Visionary Training Resources (VTR) today announced a five-year agreement under which Ryanair will continue using FlightDeckToGo®, VTR's virtual reality flight deck trainer for the B737NG. The agreement follows a six-month evaluation in which Ryanair cadets used FlightDeckToGo® to learn and rehearse B737NG flows before entering the simulator.
FlightDeckToGo® places trainees in the first officer's seat of a fully interactive B737NG flight deck, delivered on a VR headset. Each flow is taught in three patented stages: a fully guided “Learn” mode with instructor voiceover, text boxes and flow lines, a “Practice” mode with hints, and a “Validate” mode where the trainee performs the flow unaided. Trainees move switches with their own hands and watch the aircraft respond, building the layout familiarity and procedural sequence that simulator sessions depend on.
Ryanair's simulator data from the evaluation compared 581 cadets who trained with FlightDeckToGo® against 420 cadets who trained before its introduction, across three flight training device sessions. The VR-trained cadets showed statistically significant improvement in eight of nine rated core competencies led by both Flight Path Management and Application of Procedures. Cadet performance improved overall, reflected by a shift from good to very good instructor grades.
In post-training surveys, 111 cadets rated FlightDeckToGo® 9.2 out of 10 for immersiveness, and 17 instructors rated it 8.9 out of 10 for procedural reinforcement.
"All the flows were much easier to understand thanks to VR," one cadet wrote in the survey. An instructor observed, "Within minutes, all trainees appeared at ease with its use. They required no assistance at all."
"Our cadets now arrive at the simulator with a clear understanding of the flight deck layout and the sequence of each flow. The simulator evaluation results gave us the confidence to make FlightDeckToGo® an established part of our cadet training programme." said Captain Paul Kelly, Deputy Chief Pilot Flight Standards and Head of Training, Ryanair
"Ryanair ran a rigorous evaluation and measured what matters most to a training department: performance in the simulator," said Evey Cormican, CEO of VTR. "Seeing VR-trained cadets outscore earlier cohorts across seven competencies shows that flow training done before the sim carries directly into it. We look forward to the continuation of our partnership with Ryanair."
About Visionary Training Resources
Founded by pilots with extensive safety and training backgrounds, Visionary Training Resources (VTR) delivers FlightDeckToGo®, a powerful training platform that leverages virtual reality technology. Portable, intuitive, and dimensionally accurate, FlightDeckToGo® offers meaningful advantages over traditional training methods — including reduced costs, greater scheduling flexibility, and improved knowledge retention. Founded in 2017; headquartered in Lakeland, Fla.
About Ryanair
Ryanair Holdings plc, Europe’s largest airline group, is the parent company of Buzz, Lauda, Malta Air, Ryanair & Ryanair UK. Carrying c.214m guests p.a. on approx. 3,800 daily flights from 95 bases, the Group connects over 220 airports in 35 countries on a fleet of almost 650 aircraft, and 300 new Boeing 737s on order, which will enable the Ryanair Group to grow traffic to 300m p.a. by FY34. Ryanair has a team of 30,000 aviation professionals delivering Europe’s No.1 operational performance, and an industry leading 41-year safety record. Ryanair is one of the most efficient major EU airlines. With a young fleet and high load factors, Ryanair targets 50grams of CO₂ per pax/km by 2031 (a 27% reduction).
