Hats Off

The Helicopter Academy to Train by Simulation of Flying, a JV between HAL and CAE, has the potential to train pilots on any type of rotary wing machine

Helicopter Academy to Train by Simulation of Flying (HATSOFF) is a new joint venture (JV) between the aerospace major Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) and the world leader in flight simulators, Montreal-based Canadian Aviation Electronics Limited (CAE). HATSOFF is a Rs. 300 crore helicopter ‘roll on-roll off’ full fidelity simulator project, India’s first and the third of its kind in the world. The “roll on-roll off” feature entails flying simulation on more than one type of helicopter.

On an invitation from Wing Commander (Retd) C.D. Upadhyay, a renowned test pilot and the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of HATSOFF, I had the privilege of visiting the facility and also fly the simulator under the keen eyes of the CEO and Wing Commander Krishna, another ex-Indian Air Force test pilot.

The state-of-the-art facility has been set up in a record time of one year and it houses impressive training equipment and infrastructure. The roll-on cockpit of Bell 412EP is ready for operation, while that of Dauphin is yet to be installed. This project incorporates revolutionary air-cushion transportation for the roll-on cockpit modules, which is the first of its kind in the world. The facility has been certified by the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation.

HATS OFF is classified and certified as a Level D simulator, which according to Upadhyay, is the highest performance rating for flight training equipment and is a category that occupies the top slot in the family of simulators. A Level D simulator is a full-motion simulator with vibration platform and exceptionally good visual display system. Hours of training or flying time logged on this platform is equated with flight time on actual aircraft. This implies that a pilot can be declared fit to fly the actual aircraft purely on the basis of having successfully completed the prescribed number of hours on the simulator.

Historically, the development of simulators for training on helicopters has lagged behind that of fixed wing aircraft primarily on account of the difficulty in simulating six-axis motion. Compared to the fixed wing regime, the demand for helicopter simulators in the past has generally been much lower. The six axes here consist of the three axes of the aircraft itself around which it moves namely, pitch, roll and yaw. The other three axes are those related to the earth in relation to which the aircraft moves, i.e. linear acceleration, vertical climb and lateral displacement. Also, helicopter simulator training was found to be cost effective only for medium lift category or heavier machines, not quite for light weight machines. However, in the emerging scenario, the demand for training through simulation is proliferating with development activity extending to the category of light weight helicopters and even to radio controlled rotary wing flying machines.