Mountainflyers helicopter flight school offers training on an EASA-qualified VR simulator
The flight school, based in Berne, Switzerland, says that the simulator will enable it to execute credited training toward licences and to improve pilot competencies on a safe and affordable base
Mountainflyers, a helicopter flight school located in Berne, Switzerland, has begun offering training using a Robinson R22 helicopter simulator developed by VRM Switzerland and accredited by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA).
The flying school says that the new simulator will benefit both ‘rated pilots and flight students’, and that student pilots can practice all manoeuvres needed to attain a private pilot or commercial pilot licence. The simulator offers a wide range of training options, which can be adapted to the individual needs of the pilot.
Mountainflyers says that a major advantage of simulators is the ability to train procedures and situations, which cannot or only limited be trained in the real helicopter. Mountainflyers addresses this topic in the ‘train untrained emergency situations’ module.
“We offer safety courses and tailored programs for student pilots and rated pilots to improve safety even more”, says Christoph Graf, CEO and owner of Mountainflyers.
A milestone in aviation for a future-oriented concept
“With this device students and licensed pilots can learn and practice manoeuvres realistically for the first time. It is a milestone in aviation having qualified a virtual reality (VR) training device for a customer. Besides developing and building simulators, VRM Switzerland is a qualified Flight Simulator Training Organisation to support our customers to operate their VR simulators” pronounces Fabi Riesen, CEO of VRM Switzerland.
“We appreciate the service of VRM Switzerland to take over all the operational requirement to operate our simulator. This enables us to focus on our core competencies to train pilots and to operate helicopters in different fields of operation”, Graf points out.
Cutting-edge technology to improve flight safety
The sophisticated overall system creates a full‐body immersion, and features a dynamic motion platform, developed and built in‐house. It allows the pilot to precisely feel the finest changes in attitude and touchdown on the ground. The numerical simulation enables the realistic representation of the flight behaviour. A pose‐tracking system maps the pilot’s movements in the virtual environment, enabling operation of the exactly modelled cockpit, including haptic perception, as in the real helicopter.
Virtual reality continues to be a platform for training within the HEMS/SAR community.