Hunter Army Airfield pilots practice flying with helicopter simulators

One second you’re flying in Savannah, the next in Afghanistan, after that Hawaii. The Chinook simulator allows you to feel as if you’re flying the helicopter even if you’re not actually in the air.

"In the simulator, we can conduct procedures, we can fly instruments and do all of the things that we do in the regular aircraft and more that we would normally do in the regular aircraft. For example, a simulated emergency procedure like an engine fire and flight, that we wouldn’t be able to actually perform the aircraft for safety reasons. We can do it here and it really builds your proficiency especially that crew coordination between the pilots," said First Lieutenant Mitchell Koellner.

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Lieutenant Koellner said this simulator allows them to fly anywhere in the world.

"Before we’re going to deploy to an environment, we’re going to come into the simulator and go to that place in the world. Before we went out and did our missions in Afghanistan, I was able to fly some of the routes that we would be flying before we went out there. It really builds up an understanding of the terrain that we would be flying around," he said.

Flying the unit isn’t as easy as it looks, but when accidents happen, they’re able to reset the machine and start over. Something you wouldn’t be able to do in real life.

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"Being able to train like that in the simulator and understand what the instruments are showing you and really practicing that part of flying is extremely valuable to us," said Koellner.

They can even change the weather conditions to make the experience more real.

"You don’t always get to go out there and have that weather that you want to train in. As a pilot, that’s an important situation to put yourself in," he said.

From rain to dust storms, you can experience it all right from the screen.

Those at Hunter Army Airfield said these simulators are to get soldiers ready to deploy anywhere, any place, at any time.