How Can I Use VR Parachute Training Programs To Help My Students Master Parachute Flight and Navigation Before Their First Jump?
An overview of the answer is in the Instructor Corner from the November 2023 issue of Parachutist, the monthly magazine of the US Parachute Association.
For more background, watch “Virtual Reality as a Training Tool” (15 minutes) at the PIA (Parachute Industry Assoc) Symposium in Reno, NV, in February 2023.
Following the proven success in decades of flight simulators in airline training, VR now brings the same benefits to skydiving instruction.
VR Value Proposition for a DZ Owner:
Three questions and their answers:
What problem is solved? Answer: Instructors can verify a student’s learning before jumping, making the student less likely to cause an incident or accident.
Who is VR for? Answer: Dropzone businesses that want to differentiate themselves from their competition by training their students to be better canopypilots.
Why is VR better? Answer: Experiential learning has been scientifically proven to be the most efficient. VR has also been shown to be an effective marketing channel.
Experiencial learning works best
Instructor tools embedded within VR to help accelerate your student’s learning.
Your students can practice:
- Assessing their landing point
- Assessing wind conditions during flight
- Tracking other canopies
- Crosswind landings
- Off-DZ Landing Management
Easily integrate into your existing training program
As an Instructor or Drop Zone manager, you have more ability than you think to provide students with a realistic, immersive experience.
A simple chair in a corner with bungees attached above provides students with a physical comprension of parachute flight.
A big screen helps other students learn by watching.
Instructors can record drop zone briefings for standard flight patterns at their DZ, what landmarks to use, what “outs” are available and what areas not to land.
Your Benefits (the results our software delivers):
Marketing
Another way to start a conversation with your potential customers.
Offer something your competitors don’t.
Using VR as a training tool sends a loud signal to your market.
Being different and good will attract attention for the best of reasons.
VR is a tool to be utilized.
Training
- Students gain confidence
- Verify students are ready
- Differentiate your business
- Experiencial Learning works best
Virtual reality allows students to practice making decisions while under their instructors supervision: they learn best practices.
They better comprehend parachute performance and navigation decisiuons related to the designated landing area.
They learn more efficiently because experiential learning has been scientically proven to be the best learning method.
As an Instructor, you can verify your student has learnt how to make good canopy navigation decisions.
They are better prepared.