Muscle memory and simulators in role-based aerial firefighting

One of the major inhibitors of using real aircraft for firefighting training is that instructors cannot simply create dangerous conditions such as extreme haze, forest or intermediate grass fire. Simulators fill in those inevitable gaps when training for natural disasters. “It’s about being confident at your job and having those skills that you can pull out when needed,” O’Rourke says. Operators spend a lot of time on standby and then very quickly are forced to turn on in response to the event, and this is where simulators can come in.

NAFC: The Aviation Simulation Project

When the Black Summer settled down, the NAFC started actively responding to a recommendation from the NSW State Independent Bush Fire Inquiry to boost simulation use within the industry. According to the NAFC, the rollout of the project will aim to:

• Establish a community of aviation simulation subject matter experts to enable the sharing of resources, knowledge, expertise and lessons learned on simulation technology.
• Use webinars to demonstrate and showcase different simulation tools, including current operational use.
• Develop and identify opportunities for further enhancements to ensure job-related knowledge, skills, abilities and other characteristics (KSAOs).
• Establish and apply selection criteria to assess and evaluate simulation systems under consideration in the light of training strategies identified.

An air attack supervisor will typically control the number of bombing aircraft around and the aircraft that drops the water and liaises with ground controllers to direct their routes. A trainee will sit in the seat of an aircraft replicating a Eurocopter AS350 Ecureuil – which is incorporated with basic controls as it’s not for a pilot – and put the virtual reality goggles on. “It doesn’t move around, it’s stable on the ground, but through the virtual reality headsets, you still get that sense of motion and the visualisation like they play a racing car game,” says O’Rourke.

Michelle Jenkins, who is also part of the NSW RFS and has supervised the project, says the simulations are designed with multiple scenarios, such as grass fires moving into bushland, forest fires and various levels of haze and weather conditions. It’s been developed with a mixture of aircraft, such as rotary and fixed-wing helicopters, single-engine air tractors and large air tankers. Each aircraft and scenario are designed to develop skills in different circumstances, whether a ravaging wildfire or intermediate grass fire. The project is also coupled with a new aviation centre of excellence in regional NSW, announced in November. It’s focused on boosting emergency response capabilities and providing simulators and dedicated training spaces.

Why simulators?

While training in an actual aircraft is critical to the role, its high costs ultimately outweigh its worth. Flight simulators are far cheaper than taking an operations manager out in an aircraft. In the UK, flight crews must undergo simulation training because without it, it could cost more than $60 million a year to teach 1,000 pilots on actual aircraft. Simulators have also significantly reduced environmental impacts that aircraft training has, as the aviation industry alone accounts for 2 per cent of global transport CO2 emissions.

Greg Boychuk has been involved in wildfire management for almost 30 years. He is the provincial air tanker program supervisor in Alberta, Canada. When NAFC began investigating simulators, the agency held discussions with Canadian fire services to grasp incorporating the technology into their training stimulus. He says that to train one air attack officer in Alberta takes two years and $75,000, just in-flight time. That cost is particularly substantial given 60 per cent of trainees don’t even make it. “Simulation gives us a way to find out whether the candidate is acceptable and understand their communication skills and situational awareness before we invest a lot of time and money,” he says.

But the cost is an inferior advantage of simulators compared to how thoroughly they can train role-based operators. “It makes people feel a bit more comfortable,” says Jenkins. “It’s about understanding a lot more about the role and being exposed to some of those trickier scenarios. It’s being [able] to stop and think, ‘This is what I’m going to do, and this is how I’m going to do it’.” She says being able to assess the situation with the help of an instructor alleviates the normal pressures presented in a real aircraft.

The Black Summer and what the inquiry said

The Australian Black Summer is unmatched compared to many infamous bushfires worldwide, including the Amazon Rainforest or Californian Wildfires. Despite their significant impact, the bushfires in Australia burned more than 72,000 square miles in total between September 2019 and March 2020. The Center for Disaster Philanthropy report noted the amount burned was roughly the size of Syria. “At least 80 per cent of the Blue Mountains World Heritage area in NSW and 53 per cent of the Gondwana world heritage rainforests in Queensland (QLD) burned,” says the report. Prime Minister Scott Morrison confirmed in February 2020 in Parliament that 33 people had died as a result, with nine of them being firefighters. Bushfires in Australia weren’t unheard of, as the hot and dry climate inevitably leads to natural disasters. Still, the most recent ones proved to be one of the worst in the nation’s history.

Following the fires, the government launched a Royal Commission into National Natural Disaster Arrangements to recognise the gaps in the industry and how Australia should be prepared for the next season. The NSW State Independent Bush Fire Inquiry was to determine the holes statewide. “One-on-one training requires appropriate aircraft, conditions and trainers that are not always available,” the final report said. “The inquiry has identified that agencies and jurisdictions need to develop more personnel in these critical roles,” it suggested, increasing pressure to utilise augmented realities and simulators for training role-based operators. Once the inquiry closed, the NSW recognised NAFC had begun the project as a direct response to expanding capability.

Was Australia capable before?

Before the project was launched, the NAFC conducted a survey to better understand how simulations are being handled already and where the gaps are. Regarding air observers, only 69 per cent of respondents said they used some sort of simulation in their training. Similarly, with air attack supervisors, 71 per cent of responders said they used simulation of some sort. The primary training sources were in class and air-based, with limited use of online learning. Highlighted in the survey was that most agencies had no formal process of simulation use which was noted as “off the shelf” type of training. But what the NAFC project aims to achieve is to create a more holistic approach to simulation use development in the FES training sector.

“I think it’s a logical next step to enhance the skills and experience of our pilots,” says Ben Millington, chair of the NAFC Aviation Simulation Project Team, when asked about whether simulation experience is crucial for every operator. He says while he doesn’t see a vast disparity between operators who use them and those that don’t, he believes they help replicate training “on the ground and in a safe space so that they can experience learning in that aspect”.

What have others said about it?

Earlier in the project, before it was ironed out to what it is now, trainees tested the technology, and according to O’Rourke, the response was quite positive. However, while it was primarily effective, he and Jenkins emphasised that with this type of technology, you can’t just, “Put them in there straight away and say, ‘Away you go’.” There is a tedious balance of teaching trainees how to use virtual reality and grasp their bearings in a simulator, all while teaching them how to grow their firefighting operation skills.

In a webinar with the United States fire consulting company Becker Support Services, personnel were invited to test out the immersive virtual reality training, as it is accessible from anywhere in the world. “We demonstrated that it is possible to run productive virtual sand table exercises with participants from anywhere in the world, even when travel restrictions are in place and gathering indoors is prohibited,” Ryan Becker told Fire Aviation. “Our first users have all had strongly positive reactions. They genuinely wanted to keep training after we ran out of time and said they wanted to be able to do it on their own time.”

The landscape of aerial firefighting is constantly changing, especially as the industry grapples with new technologies and unforeseen seasons of time, like the pandemic. Simulators are the products of a goal never to be prohibited from getting better, even if the weather is terrible, even if the funds are dry and especially if there are no fires to practice on. So, as technology advances and grows, the industry must adapt to ensure more lives are saved, more fires are stopped, and more land is preserved.