LANGLEY AIR FORCE BASE, Va. –
The flight line at an Air Force base is constantly buzzing with activity as aircraft arrive and depart daily. With the traffic comes the responsibility of maintaining an organized environment, imperative to successful airfield operations, safety of personnel and mission accomplishment. Air traffic controllers readily accept this great task, diligently shepherding aircraft in and out of the airfield and surrounding airspace.
However, the skills necessary to orchestrate these elaborate operations are not learned overnight, nor can they be taught strictly in textbooks. Trainees need hands-on experience to understand the environmental factors that impact their task. To accomplish this, the 1st Operations Support Squadron trains its air traffic controllers using a Tower Simulation System, a computer-based mock-up of an air traffic control tower.
The system, housed in a small building at the foot of the group's air traffic control tower, features a series of video screens, designed to mimic the orientation of a real control tower. The video screens display a simulated airfield, giving the trainees a 360 degree view of their surroundings. Trainees use real equipment as they work though a variety of scenarios, using video simulations of airfield and airspace operations, administered by a supervisor at the main control computer nearby.
Adacel Systems, Inc. designed the $1.5 million system to immerse trainees into the experience as realistically as possible without actually working in the tower, according to Senior Airman Darin Brownlee, a 1 OSS air traffic controller.
"The TSS is a great platform for new trainees, because we use exact phraseology for it to work properly," he said. "We need to use exact phraseology in the tower, so this is a natural first step."
Using the simulator provides a safe environment for trainees to make mistakes under pressure, something that is unacceptable in the real tower, according to Airman Brownlee. Working in the tower can be stressful even to seasoned professionals, and new controllers may make mistakes.
"You can mess up [on the simulator] as much as you want. If you mess up upstairs, people can die," Airman Brownlee said. "We can pause the action in here to help correct trainees, which is a huge benefit to them."
The controllers can download images from airfields across the country, including military and civilian facilities. The simulator can also display video representations of airfields from around the world, including deployed locations, such as Joint Base Balad, a major military air traffic gateway in Iraq.
Trainees spend up to 100 hours in the simulator before working in the tower, according to Airman Brownlee. A controller will spend upward of 500 hours on the simulator in their career, as the simulator is also used for proficiency training for skilled controllers.
Using the simulator cuts training time virtually in half compared to tower training, Airman Brownlee added.
"Without the simulator, training a new controller takes about a year," he said. "We can provide that same initial training in six months using the TSS."
Every Air Force base and Federal Aviation Administration facility operates one of the simulators, said Airman Brownlee.
While nothing compares to the stress and immediacy of working in the real tower, the simulator serves as the next best thing.
"It's obviously more stressful in the tower, because you have more people and real planes in real situations," he said. "But the TSS gives us the best way to train our team safely, so when they get upstairs, they've used the equipment and simulated what they may see. They're ready."