VisionAire has selected SimCom International to provide pilot and maintenance training for the Vantage single-turbofan business jet.
St Louis, Missouri-based VisionAire will provide training for one pilot and one maintenance technician within the Vantage's $1.75 million purchase price, and plans to require pilots to gain a type rating on the aircraft.
SimCom will build a Level 6 flight-training device with wide-angle visual system for the Vantage. The company believes that the majority of training for a type rating can be accomplished in the simulator. Training will be provided at SimCom's Orlando, Florida, simulator centre, with the device to be ready when Vantage deliveries begin in late 1999.
VisionAire chairman Jim Rice says that SimCom was chosen, in part, because of its experience in providing low-cost training for many of the piston-twin types which the Vantage is designed to replace. SimCom president Wally David says that the company will soon install a Level 6 device for the single-turboprop Pilatus PC-12, and plans to provide simulator training for Cessna Citation-series light business-jets.
Fischer+Entwicklungen (F+E) of Germany has been chosen to provide 26g crew seats for the Vantage. A supplier of 26g passenger seats has yet to be selected. Seats able to protect the occupants from peak accelerations of up to 26g in a crash are required because of the Vantage's 70kt (130km/h) stall speed.
F+E manufactures 30g-certificated seats for helicopters.
Source: Flight International
