Speedier Air Force pilot training leans on tech — but the human brain is still key
2nd Lt. Luis Leon sets up his mock T-6 cockpit and instrument panel at his apartment on base while in pilot training at Laughlin AFB on Oct. 2, 2019. Simulators have improved but trainees still use this method at home to memorize controls and procedures.DEL RIO — Like many a fledgling pilot, Air Force Lt. Luis Leon “chair flew” endless missions using a stick and a cardboard display of a T-6A Texan II instrument panel.
It’s a system used in some form since France began training American pilots in 1915 to “taxi fly” in aircraft mockups. Leon started out needing 45 minutes to go through more than 100 items, but eventually was clicking them off in a breezy 20 minutes or so. At the core of the changes is a heavy reliance on virtual reality simulators, or “VR sims,” sometimes called “immersive training devices,” or ITDs, that can cost $50,000 each. By whatever acronym, they allow some students to leapfrog ahead of others in their ability to fly a plane by themselves.
“The chair flying still has to happen because that’s where we build what we want to do, we build our expectations, we build our habit patterns mentally,” he said. “Getting in an ITD is a mission rehearsal … a practice of executing those habit patterns and then seeing if they work.” PTN students used a computer-driven simulation called VIPER, or Virtual Instructor Pilot Exercise Referee, which was introduced at the Air Force Academy in 2018. VIPER is only available at Laughlin today, but AETC spokeswoman Marilyn Holliday said it eventually will be used at all pilot training bases.
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