flightglobal.com: FAA and ICAO working to harmonize FTD standards

Regulatory bodies in the US and elsewhere are trying to sort out common standards for all levels of training devices:

Previous harmonisation efforts led to the creation in 1992 of an International Civil Aviation Organisation manual describing the minimum requirements for qualifying aircraft flight simulators. This was updated in 2001 to reflect changes in simulation technology, but only defines the highest level of flight simulator.

The result was the harmonisation of qualification requirements for FAA and JAA Level D and ICAO Level 2 simulators. These high-fidelity devices, which permit zero flight-time training, have become the de facto standard for the industry and accounted for 70% of all US Federal Aviation Administration simulator approvals between 2000 and 2005.

But there is a distinct lack of harmonisation of standards for lower-level devices. The FAA has six levels of flight training device (FTD), plus others for PC-based desktop trainers, while Europe has more. ICAO, meanwhile, has identified the need for four additional levels of training device to support the multi-crew pilot licence (MPL), intended as a single global minimum performance standard for pilot training.

In November 2005, at the request of the FAA, the UK Royal Aeronautical Society (RAeS) agreed to establish an international working group to review the ICAO technical standards and expand them to include all devices from desktop trainers to full-flight simulators for both fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters.

"We felt it was the right time to harmonise and modernise the standards, to clean them up so they would be more streamlined and simpler for industry," says Stephane Clement, CAE manager, training solutions, verification and validation. "Lower-level FTDs like flat-panel trainers were becoming more popular, but it was not clear if they needed qualification, or at what level." There was also growing interest in using simulators for helicopter training. "The November 2005 meeting at the RAeS in London asked if it was time to upgrade flight simulation training standards, and the very strong answer was 'yes'," Clement says. There were many reasons, he says, including the need for more harmonisation, and to accommodate new technology, changes in the regulatory environment and the emergence of MPL.

The result will be seven new levels, with level 7 slightly above the current requirements for FAA Level D:

The intent is for ICAO to adopt the seven levels as the new international standards for flight simulation training devices. "The IWG's purpose is to produce a draft ICAO document," says Clement. "And for the devices in the draft we really know where they come from, instead of them being devices built on technology evolutions."

ICAO Level 7, the highest fidelity device, can be used for type and class ratings, recurrent and recency training, and MPL Phase 4 advanced training. Level 7 is close to today's Level D, but adds the requirement for ATC simulation, and the required field of view of the visual display system has been increased.

"An existing Level D simulator could meet or almost meet Level 7," says Clement. "Today, Level D requires a horizontal field of view of 180°. Going forward, we have settled on 200°, which is feasible with three channels." The reason for the increase is the requirement to train for curved approaches, he says.

"Today there are no requirements, but on Level 7 there will be a requirement for ATC simulation," Clement says. "Accidents are caused by human factors such as miscommunications, and cadets going through MPL need exposure to the airport environment during training. ATC simulation allows total immersion." Air traffic control simulation can be added to Level D simulators as a software kit, he says.

The same article provides more details about the differences between proposed levels, and also has some interesting info on sales of commercial simulators over the past few years.