Leonardo ramps up Norwegian crew training

The Leonardo Training Centre in Norway continues to train flight crew for the growing Royal Norwegian Air Force (RNoAF) AW101 SAR Queen fleet. Type training is currently under way for aircrew transitioning from the RNoAF’s Sea King Mk 43 helicopters.

The crews currently under training will be posted to Banak following establishment of the Ørland and Sola SAR bases. All three detachments come under the command of 330 Squadron. According to Shephard Defence Insight, the AW101 fleet will serve until 2057.

Located at Sola Airport near Stavanger, the Leonardo Training Centre features a CAE FAA Level D Full Flight Simulator (FFS) and a System Operator Console Simulator (SOCS). This equipment enables training to be provided for both pilots and rear-crew system operators.

The FFS and SOCS can be used separately or networked for joint exercises.

Leonardo has said that ‘on completion of the conversion course, the crew will continue with the RNoAF Operational Training & Evaluation team (OT&E) for their role training. The OT&E will teach the crew how to [conduct] SAR operations using the helicopter'.

The AW101 FFS is a CAE Series 3000 device using a Medallion-6000 visual system; and a direct-projection 210x80 degree extreme field-of-view dome display.