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.