Situated on the northern coast of Borneo, the nation of Brunei
offers many charms. These include white sand beaches and unblemished
rainforests. It also has impressive offshore oil reserves, which have made the
sultan of Brunei one of the world's richest men. Unfortunately, the country's
physical attributes also make it a particularly troublesome place to operate
helicopters. Corrosion can be an issue given the proximity to the sea, and the tropical
climate is unforgiving to machinery in general.
These issues were well known when the Royal Brunei
Air Force (RBAF) ordered 12 Sikorsky S-70i helicopters to replace its fleet of
Bell 212s, which dated from the late 1970s and early 1980s. S-70i deliveries
commenced in December 2013, and since then Brunei has received its full
complement. As with any new aircraft type challenges included maintenance and
training. As such, Sikorsky has dedicated significant resources to training
Brunei crews on how to care for their new rotorcraft. In training, however, the
advent of the S-70i presented an opportunity for the RBAF to make a quantum
leap in its crew training capabilities – and reduce valuable hours aloft.
Lt. Col. Johar is an RBAF veteran with over 3,000 hours
in helicopters, mostly in the Bell 212. He serves as the RBAF's head of
standards and evaluation.
"The Bell 212 is a great helicopter, but the
S-70i was a major change for us," he says. "The Bell 212s we used to
operate had less digital technology than is in my watch, while the S-70i is
highly digital."
The RBAF's upgrade to the S-70i coincided with a
push by the Brunei government to move away from the country's economic
dependency on oil. To attract foreign direct investment (FDI) it offers
generous tax breaks and ample land for development. This helped support the
development of the CAE Brunei Multi-Purpose Training Centre (MPTC) near the
country's airport.
With CAE holding 60% of the operation and the Brunei
government 40%, the MPTC is aimed at providing world-class simulator training
to RBAF S-70i pilots via a CAE 3000 series mission simulator. The centre also
houses a CAE 3000 mission simulator for the civilian S-92, a flight training
device for the Pilatus PC-7, a type the RBAF uses as a basic trainer, as well
as class rooms for practical training. The facility, simulators, and the
centre's emergency training programme for governments represent planned foreign
direct investment in excess of US$100 million, says CAE.
Johar says having a simulator located in Brunei has
made a major difference. In the past, the preponderance of RBAF helicopter
training took place in real helicopters. Apart from racking up hours on
valuable helicopters, training in this manner was fuel consuming, dependent on
the weather, and reduced airframes available for real missions. Another issue
is consistency: a cadet tested in the calm morning is more likely to pass than
a cadet tested in the windy afternoon. Old-school training could also be
uncomfortable: Johar recounts that some procedural training took place in real
helicopter cockpits sitting under the tropical sun.
Brunei's early days with the S-70i also presented
challenges. Prior to the opening of the MPTC, Johari and the initial cohorts of
Brunei S-70i pilots had to travel halfway around the world to a Sikorsky
facility in Florida for simulator training.
The activation of the S-70i simulator in December
2016 was therefore a key development. Johar estimates that new S-70i pilots
spend about 60% of their training for the type in real helicopters, and 40% in
the simulator. The overall S-70i curriculum provided at the school covers four
main areas: initial ground school, initial simulator training, recurrent
training, and mission training. Mission training covers search and rescue, fire
fighting, winching, mountain flying, shipboard landings, oil rig landings,
night vision goggle usage, and special missions.
One benefit of having a dedicated simulator located
in Brunei is that the graphics exactly replicate the country's topography. In a
simulated flight, Johar and a co-pilot lifted off from the airport of the
capital, Bandar Seri Begawan, and flew over a precisely-rendered version of the
city, complete with the downtown, the country's famous water village, and the
national mosque. In night mode, car headlights travelled along the roads. The
stars and moon were rendered exactly as they appear on the given night of the
flight. During the mission, Johar and his colleague landed on an offshore oil
rig, and also on the deck of a Brunei navy frigate.
"The graphics are just awesome," says
Johar. "You react as if you're in the real aircraft. If I sit at the back
of the simulator and take a picture out the cockpit window, it will be very
difficult to differentiate whether that is the real flight or if it’s a
simulator. Apart from G-forces, all the movement is correct, and all the visual
reference during take-off, descents, and emergencies is the same."
While providing crews with an accurate training
experience, the simulators are cheaper to operate than real helicopters. Most
important, they save S-70i hours for actual missions.
With the RBAF as the core client, the MPTC hopes to
attract more operators of the S-70i/UH-60 Black Hawk family to train at the
centre. Apart from standardised training, the centre can also support training
that caters to the needs of specific militaries. In addition, Sikorsky can
offer training at the centre as an option in any regional sales campaigns for
the S-70i. Apart from Brunei, various iterations of the type are operated in
Australia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan, South Korea, and
Japan. The type is also widely used in the Middle East, a region with cultural
ties to Brunei.
The MPTC's S-92 simulator is also a major part of
the business case, as it is the only simulator for this type in Southeast Asia.
With capacity for 19 passengers, the S-92 is an important helicopter in the oil
& gas sector. The centre's S-92 simulator received EASA certification in
May 2014. It also has certification from Brunei, China, and Australia. Clients
for S-92 training include offshore operators such as Bristow Helicopter
Australia, the Aviation Authority of Australia, Canadian Helicopter Company
(Australia), HNZ Australia, and Thai Aviation Services.
In addition to the two full motion simulators and
the PC-7 FTD, the MPTC has room for growth, with bays for three additional
simulators. How these will be used has yet to be decided, but the bays can
house simulators for any aircraft type, either commercial or military, fixed or
rotary winged.
(Evangle Luo of TTFLY shared with you)
没有评论:
发表评论