One of the key challenges for Auxiliary Operational crews is maintaining their ready-state proficiencies between missions.

To address this age-old issue, the SPG has created a five-thousand-square-mile practice and training area in and around the Florida Keys, where multiple distressed target types have been embedded at known positions. This allows crews to select the target they wish to practice, along with weather, visibility, and sea-state conditions of their choice.

A place where members can take their “Spring Training” at times that fit their schedules, free of weather, daylight, or aircraft availability concerns, without mission order approvals, or even medical or FAA currency, during temporary aircraft or personal downtimes.

While nothing can replace the dynamics and experience of actual flight, the SPG plans to begin beta-testing with line crews in 2026 to validate the hypothesis that this technology can help maintain these perishable skills between flight assignments.

As this flight simulation research enters the Line Crew Evaluation phase, the SPG will be seeking members to critique and evaluate the proposed elective scenarios and to provide researchers with any observational perspectives and considerations prior to general program release.