Challenging Reality
Aviation is one of those activities when practice can transform into reality in an instant. We practice forced landings in real aeroplanes, we practice spin recovery in real aeroplanes; these are only two. But in seconds the forced landing will become real if the engine fails to respond to the throttle at 500 feet, and you are headed for a sad end if you get your spin recovery wrong.
The same is true of training for asymmetric flight in multi engine aeroplanes. A loss of control can still result in a crash and the performance of the aeroplane is still very much degraded even if you're just practising. There is no opportunity to press the reset button; the reactions have to match the real thing, or a very genuine crash can be the result.
The problems of asymmetric training were shoved into the spotlight in March 2010 when a Brasilia crashed on take-off from Darwin airport. The ATSB investigation found that the pilot-in-command selected flight idle on the left engine to simulate an engine and prop feather failure, but the pilot under check failed to maintain speed.
CASA then made a decision that check flights in twins with more than 30 seats could be done in a simulator if such a device was available. At the time it got me thinking; why stop at regional airliners? Why couldn't this level of safety be extended to general aviation twins as well? The answer was obvious back then: the simulators weren't available and to an extent, they aren't now.
However, my interest in this concept never waned, and it was May-June 2016). Set up as a replica of a PA-44 Seminole, the system was the closest thing possible to a genuine GA simulator.
