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FlightSafety Adds HUD Feature
As It Expands Simulator Empire
FlightSafety does not publish market statistics, but says that
its operations have not been too badly affected by the attacks
of September 11. The company has not delayed any modernization
plans, and staff cuts have been mainly confined to part-time people.
The company has unveiled a range of service enhancements this
year, including a wider roll-out of the Full Record Debriefing
System that the company announced in 2000. Based on Flight Viz
software developed by Fifth Dimension Technologies (5DT), the
PC-based system uses a large-capacity hard drive to record a complete
simulator training session, and can play it back including
external views of the aircraft on a single screen.
FlightSafety announced in Sept- ember that it was equipping all
its new flight simulators with the next generation of visual systems.
The new VITAL system is twice as fast and twice as sharp as the
company's current ChromaViewPlus, with a denser array of pixels
and higher refresh speeds. The new systems are also more compact
than their predecessors. Also, the company has received FAA approval
for new training devices for the Cessna CJ1 and CJ2 light business
twinjets, located at its Citation Learning Center in Wichita.
At the larger end of the spectrum, a FlightSafety Gulfstream GV
simulator has become the first commercial simulator to reproduce
the Enhanced Vision System (EVS) which Gulfstream now offers.
Specialized software within the image generator reproduces the
picture from the EVS infra-red camera. FlightSafety now offers
HUD training not only for the Gulfstream, but also for the Falcon
2000 and the Dash 8 family.
FlightSafety has continued to add facilities during the year,
opening a new 110,000 sq ft, 16-bay training center at Dallas-Fort
Worth to match another new facility in Atlanta. Among its simulators
is the first Level D full-flight trainer for the Gulfstream 200,
formerly the Galaxy.
A lower-than-normal NBAA attendance may have one up-side: a better
chance of success in FlightSafety's always popular Breitling
aviator's watch giveaway.
NBAA attendees are invited to drop their business cards at the
company's booth (6758) for a draw to be held on the last day of
the show.
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