Even today, the human factor is one of the causes that contributes to the majority of air accidents. That is why, in recent years, more emphasis has been placed on improving the formation received by pilots. To this end, the aviation industry is driving a new paradigm called Evidence-Based Training, which collects data and integrates information on pilot performance across all necessary competencies, both technical and non-technical. Evaluation of non-technical skills requires well-trained instructors, so a gamified simulator has been developed with the purpose of teaching to identify observable behaviors of non-technical competencies in pilots, under this new paradigm. A first experiment with 8 experts provided a lot of feedback with which to improve this game as a complement to aeronautical training.
Despite all the advances in the field of aviation safety, the human factor continues to be one of
the causes that contributes to the majority of air accidents [
For this reason, in recent years, both the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO)
[
This new training model is concerned not only with pilot technical skills (i.e. the correct execution of manoeuvres, knowledge of the aircraft controls, etc.), but also with their nontechnical skills, more related to the so-called Human Factors. Flight instructors who are required to train pilots using the EBT model must observe certain patterns of pilot conduct called Observable Behaviours (OBs) that reveal whether or not the pilot has the corresponding competencies, such as Communication or Leadership.
It is not easy to follow the guidelines of the assessment process in this new paradigm and
often subjective assessments are made in which the instructor does not simply observe and
record the pilot’s OBs. Instructors are therefore faced with this new training paradigm that is
quite diferent from that traditionally used in aviation, so the question “Who trains the trainers”
arises, the central topic of a previous paper by Hernández, Dapica and Peinado [
Aviation has a long tradition in the use of simulators, mainly due to the need to ensure a safe and controlled environment for pilot training. That is why the industry has not stopped investing and innovating in the development of these devices. Proof of this is the fact that the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) is fully adapted to new virtual reality technologies1.
Serious games, originally defined as games for educational purposes that are still fun, have
been used since the 19th century, even if they were originally paper-based [
The combination of simulation and gaming gives rise to the gamified simulator, a very useful
model for training professionals that is the main proposal of this work. Some examples of
gamified simulators in other areas of application are Afghanistan Pre-deployment: Cultural
Awareness [
After a first phase of documentation and design, advised by aeronautics experts, the flight
instructor simulator FI-SIM, was developed. For its development we use the latest version of the
Unity development environment, and some help from the educative game company Didactoons3.
Its architecture allows diferent flight scenarios to be loaded and diferent pairs of virtual pilots
to be tested, with the player taking the role of an instructor who, seated behind the cockpit,
evaluates their performance in the diferent situations that arise (see Figure 1). Currently the
simulator contains a basic tutorial and a detailed scenario based on the real crash of Air Niugini
73, in 2018[
The simulator is gamified by simplifying the player’s objective and establishing a clear dynamic, with short-term rewards. The game is available for free at Itch.io4, and the source code is also available in a public repository on GitHub5. 1https://www.easa.europa.eu/newsroom-and-events/press-releases/easa-approves-first-virtual-reality-vr-basedlfight-simulation 2https://gecon.es/versa-project/ 3https://didactoons.com 4https://narratech.itch.io/fi-sim 5https://github.com/Narratech/TFG-Cruz-Guerra
As a first experiment, we conducted a test session at Global Training Aviation 6’s facilities with 8 expert instructors, who were to play FI-SIM’s tutorial and test scenario (6-minute mission in which the dialogues of the pilots are very close to the real ones). Experts can choose when, whom, and what observable behaviors of the pilot to assess, so this interaction helped us a lot to get relevant information for the evaluation of our game. Compatible apps with mobile devices (Android and iOS) has been produced that allows validation of its functionality and usability with real users in those devices.
In short, we can say that all experts considered the new EBT paradigm useful and that the majority (75%) understood the purpose of the proposed gamified simulator. Only 50% of the experts were convinced by the tutorial, in order to learn basic game mechanics, and only 37.5% were convinced by the clarity and the possibility to perform their work well as instructors inside the game, which means there is still plenty of room for improvement.
Most of them conveyed that they lacked information to fairly evaluate the pilots in the scenario. Some examples of improvements they suggested in this regard were to have a briefing before starting the scenario so that the player knows what the pilots in the scenario are going to face, to show the state of the aircraft by representing it in real time, or to know the pilot’s previous experience. In addition, we were recommended that each scenario should focus only on one or two competencies, thus achieving a better dosage of knowledge, which would translate into better performance when it comes to putting it into practice. 6https://www.globaltrainingaviation.com/en
A computational model for flight simulation scenarios based on EBT has been created with enough credibility and depth to be accepted as an educative proposal by aviation specialists. Thanks to the help of oficial crash reports, as well as independent experts, we were able to build a realistic simulation, including the evaluation criteria for the pilots training.
In addition, a flight instructor simulator (FI-SIM) based on that model has been designed
and developed to show scenarios allowing the player to reproduce the main part of the EBT
instructor’s job, recognizing whether the OBs of pilots reveal the acquisition of non-technical
skills necessary to carry out their missions safely and efectively. Although we have managed
to reproduce the essentials of an instructor’s work, there is still room for improvement, as
expert comments say that in some situations of the proposed scenario the correct assessment is
debatable, and several or all of the observable behavioral options could be selected as correct, and
a more holistic approach to the problem is desirable. It will also be necessary to apply a formal
methodology, such as [