The full flight helicopter simulator market grew a little more crowded with word that German manufacturer Reiser Simulation and Training has started construction on its first level D device, an Airbus Helicopters H145 simulator.
In operation for more than a quarter-century, the family-owned, Bavaria-based company has a staff of 200 employees and provides flight-training solutions for aircraft from the Pilatus PC-21 turboprop to the Eurofighter Typhoon. “We deliver simulators that are built on data collection,” noted company CEO Roman Sperl. “We do not rely on OEM data, but we collect the data on our own.”
The current custom project, Reiser’s first commercial helicopter simulator, was ordered by a German helicopter EMS provider that has acquired H145s. “We did a data acquisition campaign and we’re doing the flight model on our own,” Sperl told AIN. We wanted to learn about flight data acquisition. It is probably not the easier way but it is something that we were always of the belief that brings the company forward.”
As for the business model, when Reiser (Booth 8559) installs the device at the operator’s Cologne facility in the first quarter of 2017, it will maintain ownership of the simulator as it aims to become a service provider as well as a manufacturer, with the customer paying per hour of usage. Reiser will be responsible for the equipment and the operator will handle the training. When the device is not being used the primary client, Reiser can rent it out to other operators, an arrangement Sperl sees as becoming more common. “I would say that people will not have the money to pay for the acquisition of the flight training device but they will rather be looking for some solutions where they can just pay by the hour,” he said. The leasing in effect spreads the costs among several companies and gives Reiser a training center without having to build one.
The company provides simulators for maintenance as well. A recent project for the German and French governments saw it build five maintenance training rigs for the NH-90 Tiger, each a full-scale replica of the entire helicopter consisting of 30,000 specially made non-functional parts, but constructed to a tolerance that would allow the substitution of actual parts and components if the customer would chose to do so later.