Simulator design and instructional issues for helicopter shipboard landing operations are presently under investigation at the Navy's visual Technology Research simulator (VTRS) following the recent installation of a Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) simulator. Research strategy at VTRS to provide answers for applied training problems has employed economical multifactor experimental design to deal with the many factors which may influence performance and an iterative three phase process to deal with "transfer of training" as the ultimate issue. The first phase of this process consists of performance studies in which the effect of various design features on experienced pilots are examined in the simulator. The second phase consists of in-simulator transfer-of-training experiments in which pilots novice to the task are trained under various simulator configurations and instructional conditions and then tested under a high fidelity simulator configuration. The third phase employs the transfer-of-training experimental paradigm with training in the simulator and testing at an operational site-Currently, the VTRS helicopter shipboard landing research program is in the second phase. This paper presents results from two major performance experiments already completed, and show how the results were used to progress from the first experiment to the second and then to the current in-simulator transfer-of-training experiment, which will also be discussed.