Helicopter simulator academy to come up in Bangalore

India's first helicopter training academy with facility to train pilots on simulators will be launched by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited and Canada-based CAE in Bangalore by middle of this year.

"The Helicopter Academy to Train by Simulation of Flying (HATSOFF) will come up with the installation of first simulator by middle of this year," the Academy's chief executive officer Wing Commander (retd) Chandra Dat Upadhyay said here.

The Joint Venture between HAL and CAE was progressing on schedule for the Level-D helicopter simulator training facility to come up, he said.

The CAE-built full-mission helicopter simulator for the academy has been shipped from Canada and is scheduled to arrive in Bangalore this month. It will be installed at the new HATSOFF helicopter training centre.

"The first cockpit for the simulator will represent the Bell-412 helicopter and would be ready for training by summer.Additional cockpits for army and air force's Dhruv choppers would be installed over the next year," Upadhyay said.

The simulator features roll-on and roll-off cockpit design, which would enable cockpits to represent various helicopter types to train pilots.

"By this summer, HATSOFF will offer comprehensive training to operators of the Bell-412 helicopter.Plans are afoot to have Eurocopter’s Dauphin helicopter cockpit too on the simulator," Upadhyay said.

It would also feature a common motion system, vibration platform and visual display system, and the four separate missions.

When not used in full-mission mode, it can be used as a fixed-based flight training device. 

The simulator would be certified by European Aviation Safety Agency and Indian DGCA Level D, the highest qualification for flight simulators.