“We are confident we have taken a proactive step in changing the ways of training,” Captain West Wu Wai-hung, the service’s controller, said on Friday.
The simulator system, programmed to create a true-to-life animation of the city’s environment, has been in operation for six months and has been used to train 44 pilots in all types of search and rescue, surveillance and emergencies in extreme weather.
Veteran pilots have been invited to adapt the scenarios to Hong Kong conditions.
The new simulator is expected to reduce the seven to eight years of pilot training needed at present to six years because assessments and training can be done at the same centre.
Construction was completed last September and the simulator later passed the Civil Aviation Department’s evaluation.
The system cost HK$116 million, while the training centre on Lantau Island cost HK$112 million.
Government pilots previously had to travel to France for training and to undergo assessments in a helicopter simulator.
Wu said the team was determined to change training procedures from passive to active, or providing them in Hong Kong, rather than having to rely on overseas facilities.
He explained active training involved several experienced pilots being called to serve as instructors, so they could contribute their flying experience, supervise trainees and help them understand how to deal with all kinds of situations.
There are two pilot seats and an aircraft panel inside the simulator cockpit. The instructor can control and plan complicated missions, such as handling malfunctions and ditching the craft.
Howie Chan, a senior pilot and one of the instructors, said he spent a lot of time designing the programme to ensure the exercises, such as deck winching at night, were realistic.
Training of that type was previously carried out in aircraft, eventually leading to wear and tear, Eddie Liu, a senior pilot (helicopter standard) said.
Liu said more than 2,000 hours of flying had been carried out in the simulator by this month.
Wu said that the service’s fleet had seven aircraft, some of which had been used for training and which could now be freed for standby operations.
He added he expected to see an increase in aircraft availability, which would improve the service.
Wong said the H175 Cheetah simulator was built for endurance and was expected to be in service for at least 20 years.
He added it was “too early to foresee” any replacement of the present helicopter fleet by other models.
Aviation firm Indra, which provided the avionics software, developed the simulation system for pilots to train for a variety of day and night time missions, often in bad weather.The system also replicates the characteristics of the H175 to prepare pilots to perform well in real-life operations.
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