As the Air Force’s upgrade to the TH-1H Iroquois helicopter with its new engine and glass cockpit progresses, the live flight/simulator balance for rotary-wing students will go from 77 percent/23 percent to 74 percent/26 percent. The fighter-bomber track sees students in the venerable T-38C Talon 71 percent of the time, comprising 96 hours, and in the simulator 29 percent of the time or 39 hours.

The fighter-bomber track sees students in the venerable T-38C Talon 71 percent of the time, comprising 96 hours, and in the simulator 29 percent of the time or 39 hours.

All of AETC’s flying training programs have seen reductions in flight time according to Gillis, particularly the advanced training tracks, in which flight time has dropped by 15 percent. Some of this is by design. The airlift/mobility track’s less dynamic, more procedures-oriented type of flying allows for a different live flight/simulator balance.

“We are adding some things to the syllabus that lend themselves particularly well to the simulator,” Gillis said. “For example, the T-1 currently flies simulated air-refueling in the air. They go out and fly the simulated rendezvous, take the airplane to a pre-contact position. In the simulator, we’ll be able to take that training a little farther. We’ll also be able to do more low-level training [in the simulator] with the new visual system which has a database down to a meter resolution. We can fly a lot more realistic low-level in the sim and there’s a complementary relationship between what you do in the simulator and what you do in the airplane.”

Postgraduate flight training is headed in the same direction Gillis added. Squadron level formal airlift/mobility training units at Altus Air Force Base (AFB) and Little Rock AFB are employing increasing amounts of simulation. For some airlift aircraft, most of the training is done via simulator. Only a couple of events, including the aircraft check ride, are done as live flight sorties.

However, the USAF remains biased toward live flight in undergraduate pilot training, particularly for beginners Gillis said.

Simulation is viewed as complementary to flying, but the reverse is also true.

“The issue for us has always been how important it is for an ab initio student to get live flight experience. Only then can he really appreciate what goes on in the simulator.”

Simulation is viewed as complementary to flying, but the reverse is also true.

“There’s an opportunity with the T-1 pipeline, especially with the simulator tech-refresh, for a more complementary syllabus. We’ve tried to do that in the past. With a basic student you’d do a lot of procedures up front and then put him in the airplane, from which he comes back to the simulator occasionally. Today a T-1 training block may have ten aircraft sorties in it. We’re looking at maybe six in the airplane and four in the simulator, so as students go along, there will be a back and forth approach.”