Since its 1910 inception in the form of the humble "Tonneau Antoinette"—a crude contraption comprising a half-barrel fitted with stub-wings and primitive flight-controls haphazardly mounted to a universal-joint—the flight-simulator has evolved into an indispensable tool by which fledgling pilots acquire rudimentary flying skills, and professional aviators learn to manage emergency situations far too dangerous to recreate in actual aircraft.
Across the wide world, amateur aviation enthusiasts and licensed pilots alike vet their respective skills via systems as diverse as desktop computer products like Microsoft’s celebrated Flight Simulator software, to simple machines the likes of Frasca’s 141 instrument training device, to the massive, six-freedom-degree, Level D leviathans operated in perpetuity by CAE and FlightSafety International.
A wealth of extant aircraft simulator technologies are capably embodied in the various product lines of Virtual Fly—a maker of first-rate flight training devices, and a subsidiary of Spanish aerospace concern Aircatglobal Aeronautical Group.
Virtual Fly’s products range from FAA approved Flight Training Devices (FTD), to full-motion flight-simulators, to simulator control interfaces such as yokes, power-quadrants, and rudder-pedals. The company’s $5,000 VF-G1000 desktop trainer provides pilots a high-quality replica of Garmin’s popular G1000 all-glass avionics suite for OEM aircraft, while Virtual Fly’s $62,000 ONTOP DUO MEG full motion, day/night VFR/IFR simulator offers configurability to both piston and turbine, twin-engine, high-performance aircraft by marques such as Cessna, Diamond, and Beechcraft.
Virtual Fly flight-training devices and simulators are distributed in the U.S. by J.A. Air Center—an FBO, flight-school, maintenance facility, and aircraft brokerage on Sugar Grove, Illinois’s Aurora Municipal Airport. J.A.’s commitment to pilot training is evident not only in its relationship with Virtual Fly, but in its association with Southern Airways Express, the Palm-Beach, Florida-based air carrier that offers graduates of J.A.’s Commercial/Multi-Engine program flow-through to paying pilot positions.
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