VV CompSep™ - Simulator Exercises
VV Compromised Separation is practical training. The theory of critical conflict resolution means little without its application to surprise events and the practice of control actions to a high level of competence. The VV Simulator has proved to be a highly-effective practice platform. It employs speech recognition technology that is in use in many countries, including several in which English is a second language. The exercises are structured to increase complexity as follows:
- Exercise 1 presents 20 crossing conflicts. Each appears in turn with the aircraft in urgent, but not emergency conflict – greater than 30 seconds from intercept. This allows the student to develop control techniques at his/her own pace, repeating scenarios taking later action (closer to intercept) on each occasion.
- Exercise 2 again presents 20 conflicts, but they are more urgent – 30 seconds or less from intercept and very few seconds for resolution action to be taken.
- Exercise 3 again has 20 conflicts, but complexity is added in the form of additional aircraft on the screen. The student must analyse each scenario and first ascertain which aircraft are and are not in conflict. The simulation is highly realistic and real emergency actions are practised.
So, 60 conflicts are presented in the exercises, which should be sufficient for skills development (there are only a certain number of ways in which two aircraft flight paths can cross). If more scenarios are required, wind can be added to the simulator from the eight cardinal compass directions and at light and strong speeds. Wind changes the aircraft speeds and so 960 further scenarios can be presented if desired. Selecting a random wind for an exercise affords a platform on which a student’s performance can be assessed by a Training Expert with traffic conflicts unlikely to have been encountered in practice.
The resolution of a conflict is examined and a result presented. After the aircraft are established on diverging flight paths two figures are displayed: the untouched Closest Point of Approach (CPoA) and the effected CPoA. The student therefore is aware as to whether his/her actions increased or decreased the likelihood of a collision.