Brazil Postpones Level-D Sim Requirement for Bizjet Training

Implementation of a new Brazilian requirement mandating the use of level-D simulators for renewing business aircraft type ratings has been postponed until next year due to a shortage of suitable training equipment in the country. The country’s ANAC aviation authority had intended for the requirement to take effect two months ago, and the agency has been criticized by operators and pilots for being too rigid in its requirement for full-motion simulators.

Commandant Milton Arantes Costa, president of Brazilian air-taxi operators association ABTAer, told AIN this week at LABACE that the changes to Brazilian Civil Aviation Regulation 61 impose a tougher standard than equivalent rules in other countries. “In the U.S., a pilot needs just a multi-engine rating to fly a King Air 90. In Brazil, it’s a type rating,” he said. “The FAA requires only a level-2 simulator for a rating in a Mitsubishi MU-2, one of the most [challenging] airplanes to fly, so why does ANAC require a level-D simulator to fly a KingAir?”

For now, level-D simulators are in short supply in Latin America, forcing operators and their pilots to go overseas–usually to the U.S.–for training.