HUGHES FLIGHT Training in the UK has announced a series of deals, which will result in a reshaping of its commercial flight-simulator fleet.
The London Gatwick-based independent training centre, formerly British Caledonian Flight Training has repositioned a Boeing 737-300/400 simulator, from Gatwick to Alaska Airlines' training centre in Seattle, Washington, under a long-term lease. The device was originally installed at Hughes' Palma de Mallorca, Spain, training centre in 1991. The centre was closed and the simulator moved to Gatwick in 1995.
Alaska plans to use the simulator for its own and third-party simulator training, beginning in April. The device will be equipped with a Flight Dynamics head-up guidance system as a training option.
Hughes, meanwhile, has "swapped" its McDonnell Douglas MD-11 simulator for a 737-300 simulator owned by Delta Airlines. The MD-11 device is now being installed in Delta's Atlanta, Georgia, training centre while the 737 machine, originally installed in Atlanta in 1992, has been shipped to Hughes, which will install the simulator at Gatwick.
In another deal, Virgin Atlantic Airways' Boeing 747-200 full-flight simulator is to be moved to Gatwick. The device, plus a fixed-based simulator, three cockpit mock-ups and audio-visual trainers, is based at CAE Invertron at Burgess Hill in the UK. The simulator will be available for Virgin and third-party training at Gatwick by the end of June.
Source: Flight International
