The power of virtual reality

Annet van Aarsen

training courses From cleaner to pilot work with it.

As a boy of six, Chris Koomen was expelled from school for refusing to learn the multiplication table of three. He just had to go to vocational school. Now 40-year-old Noordwijkerhouter is the virtual reality specialist at KLM and an internationally known person in the world of VR.

Ever tried to connect a passenger bridge to an airplane? Probably not. It is also a difficult 3D puzzle in virtual reality (VR). Such a 'gate' can go up and down, to the left and the right and back and forth. Try to get the colossus exactly in place without damaging the plane that has just been parked on the platform.

With sweat in my hands and on my forehead, I'll try to steer the bridge to the plane door. Suddenly a guest almost walks in front of the wheels. Where is that man from? This is a big mistake. And in the end, things don't end well with the virtual plane either: it has a few dents.

In real life, this training would have come to a disastrous end, but now we can just try again. The power of virtual reality: just restart the program and the plane is like new again.

You have to be aware of your surroundings, is one of the lessons. "Before you started, you should have looked out the window to check that no people are walking where they shouldn't be," says Chris Koomen. Anyone who does this - exactly as prescribed by the regulations - will not be faced with crossing people in the VR exercise program. And so there are many more hidden instincts in it. The saying goes that you learn the most from your mistakes. And that's right.

Aircraft Mechanic

The passenger bridge training program is one of Koomen's creations. He has a whole series to his name. Koomen quickly made a name for himself as a VR specialist in a few years, after he first worked as a flower production employee, plumber, and aircraft mechanic at KLM. A remarkable career, especially when you hear him talk about his history. "Yes, I was expelled from school because I didn't want to learn the multiplication table of three. I thought that was a waste of energy. And then I had to go to a school for children with learning difficulties," he says.

He never stamped that table of three in his head again. But learning difficulties weren't the problem. He was expelled from the practical school because he was too good, he completed the secondary technical school in Hillegom in a quarter of the time. "I've been playing around there for a year and a half." He joined the military forces, dreamed of - eventually - a job as a military pilot. "But in December 1998 I had an accident, a car hit me. My knee was broken, a career in the army was out of the question. My dream of becoming a pilot was shattered." 

"I had been working on VR for some time, but it only really started when my girlfriend came home in 2015 with cardboard VR glasses. I found it intriguing and thought I could do something with it. I photographed the entire hangar, all the photos stitched together, and put into a program Filled out an idea form, and pretty soon after that, I had an appointment with my supervisor. She was in her office, with VR glasses on but she had the idea that she was in the hangar. What if smoke comes out of the hold of the aircraft and what if there is a large fire next to that? Make a simulation of the evacuation of the hangar? I wanted to go one step further, with lots of computer-generated images. with flames? And that the scenario will turn out differently if you do not adhere to the rules in the evacuation plan."

"It is important in the VR training that people are allowed to make mistakes and that they can experience the consequences," says Koomen. "Scenarios as close to reality as possible, that's when you learn the most from." But what if the images in the training may not look quite lifelike, are clearly animations? No problem. "A splinter in your finger is very annoying. But if you then cut yourself in your other hand, you immediately forget that splinter," explains the VR specialist. "For example, during a safety training, we suddenly have a baby cry in the back of the cabin. And a few more such things. Suddenly you no longer realize that you are watching animations, suddenly you are in the story. The big trick is people. distracting from what is less good in such a VR program."

Koomen once put his mother, who suffers from fear of heights, virtually in an elevator in Dubai. "Such an open glass elevator, on the outside of the building. On the twelfth, she couldn't take it anymore. Completely paralyzed with fear. That makes you think about the possibilities of VR. What you also see it in training situations: people who panic."

In the simulator, he prepares pilots for unexpected situations, for example during landing. "Take a lightning strike, very rare. It is really very nice for pilots to have experienced something like this before it actually happens. We hear that in the reviews. A pilot recently reported that it had happened to him, but that he felt well prepared because he had already experienced it in VR training."

Northern lights

Koomen is not only involved with KLM applications. He regularly helps (international) companies with VR issues. Google for example with the Tour Creator project. "And sometimes I also do something very personal. Last year I did something for a terminally ill gentleman. His last wish was to see the northern lights, but he could no longer travel. So I configured some glasses and then the whole family could enjoy the northern lights in their own garden. One of the most rewarding moments, fantastic to be able to do something like this.

Chris Koomen and his team have developed a long list of VR training courses. Cockpit training, but also the evacuation of a hangar, training for pilots and just as well for the cabin crew. For aircraft cleaners, but also for the drivers who take care of pushing the aircraft backward (pushback) on the apron. He won the 'pioneer of the year' award with it. What Koomen is doing now, he keeps a secret. "But I think we're going to turn the VR world upside down next year."