The flight simulator room at Bowling Green State University in Ohio. (Photo by Mbrickn via Wikimedia)

By SCOTT FIRSING

Both the US Senate and House of Representatives officially passed FAA extension bills before the end of 2023. Crisis averted. The FAA can keep operating through the new deadline, March 8, 2024.

That extra time gives the Senate an opportunity to discuss some of the finer terms laid out in the five-year FAA Reauthorization Bill.

A full draft of the bill initially passed the House of Representatives in the summer of 2023.

And there’s a lot of meat on this bone. As U.S. Senate Commerce Committee Ranking Member Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) explains, the “bill addresses airport infrastructure, workforce challenges, ATC staffing, protections for passengers, the safety framework, manufacturing. I could go on. It is an important bill that makes progress towards solving some of the challenges facing aviation.”

Cruz’s job, along with his fellow committee members, is to unjam a jam over certain aviation topics, some of which deal specifically with pilot training.

One hotly debated topic is increasing the number of simulator hours a pilot can log as part of the 1,500 hours the FAA requires to become an Airline Transport Pilot.

Members of the National Flight Training Alliance (NFTA), which includes flight school owners and others heavily involved in flight training, know how important training in an advanced flight simulator is.

NFTA officials spent a lot of time in Washington, D.C., at the end of 2023, going up and down the halls of Congress, explaining to elected officials and their staff what we see every day while training new pilots.

NFTA officials visit Washington, D.C., including (from right to left) Lee Collins, NFTA CEO, Scott Firsing, owner of Scott Sky Advisors, Scott Campbell, owner of Sierra Charlie Aviation in Scottsdale, Arizona, and Chuck Miller, president of ATP Jets & vice president at ATP. (Photo courtesy Scott Firsing)

And what we see is that the latest simulator technology creates a very realistic environment for pilots to practice a whole host of skills, ranging from stick and rudder skills to communication with the tower or with fellow pilots.

There’s also science behind the use of a simulator. Part of the training is about creating “neurological” muscle memory that pilots develop through repeated practice of specific skills.

It’s similar to how you haven’t ridden a bicycle in several years, but then you jump on and just go without thinking about it.

It’s all related to motor learning that occurs in the central nervous system. When you repeat something, like an abnormal situation in an aircraft cockpit in a high fidelity flight simulator, your brain and spinal cord work both in tandem and independently to create strong and efficient neural pathways that transmit the appropriate signals to the body part that needs to be activated.

Simulators help create this kind of muscle memory, which means your brain no longer has to think as much about the movement.

Two pilots in a Cirrus flight sim. (Photo by Eddie Maloney)

Moreover, we need simulators to recreate and practice emergency procedures and scenarios.

Scientific studies, including high-level peer-reviewed journal articles on human factors, have shown that adding in unpredictability and variability into a simulator training session, such as a surprise test, improves pilot responses, requiring a pilot to apply the practiced skills, which reinforces learning.

Another important overlooked element of flight simulators is the benefit you receive by teaching in one.

Albert Einstein famously said, if you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.

Pilots are truly professionally developed by exercising their Certified Flight Instructor (CFI) privileges and teaching others. CFIs have both a high proficiency and skill level due to the preparation needed to deliver flight instruction.

The flight time while teaching, especially in a simulator, is far superior to other methods allowed for logging flight experience, like flying around by yourself in single-engine piston aircraft in perfect weather conditions in quiet airspace.

Scientific research studies have proven teaching a topic to someone else helps you, as the teacher, learn. It’s known as the Protégé Effect.

New regulations should acknowledge this.

Additionaly, the flight training industry, as well as the rest of the general aviation community, needs to remind Congress that most U.S. pilot regulations have not been genuinely modernized in decades.

FAA regulations do not allow for innovation in aircraft simulation and current educational techniques. Additionally, the process used by the FAA to update regulations is overly cumbersome and lengthy and, frankly, is unable to address this critical infrastructure necessity.

Because it is general aviation that trains private pilots who eventually become commercial pilots who work at the airlines and other institutions, flight training advocates strongly suggest the FAA create a new committee composed of leaders in the pilot certification process.

They are the ones who can provide accurate input into the current state of America’s flight training industry. Collectively these flight schools own hundreds of airplanes and train thousands of pilots a year. They have a depth of knowledge and experience second to none.

Congress does have a plethora of issues to discuss after the holiday season, but they need to remember aviation is a critical part of our national infrastructure.

The pilot shortage and “updating” flight training in America via finalizing the Securing Growth and Robust Leadership in American Aviation Act will guide this vital industry over the next five years and beyond.

Scott Firsing PhD is the owner of Scott Sky Advisors, an aviation consultancy in Austin, Texas, that assists aircraft OEMs and simulator companies. He is also on the board of the University Aviation Association (UAA) and the National Flight Training Alliance (NFTA).