Originally Posted by
victor two
I've seen the brand new Tiger HUET trainer in operation in Darwin. The rig is a full tandem sized cockpit mockup, without instruments or actual seats, everything is stainless steel and she's suspended above a crystal clear chlorinated pool at a lovely temperature. The pilots get in, the rig is lowered at a nice slow pace into the pool and lazily flops over on it's side, the guys unstrap and swim out of the cockpits.
That's the preparation for a stack in the water with blades exploding everywhere and turbulence and falling off the side of a boat fifty feet into the sea upside down.
Then again, a more realistic HUET trainer would be a rather hard thing to build if it was to replicate a ditching with some realism.
I guess it's better than nothing.
The "realistic" trainer that you suggest wouldn't be that hard to build at all - anyone can build something that crashes! I guess the problem lies in busting up highly trained (i.e. expensive) aircrew.....
By the way, if you haven't actually tried HUET then you probably can't comment on how benign or otherwise the dunk training seems to be. Let me assure you, clear water or not, it is BLOODY TERRIFYING!!
The Baffler