flights like many helicopter operations. Due to the curvature of the earth as you move away from the radar ground site the radar picture can fail to show rain areas up to several thousand feet above ground.

Below – This may only be a US aviation product but it is called the HEMS Tool and is avaliable directly off the National Weather Service’s Aviation landing page. It displays a range of information from low level weather forecasts.

Perhaps Matt’s first stop when looking at the weather before coming on shift is the Aviation Forecast Discussion product. This is an amplifying comments area where the forecaster can give additional context and editorial to the normal ‘coded’ style products such as TAFs or area forecasts. It can indicate the possibility of developing weather that wasn’t modelled strongly enough to make it into other forecasts and the forecaster’s thoughts about the upcoming period.

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Links from this week’s episode:
Support the podcast on Patreon

Assessing General Aviation Pilots’ Weather Knowledge and Self-Efficacy – Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University paper, 2017

Short-Comings of Weather Radars – National Weather Service

How does a Weather Radar Work? and Radar FAQs – Bureau of Meteorology

Matt Johnson has flown law enforcement and helicopter aero-medical sector roles. Along with his flight instructor and FAA Designated Pilot Examiner duties, Matt is active in promoting better weather knowledge and training amongst helicopter pilots.

What was your biggest takeaway from this episode? Help yourself remember and share it with others by making a comment about it here below.

August 3, 2021August 3, 2021

RWS 104 – Virtual Reality Simulators 2021 Revisit with Chris Ryan

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Chris Ryan is the owner of Ryan Aerospace – a company building virtual reality flight simulators that are changing the way pilots train.

How would you like to have been holding a steady hover and taking off and landing at 3 hours of helicopter flight time? Chris Ryan couldn’t afford helicopter lessons so he built himself a simulator to practice at home. His instructor was so impressed at his progress that he encouraged Chris to turn the simulator into a business.

From a humble PVC pipe contraption to now selling hundreds of virtual reality helicopter flight simulators into the military market, Chris Ryan (Ryan Aerospace) has taken a long road to get to where he is today.

Back in 2017, in episode 61, I spoke with Sérgio Costa from helisimmer.com where we covered a lot of information about virtual reality (VR) and how it applies to flight simulators.

There are almost 9000 members of Sérgio’s facebook group now and it is a very active place for people interested in helicopter simulators. To the point where he’s been able to influence the development of big name consumer sims to make them more helicopter friendly.

In this episode we revisit VR sims and see where they are up to. This gear has the potential to reduce in-aircraft training time by up to 40% – which given the cost of helicopters, is going to grab anyone’s attention.

US Army pilots training in virtual reality on the HELIMOD Mark III Helicopter simulators

Chris talks about what it takes to turn an idea into reality and some of the journey that this technology has taken to get to point where it is standard for pilots training at Fort Rucker.

Along with the simulators the goal is to develop a learning management system which will allow a student to move through sequences with a simulated instructor and features such as being able to see and follow the path for a demonstrated circuit.

We also cover:

sim sickness and how it affects some people
new technology that is coming out in mixed reality and hand tracking, and
what gear you should be looking for if you want to make your own home VR setup for training

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Links from this week’s episode:
Support the podcast on Patreon
Ryan Aerospace – This is Chris’s company based on the Gold Coast, Australia and building simulators for customers around the world including the US Army and US Air Force.

Chris had his first helicopter ride while in the Australian Army Reserves. His Dad owned planes growing up so Chris was on the controls from an early age.

What was your biggest takeaway from this episode? Help yourself remember and share it with others by making a comment about it here below.

December 13, 2017

RWS 61 – Virtual Reality Helicopter Sims with Sérgio Costa

Helicopter flight simulator information sergio costa

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Virtual reality hardware and software have crossed a threshold where their use in supporting helicopter training and currency/recency provides an amazing experience. In this episode we break down what you can expect and what you will need to get started.

Hopefully you will never look at computer helicopter flight simulators the same after listening to this podcast episode. Sérgio Costa is the editor and founder of Helisimmer.com which focuses on the fairly niche market of – not surprisingly – PC based helicopter flight simulation. On the site you can read reviews of a number of different flight sim software solutions and add-ons from a helicopter perspective.

Until recently I have spent very little attention or interest on PC helicopter flight sims. Mainly due to poor experiences in the past with flight models and how they flew but also just due to access to the real thing. I did use a home flight simulator during instrument flight training on fixed wing and rotary which certainly helped (the Cessna 172 matches a Blackhawk close enough in performance for instrument approaches).

Virtual reality headsets – model shown is a HTC Vive. The technology is now good enough to impact how aviation training is conducted.

Then 3 months ago I discovered where virtual reality(VR) technology had got to. My perception of PC flight simulator software for helicopter simulation has changed forever. Given the high cost of operating a helicopter, the cost of traditional fixed simulators and the increasing adoption of VR by consumers – my call is that all student helicopter pilots will be using VR during their training faster than most people will think.

It is amazing!!!

Sérgio and I chat about our experiences of virtual reality, unpack the technology that makes it up and go into the hardware and software you will need to install effectively a full sized Huey in your living room just by putting on a VR headset. Then when you are done with the Huey you can swap it for a Bell 206, R22, R44, B412, H125….. 🙂

Cadets and students trying out virtual reality helicopter sim (DCS:Huey) in Brisbane, Nov 2017

When researching headsets you will come across a number of types. The ones that we are talking about today are PC (Windows 10) powered rather than standalone headsets such as those that use a phone or Playstation. The power of modern PC graphics cards are required to provide the level of experience to make this viable. You will also find reference to ‘Mixed Reality’ headsets. Mixed Reality is the term that microsoft has created to group their virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) technologies. AR references digital information overlayed on the outside world that you are looking at in much the same way that a HUD works.

The ‘best’ headset is subjective. If you are tempted to purchase in 2017/early 2018 then look at the HTC Vive (what Sérgio and I have), Oculus Rift which has been out for a while and is a proven product and the Samsung Odyssey. Each has different pros and cons – price, hand tracking resolution, screen brightness, field of view, resolution – but should all be suitable for flight sim needs and are the pick of the current offerings. A high resolution headset recently raised $4 million on Kickstarter but hasn’t been manufactured yet. Its final performance and successful delivery is still to be proven.

If you do not currently have a high performance gaming PC then you will unfortunately also need to factor that in your costs. And then the helicopter controls you need to purchase… Look it is not cheap but compared with the next best offerings in physical based simulators with multiple screens VR is a compelling business case.

Podcast: Subscribe in iTunes | Play in new window | Download

Links from this week’s episode:
Support the podcast on Patreon
Helisimmer Website

Purpose built helicopter simulator controls:
Rainman Automation and Simulation
Max Flight Stick
Pro Flight Trainer
Ryan Aerospace

Places to find latest VR and/or Flight Sim News:
Heli Flight Sim Facebook Group
r/virtualreality on Reddit
r/vive on Reddit
r/oculus on Reddit

Screenshot from the Dreamfoil AS350/H125 model in X-Plane 11

A good demonstration of the difference that head tracking provided by VR headsets makes to a helicopter flight sim experience

A pilot providing a detailed comparison of performance and flight model of DCS:Huey vs the real thing.

X-Plane and Robinson R66 model – more feedback and an opinion on the virtual reality experience of helicopter flight.

360 degree video example – wearing a VR headset allows you to look around inside this video tracked to the direction you are looking. This doesn’t have the 3D effect of software such as the flight sims but is still very immersive – putting you in the scene. Powerful tool for training or for capturing lessons and description of helicopter manoeuvres.

Sérgio demoing helicopter flight simulator (not virtual reality) and controls at a recent expo.

Chart showing relative performance of different graphics cards – virtual reality needs a beefy hardware setup especially when combined with flight sims.

Do you have a question about setup, hardware, software, training uses for virtual reality for helicopter simulation? Have feedback for others on how you found it or tips? Be part of the conversation by leaving a comment below.

May 26, 2016May 26, 2016

RWS 48 – The Case For Full Down Autos with Glen White

Glen White from Eurosafety helicopter training

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Glen White has been providing recurrency and initial training to helicopter pilots around the world through his company Eurosafety since 2004. He is a strong proponent of the benefit of full touchdown autorotations in training.

Glen first learnt to fly in France in a Bell 47 before picking up roles in flight training, tours based in the Virgin Islands, ship operations, emergency services and as a factory pilot.

One of the things that struck him throughout his career was the lack of high quality post graduation check and training avaliable to many of the small to medium operators in the industry. Hence the idea for Eurosafety was born.

“I get to fly with the best pilots in the industry. It’s a privilege.” – Glen gets to conduct recurrency and initial training with pilots from law enforcement, EMS, utility and charter companies in a number of companies.

In this interview we chat about Glen’s early career, the case for full touchdown autorotations, tips for handling a range of emergencies and what you can do to improve your skills as a helicopter pilot.

[Tweet “AS350B3E helicopter is a monster, nothing better for utility work”]

On the way down for another autorotation

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In this week’s episode:
3:50 Timothy and Tabitha
5:20 Getting a start in aviation in France in a Bell 47
6:50 Flying tours in the Virgin Islands
8:40 Landing on Navy ships in support of the Aegis radar program
9:50 FlightSafety and Eurocopter factory pilot
11:20 EMS S-76 Children’s Hospital Dallas and Tri-state Careflight AS350B3 and BK119
11:50 Mountain rescue incident
14:00 Gap in market for post-graduation check and training
16:00 Overseas training locations and culture
19:00 Types of training and helicopters covered
20:40 Trained reaction to engine failure
21:50 Switching between clockwise / anti-clockwise rotor systems
24:30 Autorotational training – touchdowns vs power recoveries
32:00 Training to runway rather than grass, carbide skid shoes
33:50 Damage to runway surface from run-ons – none
35:50 A typical recurrency day format
38:30 AS350, H130, AS355, EC120, BO105CBS, BO105LS, EC135 Augusta 109E,C,F Bell 260L/F, Bell 205 Types covered (2016)
42:40 Prevalence of engine failures in statistics vs focus spent on in training
46:50 1000s of autos in a year, a very mild event
49:00 Auto method in the AS350 – 100’ flare height
50:00 Common errors during autos
53:20 Hydraulic failure and impact into highrise
54:20 Stuck pedals
58:10 How to be a good pilot and constantly get better
1:01:30 iSafety app for emergency training
59:45 Episode Sponsors trainmorepilots.com

Links from this week’s episode:
Eurosafety Website
Eurosafety Facebook
Eurosafety YouTube
Eurosafety Instagram
World Helicopter Day

[Tweet “No better helicopter to teach an auto. My mum could do an auto in a Bell 47″]

Glen talks through an autorotation touchdown in a AS350
[leadplayer_vid id=”5742E4C049FBC”]

HAI Video – Autorotations: Reality Exposed
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Class in session for a AS350 ground theory day

Know your machine's systems - graphics and training aids can greatly improve recall — Know your machines systems – graphics and training aids can greatly improve recall

Glen teaching on an AS350B2 initial course

Australian Defence Force Testing of Squirrel Autorotation Flare Height

What’s your take on full down autos in training? Be part of the conversation about this interview by leaving a comment below.

February 15, 2016February 16, 2016

RWS 40 – Cabri G2 Introduction with Joey Arena

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Joey-Arena-Guimbal-factory-visit-250px — Texas Rotorwing Academy operates 2 of the 8 Cabri G2 helicopters currently in the United States.

The Guimbal Cabri G2 helicopter has a lot going for it. One of the type’s biggest fans is Joey Arena of Texas Rotorwing Academy. Joey operates two Cabris with another two on order.

The Guimbal Cabri G2 is a two-seat light piston-engined helicopter designed by Bruno Guimbal, a former Eurocopter engineer. The aircraft are built in a factory just down the road from Airbus in France and incorporate many of the design features found in larger Airbus helicopters.

In this episode Joey talks us through some of the things that make the Cabri G2 different from other 2 seat training helicopters and the general anatomy of the design.

Joey got into the flying game in 2008 after working in other industries for a number of years and using the global financial slowdown as the push to make a change. Several years later he made the 2,300 mile trip from Texas to Precision Helicopters in Oregon to check out the first Cabri G2s in to the US and was hooked. He then put an order in for 4 of the machines at the next Heli-Expo.

[Tweet “I decided to be a helicopter pilot when I was 6 years old – Joey Arena”]

cabri on the ramp at texas rotor wing — A Cabri G2 on the apron in Texas

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In this week’s episode:

01:25 H-37 Mojave helicopter photo
02:45 Westpac Life Saving QLD BO105 live hoist training
03:10 Top 10 Helicopter books for helicopter aircrew
03:30 Competition to win a custom aviation drawing – episode 39
04:40 2 seat training helicopters increasing choices
05:20 Joey Arena is a big fan of the Cabri G2
05:50 Rotating the helicopter sound clip before the interview
07:05 Getting to a helicopter career
08:28 8 Cabri G2s in the United States
10:04 Visiting the factory in France and factory training
11:47 75 aircraft a year production rate, 3 construction bays
13:30 First time seeing a Cabri and overview
16:10 Relationship between Airbus and Guimbal
18:00 Maintenance requirements
19:11 Lycoming O360 Engine – 1 magneto and 1 Electro-plasma system
20:05 Automatic carb heat system
22:00 Engine governor, throttle detent and collective correlation, fuel burn
25:10 Fenestron tail rotor design – ducted fan
27:20 Main rotor system
30:26 Autorotative potential energy, rotor inertia
32:20 Straight in auto procedure
35:00 Availability of parts and support, back order
37:45 Cargo space and Weight&Balance – 611 lbs useful load
38:50 Cabin layout and control feel
43:20 Dashboard and instrumentation
46:10 Engine mount and rotor engagement hydraulic ram
47:35 Landing gear, attachment points to fuselage, slope landings, ground resonance
51:30 Fenestron fan safety features
53:05 Crash protection design of the seats – rated for 2200fpm impact and 95% chance of survivability
57:40 Build process video showing the factory process
58:05 Win a custom aviation drawing by commenting on episode 39
58:40 World Helicopter Day
59:28 Episode Sponsors trainmorepilots.com

Links from this week’s episode:
Texas Rotorwing Academy
Marc Philipp Veenendaal’s Instagram account with aviation drawings
World Helicopter Day registrations

[Tweet “If you look at a Cabri your jaw hits the ground because it is absolutely stunning”]

Video – Building a Cabri G2 at the Guimbal factory in France
[leadplayer_vid id=”56C14837D8B57″]

cabri cockpit — Cockpit layout in the Cabri – you can smell the ‘newness’

[Tweet “The Cabri G2 is certified to hover in a crosswind of greater than 50 kts”]

This is another image from the Instagram account of aviation artist Marc Veenendaal. Leave a comment on the Episode 39 blog post to go into the random draw to win for your own custom image from Marc.

A photo posted by Marc Philipp Veenendaal (@marc_mpv) on Feb 15, 2016 at 4:46am PST

Got an opinion on the Cabri G2 or comment about the episode? Be part of the conversation below.

Competition to win a custom drawing closes Tuesday 23 Feb 2016 0000UTC – Enter in the comments on Episode 39