We're going to drive airplanes.: how Russian pilots are trained
Airlines compete for staff and invest heavily in improving their skills, such as training pilots on simulators. During such exercises, possible in-flight force majeure situations are worked out in the simulator cabin. Pilots must respond correctly to engine failure, electrical problems, and get the aircraft out of a difficult spatial position. Izvestia "flew" to Turkey with the Boeing crew and to the Ministry of Water on a Superjet and made sure that the Russian pilots were studying hard.
Study, pilot, twice a year
A huge tall white capsule, similar to a spaceship, moves almost silently from side to side under the ceiling of the glass-fronted hangar. Her movements are chaotic only at first glance, in fact, they mimic the trajectory of a Superjet airliner in flight. The crew of the Red Wings airline has been working inside since six in the morning. Today, pilot Andrey Smirnov and his colleague Oleg Ponomarev are conducting another practical training session. At the moment, they are practicing situations with a sharply changed wind — wind shear. The cabin is dark now, the crew is navigating the ship by instruments, pressing the necessary buttons on the control panel, monitoring the avionics and what is happening overboard. Instead of the regular two people, there are three in the cockpit: the flight on the simulator is controlled by instructor pilot Evgeny Almazov. In front of him is a screen with a schematic representation of the flight and a number of programs that artificially create various emergency situations for pilots.
The simulator of emergency rescue training for the SSJ-100 aircraft at the RATA aviation training center of PJSC Yakovlev
The modern Russian pilot retraining system changed dramatically two years ago: in 2023, it was brought into line with the international standard of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). The pilot is now required to have eight core competencies. He must quickly and accurately apply all aircraft control procedures, be able to communicate well, control the trajectory of the aircraft automatically, be a leader and be able to work in a team, make decisions in stressful situations, and cope with workload.
The Federal Aviation Regulations define mandatory procedures for practicing ship navigation in a normal and special mode. The training consists of a three-year cycle and is divided into six sessions, each time new elements are added to the pilot training program. The training program for pilots for new training sessions includes mandatory training sessions and additional ones. For example, pilots will always work out hydraulic failure in an airplane, failure of one or two engines, failure of the landing gear, cabin depressurization or fire. The training center can include new training sessions specifically for the crew in the curriculum.
— Each pilot undergoes comprehensive training, which includes thousands of hours of practical training, including on simulators. This allows you to prepare the pilot for a variety of unusual situations, to work out actions to automatism — almost at the level of instincts. For example, in conditions of poor visibility or during a sudden wind shift during takeoff or landing. We pay special attention to such scenarios during our training. With the help of full flight simulators, you can simulate almost any scenario, as they are able to fully simulate flight conditions. After completing training on the simulator, the pilot will face the next stage — real flights with an experienced crew. By the time the co-pilot is ready to become an aircraft commander, he has been flying for several thousand hours. This increases flight comfort and safety, which is the main task of the entire crew," said Evgeny Almazov, an instructor pilot at Red Wings Airlines.
Some elements are worked out once a year, for example, the situation of flying an aircraft with a sharp shift in the wind shear flow. Some situations are worked out more often. For example, twice a year, pilots of different aircraft, in the event of their dangerous approach in the sky, train to quickly negotiate a discrepancy. This skill is practiced thanks to a special aircraft divergence system in the air, which is commonly referred to as TCAS in their environment.
Elements for testing are added to the curriculum according to the recommendations of the Federal Air Transport Agency even after a plane crash. For example, after the fire of the passenger Superjet at Sheremetyevo, it was recommended to train the co-pilot to practice ship control in manual mode, which had not been done before. The pilot instructor also has the right to assign elements to the crew for testing. During training sessions on the simulator, he manages the work of the crew. At the touch of a button, it can, for example, change day to night, and the crew must fly to their destination in the dark. Or maybe turn off both engines, like now. Pilot Andrey Smirnov goes on a second lap, requests a landing at Minvod airport, turns the plane around and takes it to the desired point. The car hums and sways eerily, but together with the co-pilot, they pull it to the runway. A dull simulated impact shakes the simulated cabin. The car drives for a few more seconds and stops. Everything ended well: the pilots reached the runway and landed the plane without losses or accidents.
Buy. Install. Train them.
The qualification of pilots is the key to the image, reputation and profit of the employing airline, therefore, the latter, as a rule, does not spare funds for the educational purposes of the staff. Airline simulators are usually rented. For example, there are two such facilities on the basis of the Yakovlev PJSC subsidiary (UAC RATA) in Skolkovo. This training center is open around the clock, and its head, Sergey Drach, talking about the work of the organization, emphasizes the fact that it is fully loaded. All conditions have been created here for training Russian crews on Russian-made aircraft. There is even a dummy aircraft to practice the actions of crews in emergency situations in order to learn how to evacuate passengers at the time of a fire or landing into the water (for this there is a whole pool of water next to the training center). As a rule, emergency conditions are close to real ones. Smoke is pouring out of the windows, or the plane is shaking.
RATA Aviation Training Center of Yakovlev PJSC at the Skolkovo Innovation Center
— This is a simulator in the current guise of an SSJ-100 flying aircraft with foreign components. It was purchased by Sukhoi Civil Aircraft in 2012 to train the aviation personnel of the operating airlines. Next to it is our new import-substituted simulator, which in the near future will begin retraining pilots for the fully domestic short-range airliner SJ-100, developed by PJSC Yakovlev. In addition, the MC-21 simulator will occupy the empty space between the two simulators in the future. Preparations are currently underway to launch training for this type of aircraft," said Sergey Drach, General Director of the RATA Aviation Training Center.
Pilots of airlines transporting passengers on domestic aircraft train at this training center. Previously, the Boeing training center was based there. These include Red Wings, Yakutia, Yamal, Severstal, Azimut and others. The center is not the only one. There is a playground in Sheremetyevo, and there are training centers in the regions. For example, Ural Airlines trains its pilots in Yekaterinburg. Almost none of the airlines have their own simulators, and in this sense, Azur Air looks like an exception confirming this rule. A couple of years ago, Azur Air delivered to Russia from abroad a simulator simulating the cockpit of the Boeing 757/767 family of aircraft, so far it is the only simulator in Russia for these types of aircraft.
The simulator is installed in the airline's training center on the territory of Vnukovo Aircraft Repair Plant No. 400 in New Moscow. Due to the similarity of the cabin design of the Boeing 757 and Boeing 767 aircraft, it is possible to simulate the flight of both airliners on the same simulator. The full—flight simulator completely reproduces the cockpit of a real aircraft, and also recreates the atmosphere of an aircraft flight due to two special systems - mobility and visualization. During training, pilots always have a slide of the airport of a particular destination in front of their eyes. He appears in front of them due to a computer program and as many as three projectors, which display him in front of the pilots.
Training on the integrated flight simulator of the Sukhoi Superjet 100 aircraft at the RATA Aviation Training Center of PJSC Yakovlev
Oleg Timashov, the pilot and deputy head of the Azur Air squadron, checks the navigation instruments on the control panel, the altimeter, the vertical speed indicator, and the orientation indicators (artificial horizon). His colleague Sergey Chentsov marks the parameters on the tablet. The plane taxies onto the runway and takes off. Rather, it would have taken off if both pilots had been in the actual cockpit of a Boeing 747. Instructor pilot Iskander Khanzarov looks at his tablet and "sets a fire" in the aircraft's mechanisms. The Fire lights up on the control panel. The pilots press the appropriate buttons on the control panel. The fire is localized in a minute. The plane is on course. After a certain time, the sea appears in the window, the ship flies over it, and then "lands" at Antalya airport.
The algorithm of the pilots' actions has been thought out and brought to automatism. As a rule, Timashov and Chentsov need no more than a second to figure out what to do in any emergency situation, which is not surprising. They have been piloting airplanes for several decades. For example, Timashov is 64 years old, 40 of them he flies without serious accidents.
Of course, mastery comes with practice and experience, which young pilots Dmitry Zholobov and Pavel Vyacheslavov, students in the Azur Air theoretical training class, have yet to gain, but this will not happen before they learn all the subtleties of controlling a Boeing family aircraft in theory. These young people were co-pilots in the past and had previously flown on Bombardier and Tu-204, which were operated somewhat differently.
— I used to fly on a Tu-204 aircraft, the flight time is 5,100 hours, which is not much. There are three crew members on the Tu-204 — two pilots and a flight engineer. There is no flight engineer on the Boeing 757, and his functions are distributed among the pilots. I have to personally monitor the operation of the devices and their serviceability. So far, we have a theory. We'll be working out on the simulator soon," Pavel says.
The simulator's instructor, senior lecturer Nikolai Grekhov, jokingly says that the children will first have to memorize several volumes of theory, and then polish them in the cockpit of the theoretical classroom on a dummy, and until the result is excellent at this stage, they will not even be allowed to use the simulator.
It will not be possible to talk about the effectiveness of this training until these young pilots find themselves in a real emergency situation on board and are able to get out of it. There are certain risks for the airline, and it assesses them soberly.
— Our principled position is to spare no expense in training aviation personnel. This is a huge contribution to ensuring maximum flight safety. That is why we do our best to help our colleagues improve their skills," concludes Irina Solovyova, Advisor to the Director General for Educational Activities at Azur Air.
Переведено сервисом «Яндекс Переводчик»
