By Leesha Furse
A
REVOLUTIONARY change in the visual display used in Hornet simulators
has won Sergeant Shane Damstra
the Air Force’s Rolls Royce Eagle Trophy.
The trophy, initiated in 1996, recognises outstanding achievement
by personnel from sergeant to flight lieutenant in the technical
and engineering fields.
SGT Damstra, of No. 278 Squadron Hornet Operational Flight Trainer
at RAAF Base Williamtown, said he “was happy to have the
project so the trophy is just icing on the cake”.
He oversaw the development of a new visual system for aircrew
training operations. It was developed to replace the existing
system, in use since the simulator opened in 1996, that had become
unreliable and was responsible for about 40 per cent of unscheduled
maintenance.
SGT Damstra described the new system as being like a rear projection
TV with a personal computer “interfacing with the old simulator
systems, which overall improves the visual cuing and level of
realism provided to the pilot”.
“The old system only had five colours. It was very blocky
and not very realistic,” he said.
“The new one actually provides imagery down to 1m resolution
laid over digital terrain elevation data, which means that pilots
can see changes in altitude – they can see hills and they
can rise and climb over them which they didn’t have before.
It’s a huge improvement. It actually feels like you’re
flying instead of going through the motions.”
NATNIS, a local engineering contractor performing upgrades to
the Hornet simulator, started the project in 2003. The company
provided software support integral to the project’s success.
Completed just a few weeks ago, the project has only a few software
bugs to sort out.
SGT Damstra said his team planned to install the same system at
Tindal.
