Gulf Coast "Oil Patch" A Prime Spot For Rotor Sims

Flight Safety International plans to build a new simulator facility near one of the busiest helicopter use areas in the US to train newer inexperienced rotor wing pilots.

"(Lafayette is) where our customers are," said George Ferito, director of rotor craft business development for Flight Safety International. "Our customers, in this case, are offshore helicopter operators that serve the oilfield companies in the Gulf of Mexico.

"Few people outside the helicopter industry know this, but the area from the central coast of Mississippi to the western Gulf coast of Texas has the largest concentration of civilian helicopters in the world. There are about 800 helicopters -- and it's growing daily."

Flight Safety International, has 43 training facilities around the world for rotor wing and fixed wing aircraft. FSI is a division of Berkshire Hathaway originally founded in 1951.

The company will build a 70,000 square-foot facility with eight full simulators operating 24/7. The simulators will be capable full motion response to the pilot's controls and will duplicate a number of helicopter types, according to a story in the Lafayette Daily Advertiser.

"Our simulation equipment will mirror the fleet that operates in the Gulf," Ferito said, adding that more will be added over time. FSI also plans to hire as many as eight instructors per simulator.

The facility is meant to bring licensed pilots up to speed in unfamiliar aircraft, Ferito said. Not to train private pilots.

The facility will bring newer ex-military pilots, who have less experience than the Vietnam era pilots did when they transitioned out of the military.

"One of the major challenges training resources face is the new wave of less experienced pilots for whom training is more critical," Ferito said. "It's not unusual for us to see pilots coming through the training facility here with 500 hours of total flight time."

The new facility will make training more convenient for local helicopter companies, said Mike Suldo, president of Air Logistics. The company owns two static flight training devices, a type of simulator with instrument panels and controls.

"For (training on) small ships, they fulfill our requirements, but for the larger ships, like the S-76, we send them to West Palm Beach. We can probably keep (Flight Safety's simulators) running 24 hours ourselves," Suldo said.

Full-motion simulators have additional advantages in that they provide training that can't be duplicated in the air, Suldo said.

"You can simulate emergencies in a simulator you can't in an aircraft," he said. "In a big helicopter, if you want to simulate pulling off an engine, we'd be nervous to do it. But in a simulator, you can do it all day long. And it can bring visibility and the ceiling down. You can fly into the clouds."

The new facility will draw pilots from all over the region, giving the local economy a boost, as well, according to Suldo.

FMI: www.flightsafety.com