Is simulation a safe option for training rescue crews, and is it the only safe way to acquire and retain the required skills? Jennifer Ferrero asks the training providers
According to the US Coast Guard’s Recreational Boating Statistics, the five primary accident types in 2023 were: collision with a recreational vessel, collision with a fixed object, flooding/swamping, grounding, and capsizing. A small percentage of those in an accident were wearing life jackets. The number one vessel type with the highest casualties was an open motorboat, followed by personal watercraft, and accidents were often due to inattention and inexperience. In this context, the role of search and rescue (SAR) helicopter operators, both private and governmental, who are trained via simulator and real-world scenarios, becomes paramount. They are the ones prepared to save people from themselves. lifeline system
Stepping into artificial realities can help search and rescue helicopter winch crews develop their skills safely, effectively and affordably, explains Robin Gauldie
There is plenty of training for pilots in SAR training, according to Jean-Claude Siew, Executive Vice President of Technology and Simulation at Bluedrop Training & Simulation, and echoed by Ian Bonthrone, Managing Director of Air Rescue UK. However, it is more challenging to come by training specifically for rear crew and hoist operators in a simulated environment.
That’s why Bluedrop has specialized in simulations for the rear crew, including hoist operators. The company primarily services defense industry businesses, with training at about 80%, and 20% for private industry. It has locations in Canada and in Florida, USA, and has partners in Asia in Singapore. Siew reflected on how it started: “When we started off, other than what we did on the service side, one of the things we looked at is where the needs were. Pilots are very well served through training and simulators; however, simulation was lacking for hoist operators. Why are pilots so well served with technology? How come the rear crew is not? With hoist operators, they are mainly on helicopters. We ensure proper training for the rear crew. Hoist operators need this level of training.”
Bonthrone explained that Air Rescue UK provides services in the UK, Italy, Namibia, Senegal, and the Falkland Islands. It has 27 employees providing all-weather search and rescue (AWSAR) training for the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD), oil and gas SAR, other hoist operations, and training, including using simulators. He said: “Realistic training can be achieved for hoist operators, but only within the confines of weather and sea condition limits set by regulators for training. Real-life operations may often exceed the training limits. Many emergencies, such as cable entanglements and cable cutting, cannot be realistically trained on an aircraft.”
Many emergencies, such as cable entanglements and cable cutting, cannot be realistically trained on an aircraft
He continued: “Historically, hoist simulators have relied on high levels of visual fidelity and have been used by many training centers. It is not until recently, with the advent of the Bluedrop Training & Simulation Hoist Mission Training System (HMTS), that the haptic feedback has been advanced enough to give realistic fidelity to the job.”
He added that Bluedrop approached them to partner on simulations in the UK. “We have trained many helicopter hoist operators (HHOs) on the simulator and notably provided a full SAR HHO course to an experienced aviator with no previous HHO experience. On arrival at his operating base, he achieved his line check in only two aircraft flights. Recently, one of our staff from an African operation came to us for four days of currency training. The change in levels of performance achieved was amazing.”
Bonthrone said the “differentiators in simulation training are having the correct level of fidelity, which includes realistic haptics, [and] repetition of training to build ‘mental models’ of diversity and complexity”.
Bristow provides emergency response and SAR services around the world, and sees training and currency as an important element of crew activities. Craig Sweeney, UK SAR Flight Operations Manager, Bristow, said: “Training is a constant for all SAR crews. Bristow’s own training captains and instructors ensure pilots and technical crew maintain the required standards and qualifications at all times. We have our own in-house simulator hall in Aberdeen which houses full-motion flight simulators, and crews plan to train on every SAR shift to ensure our teams maintain currency.” Sweeney added: “Live training is always preferred, and it’s a part of life for Bristow SAR teams, but training on our simulators plays a vital role too. They allow us to put our crews into demanding situations we can’t replicate on live flights, such as engine failures or hoist malfunctions.”
Live training is always preferred, and it’s a part of life for Bristow SAR teams, but training on our simulators plays a vital role too
Chris Sharpe, Chief Aircrewman of Black Wolf Helicopters in Guatemala, provides pilot and hoist training. However, the company needs simulation resources in its region. Its focus is SAR and delivering training to various civilian, police, military, and aviation units. It also helps groups with non-flight skills (survival, underwater egress, medical and rescue training).
When it comes to civilian rescue in Guatemala, Sharpe said: “Our main focus normally for civilian rescue operations is actually on short-haul and rappel operations due to the complexities of jungle and altitude conditions, plus the cost associated with hoist operations. Over the past year, we organized and trained the Guatemalan Bomberos Voluntarios’ [volunteer firefighters] aviation rescue section to allow more complex rescues to be undertaken safely with suitably trained, equipped personnel.”
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Sharpe’s operation works with Central and South America, including Mexico. It often restructures SAR operations for organizations, training about 42 people annually. He said important aspects of hoist operations are in “competency, standards, and overall trust; the ability to maintain flawless, multi-crew crew resource management (CRM) to support the pilot in command, although that is a two-way flow in the focus of safety to the aircraft.”
Sharpe said that in training and practice, their challenge is not having simulators. “As we do not have access to simulators here for either pilots or rear crew, we try and offset that by, during the ground school phase, introducing the use of checklists, then, by use of real-life videos, [we] discuss the operation, the emergency that is occurring and how they would resolve it, in the safety of the classroom. In later stages, we have the aircraft static on the ramp/hangar on APU [auxiliary] power, and [we] practice door transitions, CRM, and crew calls while on the ground.”
However, Sharpe said that civilian rescue, via hoist or otherwise, is uncommon in Guatemala. During the wet season, they are focused on hurricanes and floods and conduct some SAR and hoist operations. During the dry season, the aircraft is fitted with the Bambi Bucket instead of a hoist.
Lieutenant Ryan O’Neill, MH-65 Instructor Pilot, ATC Mobile MH-65 division, offers a perspective from the US Coast Guard. O’Neill has spent 14 years in the Coast Guard and works as an Advanced Helicopter Rescue School Instructor Pilot. His crew trains in demanding situations, like those in Cape Disappointment, Washington. He said the area is “notoriously the most dangerous and strenuous – the proof of training is to succeed there. The waves are 10–20ft rollers and breakers, and wave action is phenomenal.”
O’Neill has had tremendous experience in SAR training, medical evacuation, hurricane response, and SAR in maritime and urban environments, and has conducted offshore hoisting and coastal recreational rescue.
He said pilots generally do simulator training when graduating from flight school and through instrument flight rules (IFR) training. He indicated that the simulator training is done in Mobile, Alabama, where he is stationed, and it is “standard”. He said in simulation, there are overwater missions and how to get to the case instead of getting to hoisting. “The simulator integrity for duplicating that environment is not as good as actually training in the maritime environment.”
He said the Coast Guard will “send out beginning flight mechanics to a third party for training. It used to be an in-house syllabus, but now it is progressive training using boats, daytime, nighttime, etc, then they return to their unit and finish the syllabus in a live training environment.” They also have the Advanced Helicopter Rescue School, with classroom sessions in the morning and flights in the afternoon.
When the weather is bad, they will fly out and descend into a safe area to conduct procedures in a live environment.
Applications for water rescue with the Coast Guard include any situation of water distress. They will be notified if a recreational boater falls out of a boat, a commercial fishing boat sinks, or an aircraft crashes in the ocean
Applications for water rescue with the Coast Guard include any situation of water distress. They will be notified if a recreational boater falls out of a boat, a commercial fishing boat sinks, or an aircraft crashes in the ocean. They have SAR procedures that include a grid in high-probability areas, which will generate a scatter plot to define a search pattern.
“Once we find them, we end the search phase and go to the rescue phase,” said O’Neill. “For anything offshore, the Coast Guard is the primary responder.”
Finally, he said that they help hoist people off cruise ships to receive care if the ship cannot provide the proper level of care. One hazard of hoisting from a cruise ship is that flags, wires, lights, and other hanging items on the tops of cruise ships must be removed before the helicopter can land and/or drop a crewmember down to pick up the patient on deck. This scenario could be difficult to replicate in simulation because it is variable.
Siew said that simulation training is not limited to marine situations; they also demonstrate mountain and cliff rescues, for example. “Whatever environment we need to bring to it, we put the hoist operator in a realistic environment with situational awareness.”
Communication is also very important. Siew emphasized the need for standards for recognizing hazards in dynamic hoisting environments and communicating about your surroundings, highlighting the value of teamwork for a wider and more complete situational awareness – for example, alerting the pilot when a tail rotor is too close to a cliff or a tree.
Sweeney agreed and emphasized the importance of working in concert for safe and successful missions: “All live training is done as a team. This is critically important because SAR is, first and foremost, a team game. We train together, we fly together and, during shifts, we live together. Everyone onboard brings different skills, and all of them are essential to safe and effective operations. But it’s important to acknowledge that this goes way beyond the people on the aircraft. The Bristow SAR team includes skilled engineers, storespeople, ground operations staff, office staff and many others. Each person plays a critical role and is absolutely essential to the lifesaving missions we respond to.”
All live training is done as a team. This is critically important because SAR is, first and foremost, a team game
Siew said that differing weather and terrain also impact operations, and that needs to be reflected in “the whole training environment – the effect of the moving helicopter, the cable and load [which] will move with the helicopter at different angles, the tension in the cable – the person on the hoist needs to be able to feel what they would feel.”
At Bluedrop, they reproduce all kinds of environmental and dynamic conditions, replicating different weather conditions so the hoist operator can test out different scenarios.
“It is not always 25°C (77°F), sunny, no wind, flat terrain,” said Siew. “We need to be able to create those environments, which is why high-fidelity simulation is very interesting.”
He added: “It is not just a nice technology; we’ve thought about the whole training environment and training outcomes. All situations must be available in the simulator to put the crew in very realistic conditions.”
Sharpe summed up hoist simulations and training best by saying: “Many years ago, I had a flight commander say ‘There are no exercises in aviation.’ By that, he meant that as soon as the helicopter takes off (even for training), it is real. The development of simulators, not just for pilots but also for the rear crew / hoist operators, now allows especially new operators to make mistakes and experience emergencies. That scenario can be stopped safely any time by pressing ‘pause’.”
Investment in simulator training continues, with Bristow planning to improve its own offering, explained Sweeney: “We are currently enhancing our simulator training capability. Bristow is developing a ground-breaking new helicopter crew training center in the UK, offering an unprecedented level of simulated training for SAR technical crews. It will include a detailed mock-up of a full-size aircraft, complete with a representative cockpit and interior, giving our winch operators and winch paramedics the ability to ‘fly’ at heights of up to 20 meters over a large training area, where they can train for rescues on land, at sea, and with a simulated moving ship platform.”
The experts have shared that training operators accurately requires a combination of missions, including simulation exercises that replicate water rescues and real-life training in high-stress environments. Entities spend time in real and simulated training, preparing for future incidents. The experts surveyed shared stories of intense training, using both high and low technology, and the importance of being prepared for any situation. However, situational awareness and excellent communication between crewmembers were found to be standard in all scenarios.
Jennifer Ferrero owns Ferrero Agency. She focuses her writing on feature stories for aerospace and manufacturing trade publications. She also provides marketing and public relations services. She has been an entrepreneur and writer for over 25 years. She lives in Spokane, Washington.
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