Simulator Program Information

Simulator Program Background

The cornerstone of RCM-SAR's comprehensive training program is the Fast Rescue Craft (FRC) Simulator.  The FRC Simulator was developed in partnership with Transas and is the only FRC SImulator in North America.  

RCM-SAR has evolved during the past few years into an organization that delivers search and rescue (SAR) consistently across the entire British Columbia coast. RCM-SAR Stations in partnership with their communities have purchased fast search and rescue craft and now offer 24/7/365 on call service in most areas.   

These rescue vessels arrive on the scene quickly and prevent immediate loss of life through scene stabilization and person recovery. With the use of larger and faster vessels, the need for modern and aggressive training approaches grew with the increasing risk level. RCM-SAR vessels operate in adverse conditions and the level of difficulty of a restricted visibility or night transit increases exponentially with the speed of the vessels. 

The RCM-SAR simulator was initially funded largely through the New SAR Initiatives Fund.  Since then corporate donations (including a complete vessel cabin from Titan Boats), and hundreds of hours of volunteer time brought the project to reality in 2008.

Primary Training Objectives

Decrease the risk of a catastrophic accident onboard RCM-SAR high speed rescue craft by:

A web-based radar and navigation simulator will be employed to develop the primary skills sets involved in operating electronic navigation equipment, passage planning and collision avoidance

Employing a full mission simulator to evaluate and further refine positive vessel control by the whole crew in scenarios involving  passage planning and collision avoidance

Improve the performance of search and rescue crew communications and resource management during the execution of missions

Develop training using scenarios with some higher risk and more complex SAR operations.

Evaluate whole crew performance in the execution of large and small scale search operations in a full mission simulator.

Full Mission Bridge Simulation (FMS)

The full visual motion small vessel simulator of RCM-SAR allows them to augment their rescue vessel crew's performance training.  By putting the virtual vessel in precarious situations, whole crew dynamics and communications as well as the individual skills involved in each role can be evaluated. Here whole crews can evaluate and develop their integrated performance as a rescue vessel. The navigation station, helm and communication consoles reflects the typical configuration. The simulator is effective in bringing together many hours of crew and individual training to test complex skill interactions in the following areas: