Lufttransport
One of Norway’s oldest aviation companies, Lufttransport operates on the Norwegian Continental Shelf in both offshore transport and SAR operations.
Throughout Lufttransport’s long aviation history, dating back to 1955, they have been involved in a variety of specialized aviation operations. Svein Fitjar, Lufttransport’s Nominated Person for Flight Operations, shared that “this operational diversity remains an important part of Lufttransport today. Another strength is our experience in introducing new aircraft types and new operations while maintaining a strong focus on safety, standardisation and training.”
In recent years, they’ve significantly expanded their activities to offshore operations on the Norwegian Continental Shelf – with bases spread across Norway, from Svalbard in the north to Sola in the south. This gives the company experience with very different operational environments, ranging from Arctic operations to offshore operations in the North Sea.
Lufttransport operates with Leonardo AW139 and AW189 aircraft as “both have a proven record, and both are well suited to the type of operations Lufttransport performs.” Given the location of their operation, and the weather conditions they face, Lufttransport requires aircraft to be equipped with Full Ice Protection System (FIPS). “We find that the combination of performance, range, capability and operational flexibility makes the aircraft suitable for offshore transport and specialised missions such as SAR.”
This includes operations to fixed installations and movable installations and vessels, where surroundings and environmental conditions can vary considerably. Weather, wind, turbulence, darkness, icing, reduced visibility and challenging offshore environments are important factors.
“This makes realistic simulator representation very valuable. Having airfields and the surrounding terrain and obstacles accurately represented in the simulator allows crews to train in an environment that closely resembles the actual operation.”
Most recently Lufttransport has established their SAR operation with the AW139, another demanding operational profile to Lufttransport’s activities. Which adds to the complexity as “crews must manage the aircraft while simultaneously conducting a mission involving pilots, Hoist Operator and Rescue Crew Member. Crew coordination, decision-making and management of abnormal situations are therefore important parts of the training.”
Simulator training is fundamental to our operation
Svein explains that training begins even before a pilot joins the company “as FSTD (Flight Simulator Training Device) sessions may form part of the assessment process for applicants, as to evaluate not only flying skills but also CRM, situational awareness and decision-making.”
Simulation is integrated throughout Lufttransport’s training program – from pilot initial type rating through company conversion, recurrent training, checking and specialised SAR training.
“The simulator allows us to combine technical aircraft handling with operational scenarios. Rather than training individual failures in isolation, scenarios can be designed around realistic missions where technical failures, weather, operational pressure and crew decision-making occur together.”
In recurrent training, they can focus strongly on CRM, TEM, decision-making and management in abnormal and emergency situations, while maintaining proficiency. Lufttransport also uses recent events (whether internally or externally) and FDM data as examples to improve their training scenarios, stay up to date and “avoid “stagnation””.
The simulator also enables the entire crew to practice communication and coordination in complex situations – before encountering them in the aircraft.
Training in the full flight simulator allows crews to experience and train for situations that are either impossible, impractical, or unnecessarily hazardous to train in the real aircraft. Failures can be introduced at the right point in a scenario, repeated if required, and combined with challenging weather, low visibility, darkness or other factors.
“The ability to stop, discuss, reposition and repeat an exercise makes training highly effective. Most importantly, ability to practise decision-making and emergencies, without risk. I do not think we could create the level of standard we have today without the Full Flight Simulator.”
This article was written with comments from Svein Fitjar, the Nominated Person for Flight Operations in Rotary Wing at Lufttransport.
