GRAHAM WARWICK / WASHINGTON DC
Orlando, Florida, is emerging as a major location for business aviation training. FlightSafety International will open a Cessna Citation training centre at Orlando International Airport in the fourth quarter, while SimCom is adding simulators at its Orlando site.
Orlando is FlightSafety's 43rd centre and its eighth Citation training location. The centre will accommodate eight full-flight simulators, and the company has already announced plans to install Level D machines for the Citation CJ1, CJ2, Bravo, Excel and Citation X. The centre is close to Cessna's latest Citation service centre, construction of which will be completed in mid-2003.
SimCom, meanwhile, will install the first of two Mu-2 Marquise/ Solitaire flight-training devices in its Orlando centre in December, under a 10-year agreement with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries America under which the company replaced FlightSafety as the manufacturer-authorised training provider. The second Level 5 device will be available for training in the second quarter of next year.
A subsidiary of Pan Am International Flight Academy, SimCom now has three full-flight simulators and 15 flight-training devices in the Orlando centre. Earlier this year, the company installed Beech Baron B58 and King Air 350 training devices, both produced in-house by SimCom Simulation Technologies. A SimCom-built Hawker 800A flight simulator recently received Level C approval.
SimCom's first Pilatus PC-12 training device is operational in Orlando, and a second machine is being built with the manufacturer.
Source: Flight International
