Stolen, With Trailer, From Parking Lot at Hotel Near HAI Convention

Glenn King, the hard-working head of Aircrew Training Systems at Environmental Tectonics Corporation, was all set to show off his company's latest and greatest, the GAT (General Aviation Trainer) helicopter. This machine embodies a huge amount of work, and it represents a giant step in helicopter training devices.

Based on the robust and popular GAT II fixed-wing, three-axis platform that the fixed-wing crowd has fallen in love with over the past couple years, the helo incorporates breakthroughs that haven't been seen within probably hundreds of thousands of dollars, in competitive products.

Glenn told us Monday morning, "We developed the GAT helicopter, over four years in the making." He was ready for the HAI show, too: "We parked it in the hotel parking lot, after a long drive from Pennsylvania -- and the trailer's gone -- everything's gone." Apparently, hotel security and the Dallas (TX) PD have their "issues." Glenn related, "The police told me 'You're the fourth stolen trailer reported this morning.'"

Please, be on the lookout for the parts, and for the trailer -- and call 911, if you see anything that looks like it may belong to our great sponsor.

Here's what you're looking for: a plain white, dual-axle, enclosed trailer, about the size of a horse trailer. As for the impoortant stuff inside, Glenn told us, "This has been 4+ years in the making. We utilized all our divisions: PZL (Poland), Eugene (OR), Southampton (PA) -- people all over the world, focused on this one show." Why would someone steal this? "People might have stolen it for the 6 computers," Glenn said, "and the very nice flat-panel monitors; but the actual hardware -- it's helo controls, three-axis motion controls, heavy-duty motors -- those all have value, but they're not 'hot' items."

The helo was set to be the belle of the ball.

Glenn told us, "The best feature we had, was a look-down view, for pilots." This isn't common on helicopter sims. While several, synch'd, eye-level panels are more common every day, helicopter pilots, more than any other filers, need that look-down capability; and until now, it's been extremely rare. Glenn told us, "We had a big dome, so the pilot could look down past his feet." Helicopters hover, often while doing serious vertical work; that look-down capability is a hige competitive advantage for the ETC simulator.

"Just the amount of work that went into this in the past few weeks, this is pretty crushing," said Robb Lloyd, back at the plant.

FMI: www.etcaircrewtraining.com/index.html