Back From the Simulator

Kellei and I are home after our trip to Newfoundland to test out the CCGA-P´s new Fast Rescue Craft Simulator. This was for one of the final tests to ensure this new simulator will work for the training program of the Auxiliary. Being that it is the first of it´s kind in the world - it´s really quite impressive!

Kellei and I went out on our real CCGA vessel on Friday before we left - just to make sure that the "feel" of our real Boat was fresh in our mind before we started to test out the simulated version... When we arrived at Virtual Marine Technology Monday - getting inside the simulator was first on the agenda. Kellei got to drive it first - because she had never seen it before, everyone felt her opinion would be the most relevant.

The rest of the week saw the simulator put through a barrage of tests and critique and in the end we found a list of required "tweaks" that will keep the engineering team there busy for a little while - but it´s very close. For one scenario we even shut the door and Kellei and Thomas (the project manager) played the role of students while I ran them through a scenario - they both agreed that at times they really got into it and began to forget they were just in a simulator - which is exactly what we wanted.

It was a very rushed schedule so we didn´t have much time to do any "fun stuff" apart from a trip over to the Big Simulator at the Center for Marine Simulation where both Kellei and I got to drive the full size Bridge simulator. It has wrap-around screens and is quite amazing. But best of all - not all that much better then our new simulator and this sucker costs millions!

All things considered it´s pretty exciting and we have a lot to look Forward to. We don´t know exactly when we will have the new simulator delivered to Victoria as we may elect to add a few more features before they Ship it out - but it should be sometime within the next year anyway.

It´s going to be a really wonderful training tool once it´s ready and the crews in the CCGA-P are really going to benefit as a result.

for more information: http://www.smallvesselsimulation.com

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