Correction appended.
Two students sat in a flight simulator as professor Deak Arch tested them with a difficult scenario.
The duo ended up crashing their virtual plane into the ground because they lost an engine and failed to go through emergency procedures quickly enough, Chris Dinishak, flight instructor and Ohio University senior, said
“It’s better to learn on the ground here, then for something like that to happen in the real world, and for us to read about it in the crash report,” Dinishak said. “That would really suck.”
OU’s aviation program is now able give students a more realistic simulation of flight from the ground and better prepare them for future careers, due to an improvement in technology.
The program purchased a full-motion simulator, called a Redbird MCX, three years ago for more than $100,000, Dinishak said. This year students are finally able to use it in most of the flight courses. The simulator has many screens so the pilot can view in all directions, and it mimics the movements of a real plane, even giving some students motion sickness.
The Redbird is mostly used for students to practice flying multi-engine aircrafts, as they are the most expensive to use, Dinishak said. Although the best practice comes from flying a real plane, simulators are also used to expose students to dangerous situations that could occur when flying. Many commercial airlines also use full-motion simulators when training their pilots.
Beyond the Redbird, the crew resource management course, which is required of all aviation students, has been restructured to incorporate new technology.
When those two students crashed their virtual plane, the rest of the students in the course were in another room watching the pair on a projector and keeping track of the virtual plane on tablets.
Arch, the associate professor teaching the course, wanted to improve the class, so he adapted it to resemble the training done by industry airlines.
“It’s just really, really awesome; I just love it,” Arch said. “The students really like what we’re doing, so that is just great.”
In the past, the course used very low-grade cameras and had no voice technology, Arch said, and students were at a “real big disadvantage.”
Now, the technology used at OU keeps pace with advancements in the industry and at other flight schools, Mark Atkinson, aviation business administrator and flight training program manager, said.
“The guys going through this program now, when they go out into industry, they go out looking for their first job, they’ll have the most up-to-date information and will have used the latest technology,” Atkinson said.
Correction: A previous version of this report incorrectly named the flight course. The article has been updated to reflect the most accurate information.
