I/ITSEC Mission: An Insider Perspective

December 10, 2007

The OPL trailer leaves Iowa City, IA.

OPL Staff outlast the chilly airplane ride.

Setup begins at the conference.

When OPL was invited to participate in the Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation and Education Conference (I/ITSEC), the staff was well prepared for the challenges that lay ahead.  Director Tom Schnell, a professor in engineering at The University of Iowa, took the lead and organized the crew, which consisted of him and six other staff.

 A strange series of events took place throughout the trip, but the crew and trailer made it safely to the Orlando Convention Center on time.  The trip for the simulator began back in midsummer when it was moved from the Engineering Research Facility (ERF) to its current home: the OPL Flight Operations Hangar located at the Iowa City Municipal Airport.  Once it arrived, the OPL staff worked long and hard to prepare it for the conference. The simulator was given a new coat of paint, equipped with three large LCD screens, tested, and packed into a trailer.

The trailer was packed on Tuesday, November 20, and the final touches to the simulator were added by Carl Richey just as the rest of the staff placed it into the trailer.  This would become the two-day residence of the simulator on its journey to Orlando, Florida.  The trailer was driven by Richey and Matt Cover, and by the end of Thanksgiving day, Richey and Cover had reached Clarksville, Tennessee.  The journey continued, and the crew finally reached Orlando late Friday night after stops in Atlanta, Georgia, and Daytona Beach, Florida.

The next day, Cover and Richey were greeted by Eric Steward, a member of the Naval Air Warfare Center Training Systems Division (NAWCTSD).  Steward helped OPL begin setting up the simulator in the Navy booth at the I/ITSEC, where Greg Neiswander, an OPL staff member, joined them.  While the setup was underway, the rest of the OPL staff flew down to Kissimmee, Florida.

The aircraft, a Beech Baron flown by Schnell, left Saturday morning at 7:00 a.m. CST.  Schnell was accompanied by Nick Lorch, Mike Keller, and Kyle Ellis.  During the flight, the onboard heater failed, and the crew was forced to bundle up in blankets in the chilly atmosphere.  The crew made it safely to the Kissimmee airport and joined the rest of the staff at 3:30 p.m. EST.

By Sunday, setup was complete, and it was time to debug the simulator and gear.  Final preparations were made by the staff for the thousands of visitors that would view the exhibit.  Amongst these visitors were VIPs from the military and the United States government.

Monday morning before the convention opened to the public, OPL showcased the simulator and technology that is being developed in the State Sensor Investigations and Operator State Classification and Feedback Algorithms project to government officials.  These officials included admirals, generals, and members from the United States House of Representatives, as well as senators from various states.

Later that day, the conference opened at 2:OO p.m. EST, and the stage was set for OPL. OPL had one of the largest booth, and it was surrounded by companies such as the Lockheed Martin Corporation and The Boeing Company.  The conference ended Thursday at 3:00 p.m. EST, and the OPL crew began its journey home in the unheated Beech Baron.