Want to Save on Training? Make Better Use of Flight Simulation

CFI Michael Wildes says one of the best tools to train pilots often goes greatly underutilized.

Michael Wildes

Monday, December 06, 2021 at 09:43 AM ET

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Michael Wildes believes that flight simulators can be used more effectively in some circumstances. Credit: Adobe Stock

Key Takeaways:

Flight simulators are often underutilized in pilot training, despite their proven effectiveness for skill development and safely practicing complex or dangerous scenarios, as underscored by incidents like the Richard Russell plane theft.
Historically crucial for advancing pilot safety and training standards, simulators remain a highly cost-effective tool, particularly at the airline level, for mastering new aircraft and diverse flight conditions.
To maximize their educational value, simulator training should employ a progressive approach, focusing first on knowledge, then procedures, and finally refining techniques through rigorous practice of malfunctions and abnormal situations until responses become automatic.

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One Friday afternoon in 2018, around 8 p.m., news broke that a young man, Richard Russell, a Horizon Air Service agent, gained access to a parked Bombardier Q400 and—with no previous pilot experience—stole the airplane. After departing the Sea-Tac airport via Runway 16C with no clearance, a puzzling sequence of events followed.

Russell, acting alone and—as it became clear to authorities later—suffering from a mental breakdown, flew the otherwise two-pilot aircraft for nearly 75 minutes around the Seattle area. At one point, he completed a barrel roll, barely 10 feet above the water before ultimately choosing to crash the airplane on Ketron Island.