NVT
Night Vision Training
AMST has developed a comprehensive Night Vision (NV) training course that has both theoretical and practical elements
Needs
‘To Own the Night’
Background:
- Night operations is always demanding and of course not without significant risk. From the 1950’s helicopter operations were only possible at 500 ft. or above and required comprehensive flight briefing to avoid hazards.
- The increased use of NVGs starts a new area of capabilities for both transport and helicopter aircrew. This has come at a cost in both aircraft losses and fatalities.
- In the early days, training was done locally ad hoc and lacked structure. Risks were not clearly identified and operators tended to treat night operations as if it were daytime, which a fundamentally flawed philosophy.
Particular Risks:
- NVGs have a narrow field-of-view
- Reliance on monocular cues and loss of stereopsis
- Misperceptions
- Fatigue
Needs Are:
- To learn specific flight safety issue and recognise that NVGs do not ‘turn night into day’
- To learn that aggressive head movements are essential for good situational awareness but can lead to SD
- To learn that crew coordination is vital for a safe flight
- To maintain a good relationship between head-up display and outside world
- To learn handling of blinding effects
Solution
A comprehensive night vision training course
AMST offers a comprehensive NVT course. The training examines in detail operational accidents and the difficulties encountered in conducting operations in extreme low light environments with degraded visual cues. The NVG solution still has a spatial disorientation component.
Specific topics include:
- The principles of image intensification – form and function
- Visual physiology – visual deficit and countermeasures
- Vision in flight
- The operating environment
- Crew Resource Management – the conflict
- Accident prevention – case studies
- Human factors – risk mitigation
The practical elements include:
- Visual acuity assessment
- NVG fitting and integration
- Demonstration of contrast/texture gradients
- Demonstration of reflectivity and albedo
- NVG performance assessments
This comprehensive syllabus based training structure has been delivered to over 230 students from different countries and cultures with positive feedback.
Benefits
Improves flight safety – reduces risk
- The structure of the NVG course ensures all aircrews receive identical training. This complete solution ensures that the ‘team’ can clearly identify the limitations that all crew members face.
- Non-pilot aircrew are made fully aware of the visual limitations that pilots face when flying on NVGs. This combined approach enables effective Crew Resource Management (CRM) for mission cohesiveness.
- The flight safety benefits are clearly iterated during the training with state of art equipment and a ‘joined up’ approach to training.
- Explanation and demonstration of the basic visual physiology and physical principles of Night Vision (NV) and Night Vision Goggles (NVGs).
- Explanation of human factors and associated risks
- Demonstration of the advantages and limitations of image intensifiers
- To learn the correct set-up, function of NVGs and use of NVGs under simulated operational conditions.
