BUILDING on the success of Virtalis’ Virtual Reality Helicopter Voice Marshalling Trainer, upgrades for which were delivered to the RAF last year, the company has now developed an easily administered, portable variant. It is aimed at the world defence community, those involved in air transportation, coastguards and air sea rescue.

Andrew Connell, Virtalis technical director, explained: “By using a low cost, standard PC, which works from a single graphics card, we have created an off the shelf product which takes only ten minutes to set up. We have been able to harness developments in computing power so it offers advances in graphics quality, performance and user interfaces. The rest of the system consists of a head-mounted display, a tracking system, 2 LCD panels and a joystick. Like our bespoke RAF system, it features three marshalling environments, sea, land and coastline, though in recognition of the variety of helicopters in use around the world, it can feature different models. It is simple to customise, so that new local terrain can be easily generated. The basic system, complete with a year’s support, will cost a shade under £100,000. Tailored systems for different helicopters and/or familiar landscapes will cost a bit more”.

The Voice Marshalling (VM) skill performed by rear aircrew plays a vital role in both search and rescue missions and in the delivery of military and survival resources to remote areas. Located in the rear cabin of a helicopter, harnessed VM aircrew monitor the landscape through the open cabin door and verbally relay flight commands to the pilot in order to guarantee an accurate and safe approach to the helicopter's landing site or target object.

Two bases responsible for helicopter training within the RAF, the Central Flying School (Helicopters) and Defence Helicopter Flying School at RAF Shawbury and the Search and Rescue Training Unit at RAF Valley are currently operating the original system.

The Flight Commander in charge of rear crew training at RAF Valley, SARTU Flight Lieutenant Sam McDonagh, said: "The VM trainer has exceeded all our expectations. Aircrew have so much information to process and deliver simultaneously, it can be very difficult for them to juggle it all. We have had several through the course who probably would not have passed without it. The graphics on the system are superb and, as a result, we are now delivering the kind of ground based and remedial training we had never thought possible."

Like its predecessor, the new system utilises Virtalis' real-time rendering engine, kRender. This allows the student to see a seascape animated right to the horizon. Such details are important because aircrew are trained to use surface physical details to help gauge distances for the pilot. At sea, even foam patterns are used, so Virtalis developed a subtle technique to endow the wave effects of different sea states with accurate material finishes.

Like the other Virtalis training systems, the VR VM trainer employs the Instructor's Scenario Control Interface, which provides the instructor with a repeat of the student's 3D view. It is a user friendly, multi window, point-and-click display subsystem that allows instructors to pre-program, run, save and replay VM scenarios. It is even possible to configure the virtual environment for weather and time of day effects. The instructor also controls the student's helicopter with a joystick, responding to the VM commands given. For debrief, the system has a virtual play back mode that can store 20-minute missions. These include:

• Own aircraft course and position
• Position of other craft and targets
• Exact environmental conditions, including continuous sea-state and wave height
• Audio recordings of student voice commands
• Exercise Controller replies and background sounds