Next-gen aviation training technology based on virtual reality

“For quite a while now recruitment has been a challenge to most aviation organisations with demand for staff steadily growing and supply lagging behind, making well-trained employees a valuable asset,” explained Romas Butkevicius, CEO of Sensus Aero, a new-gen software solution for the aviation industry. “This puts additional importance on the whole training process as in-demand employees have many choices and opportunities in the industry. Thus, old, and boring training methods can become detrimental to retaining much-needed staff.”

According to Konradas Dulka, Product Director, providing large amounts of text and hoping that newcomers will remember everything is no longer a viable option. “It has been noticed that micro training combined with interactive training has been much more effective, engaging, and interesting. This tendency becomes even more noticeable as generation Z will join the workforce, requiring more effort from organisations to keep them interested.”

This is one of many reasons why Sensus Aero has advanced forward and embraced the newest technologies to make a substantial improvement on training processes. “There are tools used for virtual reality simulators in aviation, but to go even further, we found, that combining VR manual, VR examination and 3D manuals substantially improves training material appropriation, both in on-boarding process and on the field. This solution is not just a tool, but easily – and with low costs – incorporates into the training and onboarding process. We call it ‘Progressive 3D training flow’ and it consists of three steps,” explained Dulka.

Sensus Aero Product Director shares that these three steps amplify the training quality and continue to serve while the employees are already in operations for refresh trainings.

“The first and second steps are done in virtual reality training. The first part shows how the procedure must be completed correctly in VR, where each student can see what the exact steps are. Here we are teaching students to focus on correct execution of the procedure and what to look out for.”

According to Dulka, the second part of the training consists of a student going through examination process, where they are free to do whatever they want, however they must complete the objective and use the knowledge gained in the first part.

“As an example, with ‘workaround procedure’ we are able to simulate realistic damage where students’ attention and knowledge is put to the test. Here, the emphasis falls on developing the right habits and making employees fully prepared for operations. In this instance, virtual reality serves as a perfect tool to learn the correct step-by-step procedure and follow their performance.

“Our last step is innovative 3D manual. We have developed the first-of-its-kind 3D manual, where we are able to transfer all the procedures in a visual 3D environment, which is accessible via mobile phones. This means, that if at any point employee forgets how the procedure must be done or how to operate a particular GSE, they can open the application and in one minute can go through visual instructions on how to execute the task. This serves as refreshment training perfectly as well.”

Introducing innovative training amplification is a challenge for sure, but in the long run, such improvements in processes can become an irreplaceable part of operations. “Combining these three modern training steps can guarantee that training time will be reduced, lower supervision will be needed, and most importantly quality of training will be of the highest standard,” shared Konradas Dulka, Product Director of Sensus Aero.