"If a rare but critical once-in-a-lifetime event occurs, that's the time to do something, not learn something." - D7, Special Project Group.

The original intention of this project, a goal that remains today, is to determine whether providing our crews with access to high-fidelity visual and motion-simulator technology would help maintain their perishable Search & Rescue and aeronautical emergency-procedure skills.

This crew “free-flight” concept in using this simulator is based on the assumption that the crew scheduling the simulator is usually the best judge of what to review, not an instructor or pre-established syllabus.

This is not to suggest, however, that crews are precluded from requesting instructional sessions. SPG instructors will always be available to provide any guidance a crew may request, or crews can provide their own instructor.

In addition to this “free-flight” concept, the SPG has also created pre-packaged elective sessions, each focusing on a specific event or situation, such as continued VFR flight into IFR conditions, controlled flight into terrain, runway incursions, and some favorites like partial panel, vacuum or pitot-static problems at night, or an alternator failure in VFR conditions on top.

All of these situations have been handled by pilots or crews with good outcomes, but usually only after they were reviewed and practiced before the first time someone saw them, because when you see emergencies like these for the first time, that’s the time to do something, not learn something.

Since recreating and practicing these scenarios during actual flight is not appropriate due to the obvious risks involved, simulator use becomes all the more valuable in High-RISK training that can be accomplished in a No-Risk/High-Gain training environment.

Another feature the SPG has leveraged is the simulator's advanced graphics in recreating historical teachable events.

Working with the simulator manufacturer's software team, archived activity logs, audio recordings, and photographs have been successfully integrated into the simulator's graphics software, enabling the simulator to serve as a virtual flying classroom where crews can learn and experience the sights, sounds, and sensations of real-world teachable events in real time.

In another effort to provide opportunities to see things for the first time, before someone sees them for the first time, the SPG has designed and developed a Northeast District custom Search & Rescue training and practice package, with multiple SAR targets inserted across the District Northeast AOR.

From Burlington to Cape Cod, Nantucket to Sandy Hook, and points in between, crews can now apply the lessons learned from Spring Training to their home waters with these local AOR distressed targets.

These and other operational exercises and flight profiles will continue throughout 2026, during which the SPG will seek line crews to test and evaluate these scenarios in the research validation phase.

The Special Projects Group Concept

The Special Projects Group Concept

Innovation & Imagination