Train-the-Trainer by DataHomeLab

9.8 Advantages and Disadvantages of Simulator Training

Advantages

The three advantages of simulator training listed here:

  • Safety. Threats and manoeuvres that would be dangerous to expose a line crew to in an aircraft (engine fire at V1, dual hydraulic failure, severe windshear at low altitude, full loss of thrust) can be trained safely in the simulator. The safety dividend is the foundational argument for simulator training: many of the events EBT recurrent training prioritises are events the manufacturer and operators cannot expose a line crew to in the aircraft at all.
  • Economic ◊ more time / depth. The simulator costs less per hour than the airplane (no fuel, no airframe wear, no ground services); the cost differential buys more training time in the same training budget, which buys more depth on each topic.
  • Realism ◊ high correlation and transfer. Modern full-flight simulators provide a high correlation between the simulator environment and the airplane environment, and accordingly produce a high transfer of learning from the simulator to the airplane.

Disadvantages

The three disadvantages listed here:

  • Potential for misuse. The simulator can train events the airplane cannot, but it can also train events that have no operational relevance, or train them in ways that imprint incorrect habits. The misuse risk is real precisely because the simulator's training reach is so wide.
  • Negative Training (overloading; too difficult). Exercises that exceed the trainee's capability without a structured progression do not train the target skill; they train avoidance, defensive workload-management, or the trainee's belief that the situation is unwinnable. Overloading is treated again in 9.10 Factors that can Affect Simulator Training in the context of "unreasonable tasks or task load."
  • 'Control Issues' (pilots / trainees; perceived lack of control). Trainees can experience the simulator as an environment in which they have less control than in the airplane: the instructor can inject malfunctions, change weather, freeze the device, and reposition without warning. The trainee's perceived loss of control affects engagement and learning. The 9.9 Sources of Trainee Stress treatment (the "significant amount of control you have over the trainees in a simulator") expands on this.

Instructors hold a powerful position to exercise control

The source notes that instructors hold a powerful position to exercise control via two principal levers:

  • Malfunctions. The instructor selects what fails, when it fails, and how the failure presents. The same airframe-system malfunction can be sequenced before, during, or after a phase-change to produce three completely different exercises.
  • Weather. The instructor selects ceiling, visibility, wind, turbulence, and runway condition. Weather is the second principal lever the instructor uses to shape the exercise difficulty without altering the lesson-plan procedure list.

The malfunction-and-weather levers are powerful because together they determine the workload profile of the exercise: a single-engine approach in calm CAVOK conditions is a different exercise from the same single-engine approach in CAT II minima with a 25-knot crosswind. Electronic lesson plans pre-select malfunctions and weather (see A4.2.6 Guidance for Using Electronic Lesson Plans); the instructor's job is to deliver the pre-selected combination at the right cue and to assess the workload effect on the crew.

The advantages are realised through disciplined use

The three advantages are not automatic. Safety is realised when the instructor sets up exercises that exploit the safety dividend rather than reproducing line training. Economic depth is realised when the lower simulator hourly cost is converted into more training time per topic, not into more topics covered shallowly. Realism with high transfer is realised when the 9.7 The Simulator Training Process are observed.

The three disadvantages are not avoided automatically either. Misuse is avoided when the lesson plan is designed against operationally relevant scenarios. Negative training is avoided when difficulty progresses incrementally. Control issues are avoided when the instructor's presence reads as supportive rather than adversarial (see 9.9 Sources of Trainee Stress on stress and trust).

The pairing matters: each advantage has a corresponding disadvantage that surfaces if the discipline that realises the advantage is not in place.

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