Advanced Pilot Readiness training in challenging environments and missions for CH-47 Chinook helicopter crews.

Flying a Chinook safely in critical environments depends on crew coordination and sensitive decisions of both pilots and loadmasters. To support training of the pilot flying, and his crew, the Desdemona motion simulator is coupled in real-time to different loadmaster cabin simulators (both mock-up and Virtual Reality solutions). Training scenarios include bowl landings, pinnacle approaches, brownout/whiteout landings and maneuvring a pick-up load in the mountains. Spatial awareness and susceptibility to Spatial Disorientation are the key learning points, for both pilots and loadmasters in those scenario’s. It is not just the pilot who is susceptible to disorientation; so is his or her crew!


Training mountain flying and SD awareness

Available training courses

The following training courses for the CH-47 Chinook helicopter are currently available in the Desdemona simulator:

  1. Disorientation in brown-out conditions
  2. Med-evac in impaired visual conditions
  3. Introduction to mountain flying (details here)
  4. Sling load operations in mountains and dust conditions

In addition, customized training courses for Pilot Readiness in challenging environments can be simulated on demand.


Crew training sling load operations

Motion is essential

High fidelity motion simulation is essential to train pilot behavior in complex flying tasks, such as a brownout take-off and landing. Desdemona offers one-to-one attitude cueing for the Chinook in hovers and landings, strong braking and pitch cues to simulate the illusion of nose-down attitudes in a brownout, and large vertical cues to simulate wind demarcation lines in the mountains.