Priority 1 Air Rescue (P1AR), a world leader in helicopter search-and-rescue (SAR) mission operational support and training, has announced the award of a multi-year contract by the Defense Helicopter Command of the Royal Netherland Air Force (RNLAF) to provide virtual SAR simulation training support services for the AS532 Cougar and NH90 helicopter aircrews in order to achieve essential training levels for maritime and inland SAR hoist operations.
The virtual simulation training will take place at the P1AR Search and Rescue Tactical Training Academy (SART/TAC) located in Nîmes, France.
A comprehensive simulation training package will include hoist mission training for basic to advanced inland SAR, ocean, shipboard operations, and night unaided/night vision goggle (NVG) operations, to be performed in all weather conditions and relevant environments. Training will incorporate pilot and rear-crew SAR mission synthetic sessions that will be integrated with tactile learning on the NH90/AS532 hoist training towers in order to provide technical and procedural hoist operations practice. The first training class session of the contract commenced the first week of October 2016.
“This contract demonstrates the importance the RNLAF has for effective training technology and solutions. We are truly honored to have been awarded this contract by the Defense Helicopter Command to provide innovative and enhanced SAR training capabilities for the NH90 and AS532 helicopter aircrews,” said Brad Matheson, president, head of training and director of Priority 1 Air Rescue International Limited. “The virtual simulation component provides not only realistic immersion, but more importantly, accurate context to the skills and scenarios being practiced and employed during actual live flight, this will significantly enhance our customers’ ability to train for their complete range of missions.
“The level of detail contained in our simulation training platforms are directly leveraged from Priority 1 Air Rescue’s extensive experience of actually performing helicopter hoist SAR missions, along with our 18 years providing human hoist operations (HHO) ground and live flight training and program implementation services for customers worldwide,” said Matheson.
