FAA Approves Company's G550 Virtual Ground School

CAE will install a new full-flight simulator at its CAE SimuFlite training centre in Dallas/Fort Worth, Texas, USA, to provide training for operators of the Gulfstream G450 and Gulfstream G550 aircraft types. Training for pilots and aircraft maintenance technicians will be available in 2012. The company announced its plans at the NBAA convention in Las Vegas on Monday.

CAE said Sunday it received regulatory approval for its G550 Virtual Ground School recurrent training. This is the first web-based regulated recurrent training program for business aircraft pilots to receive approval from the FAA.

"CAE continues to expand training resource accessibility and options for our business aircraft clients," said Jeff Roberts, CAE's Group President, Civil Simulation Products, Training and Services. "Over the four-year period of 2009-2012, we will have expanded by more than 40 percent the simulator capacity in our global business aviation training network. And we continue to innovate with new services which offer pilots and aircraft maintenance technicians more training value and flexibility for less overall investment."

CAE announced earlier this year that it is doubling the number of locations in its global business aviation training network from four to eight. In early 2011, CAE Amsterdam (Netherlands) initiated training on Bombardier Challenger 300 and Challenger 604 aircraft types. In early 2012, CAE will begin training for Learjet 40 and Learjet 45 operators at a new training centre currently under construction in Toluca - the industry's first business jet training centre in Mexico. Also in 2012, the Embraer-CAE Training Services joint venture will begin offering Phenom 100 and Phenom 300 training in Sao Paulo (Brazil) - the industry's first business jet training centre in South America. And by 2013, CAE plans to open a new business aviation training location in Asia.

CAE's other business aviation training locations include CAE North East Training Centre in the New York City area (Morristown, New Jersey USA); CAE Burgess Hill near London in the UK; and Emirates-CAE Flight Training, Dubai, UAE.

In addition to the new programs in Amsterdam, Toluca, and Sao Paulo, five new Level D full-flight simulators have entered service in recent months or will be ready for training by early 2012. In Dubai, training is being provided for operators of the Dassault Falcon 7X, Falcon 900EX EASy and Falcon 2000EX EASy aircraft models. In Morristown, the Cessna Citation Sovereign program became operational in August.

In Dallas, CAE is completing installation and regulatory qualification of a Level D full-flight simulator for the Hawker Beechcraft King Air 350 with Pro Line 21 avionics. CAE is also the exclusive training provider for the Nextant Aerospace 400XT aircraft, and has a dedicated 400XT FFS in Dallas.

FMI: www.cae.com