Visual aids enhance paratrooper training: Military services are increasing the use of parachute simulator to reduce injuries.

In preparation for what would be a successful parachute jump in Yuma, Ariz., former President George H. W. Bush trained in a simulator that gives paratroopers realistic perceptions of what actually happens during a mission.

The simulator, called Parasim, has been around for years, but recently has been upgraded to make it more portable and to meet new requirements of units such as the U.S. special operations forces.

Wearing a virtual-reality, head-mounted tracker and display, the trainee can scan a three-dimensional jump scene. The scenes can be based on real mission terrain digital data maps, and adjust in response to parachute toggle inputs and head motions.

The idea is for the trainee to get realistic perceptions of turning, drifting and maneuvering, for example. He can look overhead and react to simulated parachute malfunctions, scan in any direction to avoid collisions and conduct operations with other jumpers.

Jeff Hogue, the inventor of Parasim, said that this technology is useful for mission planning and rehearsal. Hogue works for the company that makes the trainer, Systems Technology Inc.

For military mission planning, the digital satellite imagery comes from the National Imagery and Mapping Agency, complete with wind fields, which reflect the location and forecast weather, said Hogue.

Hogue told National Defense that practicing how to deal with malfunctions in the parachute and unexpected scenarios can help minimize injuries and fatalities. Many of the jumpers do not get to train in the actual environment where they have to carry out their mission, said Hogue.

An accomplished jumper has to react to contingencies with a trained response, almost like a reflex, he said. And that is exactly what this simulator does: it injects as many failures as possible into the mission and teaches the jumpers how to quickly react and correct them, said Hogue. Operational parachutists usually have a reserve parachute, but aircrews who have to eject in an emergency, for example, sometimes have just one device.

Jumpers only have seconds to realize that their chute is malfunctioning, before they tumble to the ground at a speed of hundreds of feet per hour.

It is vital for a parachutist to properly be trained to check parachute deployment and controllability, to be able to identify specific malfunctions and immediately follow the required correction procedure, if necessary, said Hogue.

Harnesses, toggles and risers are in place in the simulator. But instead of having the actual parachute, once harnessed to the trainer, the jumpers have to wear the virtual reality head-mounted display that allows them to scan the scene.

"On the back of it is a tracker, which keeps track of where you look, and then the computer computes the proper image for the direction you are looking," Hogue explained. "That way, if you look up you can see your parachute; if you look down, you can see where you are. If you look around, you can find the other guys you are jumping with."

Parachutes deploy by pulling out the rip cords, said Hogue, so the parachute in the trainer "has rip cord capability, and when you pull on them, you get your parachute out." That action is simulated on the computer.

To teach trainees how to deal with faulty parachutes, he said, "We make them deliberately defective and you can correct it by pulling on the straps that you get suspended from. ... Up on top of the straps are sensors and those sensors know if they are being pulled down on. If you put the proper procedure in, it will clear the malfunctions."

Toggles usually steer the parachutes, Hogue explained, which in the simulator run through a control box.

"You start our in free fall; you decide when the right time is to pull your rip cord; you look up and make sure your parachute is good," he said.

"If your parachute isn't good, you follow the corrective procedure, or you pull your cutaway and your reserve to get a new parachute." Once the jumper does that, he has to look around to see if there is somebody else near him.

"One of the procedures is that, if you see people around you, you don't even try to find your toggles right away, you pull on your risers, and that gives you steering immediately," Hogue noted. "Those are easier to find than the toggles."

Then, the parachutists have to look down at the ground to figure out where they need to go, and whether they can get there. "You have to follow a landing pattern," said Hogue. Many jumpers who make it to the ground also get hurt, "Over half of those people who come out and are in good shape get significantly hurt on the ground and obviously there is a training problem there."

The Parasim has been used by the U.S. Marine Corps, Army, Air Force Life Support units, Navy, NASA, Smoke Jumpers and recreational parachutists.

The Army Special Operations Forces Command is employing the simulator to train for the new SF-10A round parachutes. The company recently sold new trainers to the Air Force Air Mobility Command and various Air National Guard units, according to Hogue.

Smoke Jumpers

The initial idea for the simulator came from the Smoke Jumpers, who needed to learn how to land safely and reduce injuries. The Smoke Jumpers are an elite group of inter-agency specialists from the Department of the Interior and the Department of Agriculture. They are considered the most highly skilled forest firefighters in the nation. They use parachutes as transportation into remote areas when they combat wildfires.

"Back in the 1980s, these guys realized that computers have got into the point where maybe somebody can come up with a flight simulator for them that would teach them how to do the job and not to cost them an arm and a leg," said Hogue. "Parachuting is a very dangerous thing to learn ... and if you don't provide training then you get people hurt, and they don't do well on the job. With the simulator people can train and don't get hurt when they actually go out and do their jobs."

The Marine Corps has used this technology to train force reconnaissance units to plan and practice parachute missions. Conventional aircrews also added the simulator into their training because they realized that pilots needed to become more proficient in landing terrain options, operating in hostile locations and figuring out what time of the day or night they should make their jumps.

"The Smoke Jumpers had a problem with their parachutes not opening properly and guys getting hurt. They came up with a parachute that solved all these problems," said Hogue. "Special operations forces found out about that parachute, and they wanted to start using it because they had been training with the Smoke Jumpers."

Systems Technology Inc. recently unveiled a windows-based, stand-alone version of the Parasim, which currently is being tested by the U.S. Special Operations Command. A networked system, which will allow multiple users in the same simulation at the same time, also is in development.