Shoot the lance safely
Published: 10 June, 2009
Simulator training for the use of high reach extendable turrets is soon to be available for Rosenbauer vehicles.
Simulation provider, ETC (Environmental Tectonics Corporation) is currently developing a new crash tender training simulator for Rosenbauer.
Rosenbauer recently developed its own high reach extendable turret for piercing aircraft and carrying out extinguishing operations. The HRET enables airport fire brigades to shoot the lance through the fuselage instead of pushing it through. This means that the aircraft can now be pierced from any position, even from below the aircraft.
Marco van Wijngaarden, Director of the Simulation Division of ETC, says that to learn how control the HRET, Rosenbauer identified the requirement for a simulator. “We won the tender and were given the assignment to develop the desktop simulator based on our ADMS system. The HRET simulator is now ready. This means that everyone who buys a vehicle from Rosenbauer with an HRET can order our ADMS simulator as well,” he explains.
The simulator is a desktop application, and enables the user to move around in their truck while practising several scenarios with the HRET. “For instance, we have developed an aiming-wall next to a airport fire station with numbered spots. The firefighter has to aim at these spots with the lance or with the monitor. This enables the users to set up a competition amongst themselves to see who is best at managing the controls of the HRET. Another unique aspect of this simulation software is that we have built in an Airbus A380 scenario, and – what has never has been done before – is that the hull will burn through during an internal or external fire.”
A burn-through in the hull is often discussed during lectures, and it is not often exercised during real life exercises, because people do not like to burn a massive hole in their mock-ups. The ADMS simulation offered with the HRET vehicles, however, offers the possibility to demonstrate what happens during these type of incidents, for instance when the fire burns from the outside to the inside of the hull or the other way around. During an internal fire the hull will colour differently, and the person managing the controls of the HRET can determine where he will pierce the aircraft.
Van Wijngaarden explains that the controls and switches are exactly the same as they would be in the crash tender. He adds that people who have bought the desktop simulator with the truck, have the option to expand the simulation to team training versions or to even expand the system to their own specifications, because it has all the basic properties of the normal ADMS simulation software that ETC supplies.
