Incremental Transfer and Cost Effectiveness of Groundbased Flight Trainers in University Aviation Programs

Abstract

Use of ground-based flight training devices in flight training is attractive for several reasons. In addition to undeniable safety aspects and immunity to weather, ground trainers also offer benefits in terms of training effectiveness, typically measured by the time or number of trials saved over training exclusively in an airplane. A review of 19 studies from the past 56 years that have investigated transfer of training effectiveness from ground trainers to airplane revealed, however, that unambiguous conclusions about the best use of these devices are difficult to discern. The reason for the lack of valid data and widely varied results are the large number of intervening variables present in flight training as well as the difficulty of conducting sound research on this topic.