A case study assessment of operational effectiveness for an advanced helicopter flight simulator : the CH146 tactical helicopter mission simulator

Flight simulators are widely used for training in both military and civil aviation, and the scope of applications in simulation has expanded widely during approximately the last three decades. A fundamental question in the effective application of this technology is the extent to which training in a simulator constitutes adequate preparation for actual flight. The process of validation of simulator effectiveness is as yet not well defined, and the common, though mistaken, association of "high fidelity" with "high training effectiveness" clouds the determination of the degree of fidelity required to achieve specific training objectives. It is axiomatic in simulation that no ground-based training device can achieve perfect fidelity, and the present state of the art is such that incremental improvements in fidelity will yield diminishing returns in training effectiveness. Far greater benefits can be realized from attention to more effective utilization of the existing systems. This thesis details the difficulties inherent in the determination of training effectiveness for a mission simulator.

Experience with a specific military simulator acquisition project, the Canadian Forces' CHI46 Griffon tactical helicopter mission simulator, is used in this paper to highlight the challenges inherent in validating simulator training effectiveness; particularly that of a tactical full-mission simulator. The author's experience indicates that the key limitations to achieving optimum training effectiveness lie not in maximizing the fidelity of the simulation, but in knowing how to effectively exploit its existing capabilities. Challenges remain in the areas of validation, syllabus design, instructional technique and user interface. The effective use of training technology has become of critical importance, given the technical sophistication of modern simulators. The understandable desire to extract maximum utilization from simulators has led to suboptimal use of very expensive investments.