By Rick Adams, FRAeS
Three years ago, the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) granted the first regulatory approval for a Virtual Reality (VR)-based flight training device. Approvals for additional devices have followed. A year ago, EASA published its special conditions for A/M/V/XR-based and eVTOL FSTDs.
But thus far, the US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has not blessed the technology for pilot training credits, even though one Colorado organization, Highland Helicopters, has been using a device from the same EASA-approved company for more than a year.
That will change, hopefully, expectantly, this year, possibly as soon as the next couple of months.