Maintenance Training
Adaptable Approach A more flexible approach to AMT training is needed today, according to Michele Asmar, director Learning Innovation, Training Solutions, CAE and her colleague Pierre Bérubé, product manager. That would include more webbased and mobile training solutions as well as an operations oriented, troubleshooting approach to line maintenance. Smart and virtual classroom, plus webbased e-learning is a must to meet the challenge. Better troubleshooting training could lead to an 80% reduction in gate returns, said Erik Tobler, Aerosim commercial manager for Latin American & Caribbean. CAE has developed a three-dimensional integrated virtual learning environment for AMT training that can enhance training systems, inspection and walkaround and troubleshooting. The CAE 3D experience provides live collaboration for product lifecycle management and can link fault isolation and aircraft maintenance manuals to 3D models. The incorporation of Computer Aided Three-dimension Interactive Application (CATIA) models from aircraft and engine makers is one of the biggest advances in AMT training today, according to several training equipment and solutions providers. “As regulators call for more inspections, commercial aircraft get older, and
more experienced technicians retire, it will be more important than ever to train a new generation of computer-savvy technicians to standard in less time,” said Arnold Van Den Hoeven, senior director, Global Defense Sector, NGRAIN Corp. “We see a future where airline maintenance technicians will be trained with the types of equipment simulations that military organizations have been using over the past decade to accelerate training and improve technician performance,” Van Den Hoeven said.
Instructors In the age of leaping advances in software and hardware training tools, the dilemma is how to effectively keep the instructor an integral part of the training process. Today’s instructor has morphed from lecturer to participating instructor to personal coach to media manager, said Aerosim’s Tobler. There is also the dynamic between student and teacher to consider. Today’s students, whether they’re potential AMTs or pilots, are more independent in how they want to learn. They’re more visual, preferring graphics to text and are part of “complex social networks,” according to a 2011 ICAO Training Report. Keeping them interested is challenging. CAE has developed a suite of tools to support the delivery of technical digital
media. “From an instructor’s perspective, it is the equivalent of them having an electronic lesson plan,” Asmar said, “which they can click on and it will bring up the technology.” In the early days of simulation development, “our products were very powerful, but not instructor friendly,” she admitted. This suite of tools helps ensure that the instructor is an important element to the training experience. AMTs of tomorrow must be more than wrench turners. “In the context of new technologies, globalization and new demanding information strategies, AMTs will require new competencies and will need to integrate them into their daily work,” recommended Lotter. A “mission oriented” holistic approach should be established as a basic concept for future AMTs and integrated into the training process, he added. Several training experts agree that regulatory agencies and training groups need to be able to develop training templates that include “digital natives,” young people that grew up with the internet and its related devices, and “digital immigrants,” those that need to learn the new way of communications and training.
Sisyphus Syndrome AMTs and their trainers need to evolve in the same fashion, as did pilots and their instructors. But that is easier said than
ISSUE 4.2012
Virtual Reality
CAT MAGAZINE
32
Scott Ariotti has a dream. The director of Global Marketing for DiSTI, a developer of virtual maintenance training devices, would like the word “virtual” to automatically precede the words “maintenance training.” A pipedream, perhaps, but his point is well taken. Virtual is reality these days when it comes to training. “Our goal is to continue to develop the virtualized maintenance solutions so the word “training” is something you do, not a place you go,” Ariotti said. DiSTI’s virtual training systems allow AMTs some “indepth prep” on, say, how to tear down an engine rather than wait for instruction in the classroom or on the shop floor, Ariotti said. DiSTI training solutions provide 3-D interactive environments, which use some of the same graphical rendering techniques found in video games. Ariotti gave the following link to view an online example of an internal combustion engine:http:// disti.com/Products/Replic8/Cummins855_Engine_Demo.html A number of DiSTI virtual training devices include advanced display technology, video game style connections and intelligent tutoring systems and, in some cases, avatars for visual interactive team training, according to promotional materials.
Elsewhere, CAT found AMT related training news worth noting. FlightLine Training Services (FTS), Canada’s largest privately owned maintenance training company, and its partners plan to open a training center in Dubai during the fourth quarter 2012. The center will provide the Gulf region with pilot, flight attendant training and maintenance. It will provide maintenance training on around 30 different aircraft from King Airs to Boeing 777 and pilot and flight attendant training on B737NG and Airbus A320, said CEO Phyl Durdey. Hellenic Aviation Training Academy, a training center located near Athens International Airport, is one of FTS’s partners. Names of the other partners will be announced within a month, he said. FTS is a Transport Canada and EASA approved training organization, serving customers in 25 countries worldwide. Mainly focusing on the regional aircraft market, FTS recently ventured into “heavy” aircraft training with a new contract with Air Canada and corporate aircraft training with its lead-off Global Express customer Bombardier Aerospace.