ROTARY / Training An Immersive Experience A $16-million helicopter training and R&D facility near St. John’s, N.L., is bringing a new level of fidelity to Cougar Helicopters’ simulator training. Story by Oliver Johnson | Photos by Heath Moffatt oughly 350 kilometres south- east of St. John’s, N.L., deep under the tempestuous waters of the North Atlantic, lies the Hebron oil field. The Hebron project—to recover the estimated 700 million barrels of resources contained within the field—is one of the key offshore projects in the region, utilizing a 680,000-tonne platform. Sitting in the back of the Cougar Helicopters Sikorsky S-92 just a few hun- dred metres from the structure, the sheer scale of the construction, standing seem- ingly immovable above the crashing waves, was impressive. The platform’s blinking R 56 SKIES Magazine | January/February 2017 lights reflected off the sea as the skies began to darken. But something wasn’t quite right. And not least the fact that the Hebron platform doesn’t quite exist yet. “Can we make it about 15 minutes later?” asked Skies photographer Heath Moffatt, who was leaning out the side of the cabin. The technician to my right tapped a few buttons and the skies instantly darkened. “Oh, great! But maybe another five minutes?” A few more increments took us to 4:36 p.m., which, it turned out, provides just about the perfect ambient light for a pho- tograph of the inside of a simulator. Yes,