Electronic Technicians and Instructors at the FAA Academy in Oklahoma City are doing much more than just providing technical training. They are continually looking for ways to improve learning and make it more engaging for attending students. Over the past two years, Electronic Technicians, Joe Servais and Matt Hurst in the Environmental/Navigation/Radar Branch (AMA-910), collaborated with fellow Instructors Chris Zapatka and Brian Eads in the En Route RADAR Section (AMA-415) to develop a process that improves training – not only for students, but for instructors as well.

Many of the technical courses within the Academy contain both classroom and lab work. This means students and instructors must frequently move between both environments to better understand the functions of the system. The classroom instruction typically involves PowerPoint presentations and demonstrations using static photos of the equipment. But thanks to the collaboration of these four Academy employees, the training experience has significantly improved. Collectively, through some ingenious engineering and modifications, and by crafting their own components, they are now able to provide a LIVE feed between the equipment lab and the classrooms. This means that all equipment terminals and controls are connected to the classroom remotely, in real time with hands-on controls, creating a more realistic learning experience.

The idea came about when classroom instruction was being delivered for the Air Route Surveillance Radar (ARSR-4) and for the Beacon Integrator (BI-6M) courses. The technicians and instructors realized that there had to be a better way to perform the task, rather than running back and forth between classrooms and labs. After months of brainstorming and drawing out potential plans to share and control video sources, they developed and implemented a rudimentary system that offered future potential. Their system had limited viewing capability on the BI-6, as the integration was problematic. But they knew, given the right conditions, their plan was feasible.

Then, when they learned that a new Common Air Route Surveillance Radar (CARSR) building was being built, the team jumped at the chance to help configure the building and their systems with video exchange capability. “With the new building, we wanted to increase the classroom capabilities for the instructors and students, making it easier to answer questions quickly, and perform lab briefings without physically moving to the lab,” explains Servais.

Within weeks, the installation was a success, and now, four Academy courses that contain classrooms and labs (ARSR-4, ATC BI-6/6M, and the CARSR) are now enhanced with this LIVE interactive technology. Chris Zapatka, Course Instructor expounds, “The course critiques validate to us, that the students like having the LIVE feeds in the classroom.” While the class size is fairly small, the Academy offers at least 15 of these courses per year. Every student that goes through these classes is affected by the changes. When a student has a question about the system, the instructor can switch the LIVE feed on, and show the entire class without having to move the class to the lab. Conversely, when conducting lab exercises, static pictures within briefings are now replaced with LIVE radar control images. Dan Smith, Manager of the NAS Technical Services says, “The FAA Academy has the single largest concentration of NAS equipment in the FAA, and the AMA-900 workforce steps up, each and every day to assist the Academy in providing the best academic experience to our students. This is just another example of the innovative collaborations within our team, as they continually adapt to change while increasing productivity.”