Plane captains are an essential part of efficient flight line operations. They coordinate multiple efforts during aircraft ground operations. The current training methods for plane captains have several significant issues. We built a simple immersive part-task trainer for plane captains using commercial gaming technology. The system consists of two distinct domains: one in which trainees control a virtual aircraft using their body motion and another that provides 360-degree video of common operations. We also conducted an experiment to determine whether such a system improved the performance of plane captains over traditional training methods. In our experiment, we trained two groups of plane captains: one via traditional methods and the other via the new system. The subjects then performed different signals while a group of subject-matter experts rated them. Although traditionally trained subjects performed better, comments by the graders indicated that the causes of the differences could be fixed in a production version. Additional analysis suggests that those trained with the system are just as confident in their abilities as those trained traditionally. We also conducted a survey of qualified plane captains who had used the system and the results were overwhelmingly positive.

Subjects: MOVES; modeling; virtual environments; simulation; training; education; 360 video; Kinect; gesture recognition; aviation training; plane captain; gamification; self-regulated learning; F-35; JSF