The World Aviation Training Conference and Tradeshow (WATS) will add a new stream on Helicopter Training at the 2015 event, April 21-23 in Orlando, Florida, USA.

The Helicopter Aviation Training Symposium (HATS) will focus 100% on helicopter safety and training. Professional peer discussions among pilots, operators and users, aircraft manufacturers, training experts, training device developers, regulators and other stakeholders will share the most up-to-date information and best practices from the civil, paramilitary and military training communities.

Held in conjunction with WATS – the world’s largest annual gathering of civil aviation training professionals (more than 1,000 attendees in 2014) – HATS 2015 will facilitate cross-sharing of lessons learned with fixed-wing training colleagues.

The HATS 2015 conference stream will be embedded in the overall WATS conference, and will run parallel to other streams on maintenance training, cabin crew training, regional pilot training, and airline pilot training. Within the WATS event, a day and a half will be fully dedicated to helicopter training topics, wrapped within keynote addresses and discussions of challenges common to the entire aviation training community.

The overall WATS conference theme is “Optimising Industry Safety with Targeted Training Interventions.” Helicopter training abstracts are welcomed within these broad topic areas:

1)  Helicopter pilot demand and supply
2) Helicopter safety record and risk management initiatives
3) Human factors in helicopter safety and training
4) Unique helicopter training challenges
5) Training for new aircraft and air system technologies
6) National and international safety, licensing, and training developments
7) Evolving helicopter flight simulation training device (FSTD) guidance
8) New helicopter simulator technologies and training tools
9) Helicopter simulation/training market outlook
10) Cross-sector simulation and training “lessons-learned”
11) Primary helicopter training
12) Non-flight safety training issues for helicopter operations
13) Mobile and e-Learning for helicopter operations
14) Unmanned helicopter applications and training

To propose a presentation for HATS 2015, please send a 150-200 word abstract including the working title, your full email address, and postal address, along with short biography, including your presentation experience, to Chris Lehman, WATS Conference Chair – chris@halldale.com and Rick Adams, HATS Stream Chair – rickadams@aeroperspectives.com. Please title your email “HATS 2015 Abstract”.

WATS is an “applied” conference and while full academic papers are not appropriate, we will consider summaries of relevant helicopter training research projects, particularly if they have international and/or cross-sector application.

In no case will sales presentations be accepted. Actual presentations must fit into the general WATS format which is 20 minutes maximum followed by a Q&A period.

The closing date for abstracts is November 19, 2014. If your presentation is selected you will be informed before December 31, 2014.