CATHAYPACIFIC Airways has selected Northwest Aerospace Training (NATCO) to move its simulators to Hong Kong's new Chek Lap Kok Airport. NATCO, a Northwest Airlines subsidiary, has teamed with Binghamton Simulator (BSC) to carry out the project. Planning began in June, and the simulators will be moved early in 1999.
Cathay's new Chek Lap Kok training centre will be ready in January 1999. The following month, a 24-member NATCO/ BSC team will relocate seven full-flight simulators, one fixed-base machine, one flight-training device and an emergency-evacuation trainer from the airline's existing base at Kai Tak. The task will take up to six months.
"Our objective is to minimise training downtime," says Bert Thomson, NATCO sales manager for technical projects. "Our team will be divided into three groups that will be in various stages of disassembly, re-assembly and testing to ensure than Cathay Pacific has access to required simulation throughout the relation project."
Baseline testing, dismantling and crating of each simulator is expected to take about ten days. Components will then be barged across Hong Kong harbour to Chek Lap Kok, where re-assembly and testing are expected to take about 35 days.
Cathay says that it selected the NATCO/BSC team because of its previous experience in moving simulators. NATCO recently moved a Cathay Lockheed L-1011 TriStar simulator from Hong Kong to Royal Jordanian Airlines in Amman, Jordan.
Source: Flight International
