Matt Thurber, editor-in-chief at AIN Media Group, has been flying since 1975 and writing about aviation since 1978 and now has the best job in the world, running editorial operations for Aviation International News, Business Jet Traveler, and FutureFlight.aero. In addition to working as an A&amp;P mechanic on everything from Piper Cubs to turboprops, Matt taught flying at his father’s flight school in Plymouth, Mass., in the early 1980s, flew for an aircraft owner/pilot, and for two summer seasons hunted swordfish near the George’s Banks off the East Coast from a Piper Super Cub. An ATP certificated fixed-wing pilot and CFII and commercial helicopter pilot, Matt is type-rated in the Citation 500 and Gulfstream V/550. Based in the Pacific Northwest, Matt and his team cover the entire aviation scene including business aircraft, helicopters, avionics, safety, manufacturing, charter, fractionals, technology, air transport, advanced air mobility, defense, and other subjects of interest to AIN, BJT, and FutureFlight readers.

Editor-in-Chief

Matt Thurber

TRU Simulation + Training has developed the Veris virtual reality (VR) flight simulator platform for rotary- and fixed-wing aircraft and is demonstrating its first device—a Bell 505—this week at Heli-Expo 2024. Following the show, the Model 505 VR simulator will be installed at the Bell Training Academy in Fort Worth, Texas, with training for Bell customers to begin later this year.&nbsp;
Bell is the launch customer for the Veris simulator, which is part of TRU’s train-on-site concept, according to TRU v-p and general manager&nbsp;Jerry Messaris. The idea is to offer lower-cost but highly effective simulators that can be used closer to (or even at) customer locations.
“Covid probably was the catalyst,” he said. The inability to travel and strict training timelines that regulators had to loosen during the pandemic showed that local training offered many benefits. “This device is built not only for some of the larger training centers to use…but targeting those smaller fleet operators who don't have the infrastructure to support the larger level-D full-flight simulator devices.”
A VR simulator costs roughly 10 percent of a full-flight simulator, but that isn’t its only advantage. Even with an electric six-degrees-of-freedom motion base and digital electric control loading, Veris needs little space and has low power needs because it doesn’t have a large visual display. The footprint is 7.3 by 6.85 feet.
The pilot has a 360-degree view of the outside world through the Varjo VR headset but interacts with real flight controls, avionics, and systems in the device. The visual system is TRU’s Unreal Engine image generator, and it can replicate shadows and reflections and create complex particle effects such as smoke, fire, and fluid, as well as realistic cloud simulation suitable for practicing flight into inadvertent instrument meteorological conditions.
Veris will be certified to FAA level 7 and EASA level 3 flight training device standards and will be usable for a significant amount of pilot training, including initial and recurrent training in the Bell 505 and other models that will be added later.
TRU is a Textron company and sister to Bell and Textron Aviation, so it has full access to flight performance and systems data from both aircraft manufacturers. The Bell 505, Messaris explained, “is exactly the same flight model” as the real helicopter, with the aircraft's full Garmin G1000H avionics suite.
The 360-degree VR view also enables advanced training using custom visual scenes such as long-line vertical reference, EMS, smoke and fire, oil and gas, night vision goggle, and search and rescue scenarios. “This adds more capability than a traditional simulator,” he said.
Another advantage of the TRU simulator is that training providers can use it for practicing emergency scenarios that aren’t safe in a real helicopter. “This is better than a traditional flight training device,” said Bell Training Academy instructor Tim Otteson.
While the academy takes pride in emergency training in the real helicopter, he added, “There are a limited number of emergencies that we can do [in the helicopter]. I can’t fail your tail rotor or [replicate] an engine fire, but we can do these in this device with a level of fidelity that you don’t traditionally get in a flight training device.”

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Bell Adding TRU 505 Virtual Reality Simulator to Bell Training Academy

The simulator will enhance practicing emergencies and various scenarios

The 505 VR simulator will be installed at the Bell Training Academy in Forth Worth, Texas, and training for Bell customers will begin later this year.

Bell Adding TRU 505 VR Simulator to Training Academy

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