Realistic Radio Communications in Pilot Simulator Training

Simulators used for total training and evaluation of airline pilots must satisfy stringent criteria in order to assure their adequacy for training and checking maneuvers. Air traffic control and company radio communications simulation, however, may still be left to role-play by the already taxed instructorevaluators in spite of their central importance in every aspect of the flight environment. The underlying premise of this research is that providing a realistic radio communications environment would increase safety by enhancing pilot training and evaluation. This report summarizes the first-year efforts of assessing the requirement and feasibility of simulating radio communications automatically. A review of the training and crew resourcetask management literature showed both practical and theoretical support for the need for realistic radio communications simulation. A survey of 29 instructorevaluators from 14 airlines revealed that radio communications are mainly role-played by the instructorevaluators. This increases instructorevaluators own workload while unrealistically lowering pilot communications load compared to actual operations, with a concomitant loss in trainingevaluation effectiveness. A technology review searching for an automated means of providing radio communications to and from aircraft with minimal human effort showed that while promising, the technology is still immature. Further research and the need for establishing a proof-of-concept are also discussed.