FPP209 - When (and Where) 5th Gen Simulation Meets Reality

No, I remember pilot training, and the sims were pretty good.

There was one screen in front of you.

I remember I went through Navy pilot training, like you.

You went through API.

I remember even the instrument sim, there was no screen at all.

You would just go in this black box, and you'd kind of fly around.

Yeah, it was my favorite.

I thought that was the best because it was like a game of how precise you could be.

I guess it was... my test pilot-ness at like a very young level.

That's where I always did the best is the things where I couldn't see anything.

And I was just like, okay, make all these things happen simultaneously and be as precise as possible.

But yeah, that was the sim.

I remember that building well.

Yeah, I actually really liked those Sims too.

How funny, you know, and so go from that, like the box of the T 34 where there's no screen or anything, you go to T 38 for us and there's like a screen in front of you.

It's not like a full wraparound or anything.

And then we get to F 15 training and it's getting better.

But I remember the first time getting in the academic training center at Eglin Air Force Base, the place you're the director of, and getting into the F-35 sim, where you slide the cockpit forward, and then it moves up into a complete domed 360 view.

It was really Gucci.

Love that.

And you had a helmet connection, so you could kind of get that experience.

And I found it was really... a way to immerse my mind into what this was going to look like before I got in the jet.

And it was very, very good at that replication.

I felt when I got into the jet that I was more prepared, I think because the sim was so good.

So either way, I'm not sure if you experienced the same.