Canyons and mountainsides obscured by billowing clouds of smoke, the abrupt loss of weight and shifting center of gravity that follow release of a load of retardant, unusual attitudes and dangerous terrain: These are among the everyday challenges faced by firefighting pilots, and virtually all of them can be simulated.
In California, a state hard-hit by wildfires thanks in large part to longstanding drought, pilots are training to fight fires using increasingly sophisticated simulators...