FORT LIBERTY, N.C. - Army flight simulators are powerful computer programs allowing pilots to recreate real-world flight events in a safe and controlled environment. Pilots use flight simulators to evaluate their performance, and to learn and refine their skills.
The UH-60M motion flight simulator will complete its training at Fort Liberty at the start of July 2023. This simulator is the only six-degree-of-freedom motion simulator and the oldest flight simulator housed at Simmons Army Airfield.
It has been used to train pilots in various environmental scenarios, including emergency or threat scenarios that cannot be simulated in the aircraft, such as an in-flight fire or mechanical failure.
The simulator is far more cost-effective for frequent training than an actual UH-60M Black Hawk helicopter, costing total only $9 million. It enables pilots to maintain and improve their skills while also receiving up to 18 hours of simulation training each year.
“The ‘M’ model also named ‘the glass cockpit’ is more advanced than the previous models,” said Senior Maintenance Electronic Technician, Daniel King. “It has better performance parameters and gives the pilot more information more quickly at their fingertips.”
King has been working as a technician at Simmons AAF for over 42 years and helped install the glass cockpit in 1986; operational in the spring of 1987.
“We currently have over 157,000 training hours on record per pilot,” said King. “We have trained thousands and thousands of pilots; even trained pilots from just about every continent on this simulator.”
The UH-60M simulator regularly receives updates, ensuring pilots are always trained on the newest technologies.
“The programming for changing the missions is decided and determined in the briefing room,” said King. “A pilot who will be stationed in Germany can practice runways, flight control, ground control, traffic patterns, airports, and other communication skills on a simulator to be ready and successful when they move there.”
The glass cockpit will retire from Simmons AAF and will be sent to a hangar in Ozark, Alabama to be refitted, updated, reutilized, and then possibly brought back to life as the Army’s newest motion-based flight simulator, which currently doesn’t exist.
“The unique thing about this glass cockpit is that when you fly it, you feel the weight below you,” said King. “So, not only do you have the friction, the weight of the controls, you also have the weight of the aircraft underneath you while taking turns, banks, dives or land; newer simulators are great, but they can’t do that.”
However, the UH-60M simulator is not the only in-flight simulation technology. The Black Hawk Aircrew Trainer is another example of a new simulator that prepares pilots for worst-case scenarios, such as dual engine failure or inflight fires. The BAT also immerses pilots in situations that would be difficult to replicate in real life.
While newer simulators and virtual reality technology are being explored, the UH-60M simulator will always remain essential when training pilots in the U.S. Army's aviation program.
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