Outgoing HAL Chief kick-starts chopper school in B'lore

Days before he retires, HAL chairman Ashok Baweja has managed to realise a personally long-held dream — to create a state-of-the-art helicopter training facility in Bangalore. The (rather cheesily titled) Helicopter Academy to Train by Simulation of Flying (HATSOFF) is the result of a $60-million joint venture entered into today with equal financial exposure by HAL and Canadian firm CAE Incorporated, a leading producer of simulation technologies. The joint venture has set a target of late 2010 to become fully functional — at that point to begin with, it will be equipped to train upto 400 pilots every year. Although the centre plans to incorporate into its curriculum, training for a large number of different helicopter types, the kick-off courses will be offered on the ALH Dhruv (IAF/Army variant), the ALH Dhruv (civil variant), the Bell 412 and Eurocopter SA365 Dauphin.

According to a joint statement by HAL and CAE today, “The training centre will feature multimedia classrooms, computer-based training, brief/debrief facilities, and a training management information system. The CAE-built full-mission simulator for HATSOFF will feature a common motion system, vibration platform, and visual display system, and four separate cockpit modules that can be used in the full-mission simulator. When a cockpit is not used in the full-mission simulator, it will be used as a fixed-based flight training device (FTD). The simulator will be certified to Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and Joint Aviation Authority (JAA) Level D, the highest qualification for flight simulators.”