DRF Luftrettung received certification from the Luftfahrt-Bundesamt (German Federal Aviation Office) for its hoistAR winch simulator, announced on 14 September 2026. DRF says this makes it the first air rescue operator in Europe whose training syllabus for winch operations has been certified by a national authority.
hoistAR was launched in September 2023; DRF Akademie describes DRF Luftrettung as the first provider in the world to have designed a hoist simulator for Airbus aircraft. DRF describes the system as based on XR (Extended Reality) technology and lists trailer-based mobility among its features, alongside a mode that couples it to a full flight simulator. DRF's own photography of the system shows a crew member wearing a Varjo-branded headset with forward-facing passthrough cameras.
The training covers pilots and hoist operators, the crew members who stand on the skid, and DRF states it can be carried out independently of time of day and weather. Crews at DRF's five stations with hoist helicopters will have access to virtual training in addition to the practical training sessions conducted twice a year. In slave-to-FFS mode the simulator can be coupled with the H145 Full Flight Simulator at Lufthansa Aviation Training in Frankfurt for joint pilot and hoist-operator training, a concept DRF describes as unique worldwide.
No quantitative training-outcome figures, such as crews trained, hours logged or safety data, were disclosed in the sources reviewed. The exact date of the Luftfahrt-Bundesamt decision is not stated; DRF's release says the certification was received a few days before publication.
