RAF Chinook Sim

[Agaricus bisporus]

Where is the ex British Aiways Chinook (clockwork cockpit) sim these days? Is it still in use? Odiham?

[Old-Duffer]

Wasn't it a Boeing 204 simulator and rather different to a Chinook.

Wherever it is, I doubt it would be easily aligned with the splendid Chinook (and Puma and Merlin) simulators at MSHATF Benson. If it's held by the RAF it would probably have very little use other than for basic procedures trainer.

O-D

[chinook240]

The Boeing Vertol 234 simulator was originally owned by British Airways and based in Aberdeen where RAF crews used to use it for basic emergency and IF trg. It had the same flying characteristics as the HC1, but significant differences in the autopilot, electrics, instrumentation, etc as well as having the fat tanks of our 'new' Mk 3s. The long haul to Aberdeen for weeks on end, living in the Skean Dhu hotel, dining endlessly on Chateaubriand, was detested by the aircrew.

After a tragic accident in the North Sea in the mid eighties and the withdrawal of the BV234, the sim, now owned by British International Helicopters, was moved to Farnborough and converted to the HC1 clockwork cockpit. It was subsequently upraded to the HC2 clockwork cockpit in the mid-90s, before the MSHATF PFI project took over. I believe the cockpit minus the motion base was offered to the RAF as a basic cockpit procedures trainer but this was not taken up and it ended up in the Far East.

[MrBernoulli]

and it ended up in the Far East.... where it serves as a chicken coop next to an unlicensed restaurant on the road to Mandalay! :ok:

[Tandemrotor]

The long haul to Aberdeen for weeks on end, living in the Skean Dhu hotel, dining endlessly on Chateaubriand, was detested by the aircrew

Not by me, nor most others I could name!!

[The Nr Fairy]

Was this the same sim which the FAST (Farnborough Air Sciences Trust) had for a while AT Farnborough, then moved to (IIRC) Peterhead ?

[chinook240]

Nr,

You could well be right, I was told it went east but will speak to Buck R tommorrow and see if he knows where it went.:ok:

What was it being used for at those locations?

[Mechta]

Its possible that the Farnborough cockpit simulator was one that was in my department at RAE. It was built for demonstrating night vision goggles (NVGs) and NVG compatible cockpit lighting. It wasn't meant to represent any particular helicopter, but was simply use to demonstrate the NVGs with different ambient light levels. The scene in front of the cockpit was a valley with a few houses and some sky. Light levels could be anything from a dark overcast, through star light to full moon.

Around the time I left, the plan was to install some multi-function displays and possibly a head up display.

If anyone has a picture of the Farnborough simulator I could probably say whether it was this one or not.

[chinook240]

Mechta,

It would have looked like this, although this is the real one the sim was closely modelled on it, maybe not so tired looking. (Yes, I now, before all the spotters tell me, the CINS and some of the DAS wasn't there in 1998.)



http://www.hmfriends.org.uk/images/za720panel75.jpg