◆ Insights / Regulatory

P1AR Hosts ESPN-R Hoist Safety Workshop in Bordeaux

P1AR Team · September 29, 2026

Priority 1 Air Rescue (P1AR) recently hosted members of the European Safety Promotion Network for Rotorcraft (ESPN-R) at its European training facility in Bordeaux, France, for a two-day workshop focused on the future of simulation in Human Hoist Operations (HHO).

At the center of the discussion was an increasingly important question: how should synthetic training be incorporated into the qualification and proficiency of rear crew—and what training belongs in a simulator versus a physical training environment or live aircraft?

P1AR has incorporated simulation into its training programs since 2012. But unlike pilot training, where many tasks can be effectively replicated in a flight simulator, hoist operations are inherently physical. Hoist Operators and Rescue Specialists must move around the cabin, manipulate real equipment, manage loads, transition personnel through the aircraft door, and physically coordinate with other crew members.

That distinction helped frame P1AR's message in Bordeaux: the objective should not be to maximize simulator time, but to determine the best training environment for each learning objective.

“Lately, there’s been too much focus on the devices themselves and not enough on when to use them and how to integrate them into a larger curriculum,” said Brad Matheson, President of P1AR. “You first have to understand what the crew needs to be able to accomplish in the aircraft. From there, you can determine what should be taught in the classroom, what should be trained synthetically, and what still needs to happen in live flight.”

For P1AR, that means combining four elements: academics, physical synthetic training, virtual synthetic training, and successive integrated live-flight training.

The distinction between physical and virtual synthetic training is particularly important for rear crew. At present, P1AR has identified 28 mission-critical physical tasks on its MH-60 Hoist Procedural Trainer (HPT) alone that cannot be realistically practiced or evaluated in a virtual simulator—from connecting rescue equipment and managing a loaded litter at the cabin door to physically transitioning a rescue swimmer and survivor into the aircraft. The HPT therefore complements rather than competes with simulation.

Virtual simulation is highly effective for areas such as crew resource management, standardized terminology and conning commands, checklist use, decision-making, and emergency procedures. Physical training develops the hands-on equipment familiarity, muscle memory, cabin coordination, and load-management skills required for actual hoist operations.

P1AR has already demonstrated how those elements can work together. In 2022, P1AR and CHC developed a rear-crew training program approved by the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) that integrated academics, physical and virtual synthetic training, and live flight—reducing the program's live-flight requirement from 12 hours to 2 while maintaining the broader training objectives.

As AirMed & Rescue reported at the time, “VR simulations allow CHC technical crew members to prepare and practise emergency procedures for a variety of SAR events in a safe, controlled and realistic environment, including those that couldn’t be practised in a live aircraft. Crews can perform and redo winch operations procedures in mock cabins and in a range of weather conditions.”

With more than a decade of synthetic-training experience and 27 years of operational aircrew training experience, P1AR's contribution to the ESPN-R discussion was straightforward: the future of rear-crew training isn't simulation instead of live flight—it's using the right combination of training tools to produce a demonstrably capable crew member.

As EASA and industry stakeholders continue developing guidance for simulation in HHO, the Bordeaux workshop represented an important step toward defining where each training modality fits and how those tools can ultimately improve proficiency while also play a part in preserving valuable aircraft flight hours.

Interested in how your agency or organization can augment its training program or how synthetic training can augment your current operating procedures? Reach out today.