Parachute Simulator Flight Training Requirements Parachutes allow rapid deployment of operational mission specialists when fixed or rotary wing aircraft alone are inappropriate. However, parachutists who are injured on landing, or land in the wrong location, degrade or nullify operational effectiveness. Skillful parachuting is vital to mission success. Military aircrew receive maneuverable parachutes for emergencies, but when these occur they have none of the options on landing terrain, wind maximums, hostile location, and time of day or night that are available to operational parachutists. Of these, over half result in injuries or worse, and a significant number are related to parachute flight skills.
Aircrew losses have enormous social, financial, political, and tactical costs.
Although aircrew proficiency is critical, any actual flight training provided is limited to a towed upwind low altitude launch under benign conditions at beginning of their careers. Essential parachuting skills and self-confidence could not be developed. Teaching parachute flight has always been a difficult task. Safe, accurate parachuting requires both training and the practice of perceptual skills. Parachutists must learn to accurately assess parachute opening status, sense visual motion cues, and to predict and manage their descent and drift toward the landing zone while avoiding obstacles.