Textron unit TRU Simulation + Training is nearing completion of a 30,000-sq-foot expansion of its Part 142 OEM-supported East Coast Pro Pilot Training Facility in Lutz, Fla. near Tampa, adding to 15,000 sq ft currently dedicated to training there.
The expansion is scheduled to be completed by November and will include space for classrooms, flight training devices (FTDs) and full flight simulators for select Textron Aviation products including the Citation CJ3 (which covers the 2+, 1+ and the 2), and newer King Air models 350, 250 and 90 with Rockwell Collins Pro Line Fusion avionics. Simulators for the Citation M2 and the CJ3+ are expected to be online soon pending certification.
“With this facility expansion, we are thrilled to expand our Textron Aviation training capabilities. Our relationship with our Textron affiliate allows a seamless customer training experience from initial aircraft purchase, to initial type ratings through a lifetime of recurrency training and online learning,” said TRU president and CEO Ian Walsh. Besides more instructional space, the expansion will provide room for exercise facilities, break areas, lounges and other student amenities.
TRU also recently announced FAA approval for its distance-learning program for the King Air 350. TRU’s East Coast ProFlight Pilot Training center was the first to offer instruction on the new Pro Line Fusion-equipped King Air 350 and the only training provider to offer an online learning option for the King Air’s recurrent training ground school.
The new distance-learning option permits customers the flexibility to receive 100 percent of their recurrent aircraft systems training online, allowing them to focus time spent at the training center towards simulator training scenarios. TRU is also offering its proprietary Current 365 training, which provides access to the online training suite throughout the year, as opposed to a typical one-time recurrent training event. Customers who prefer to complete their ground school training on-site in a classroom will still have the option to do so.
“TRU’s ProFlight pilot training maximizes learning potential by empowering our customers to take control of their training experience, customize the program to best fit their learning preferences and fundamentally reduce their time spent in the training center,” said David Smith, TRU’s vice president of training centers. “Our customers will now have the flexibility of an FAA-approved distance-learning option that allows them to accomplish a large portion of their recurrent training requirements on the road or from the comfort of their own home.” The Carlsbad facility originated the distance-learning recurrency training that is becoming standard at TRU’s ProFlight facilities. Textron purchased ProFlight in July 2014 then expanded the brand to the Lutz location.
TRU’s ProFlight pilot training offering for the new-production Beechcraft turboprop includes an initial type-rating course, an introductory course on the Rockwell Collins Pro Line Fusion avionics package and recurrent training as well as a part 135 training program for commercial operators. ProFlight instruction combines use of the King Air 350i full motion flight simulator and proprietary Level 6 FTDs for enhanced avionics training capability in a modern classroom setting that incorporates interactive animated courseware for all aircraft systems.
Smith said the Florida facility is gearing up for substantial new business with the eventual additional of the CJ3+, M2 and Latitude and Longitude programs. Initial training for the latter two, which will come on line next year, will last up to three weeks. The Latitude simulator will be convertible as a Sovereign+ while the Longitude will be a separate simulator. It means taking the training center from the current three classrooms to seven and adding four simulator bays. Smith said the facility plans to add programs in addition to those and plans to announce additional platforms next year. The Florida Center Joins TRU's ProFlight training facility in Carlsbad, Calif. and together the two train approximately 50 to 60 students per month. Carlsbad currently trains on the CJ3 and the Conquest but plans are underway to add CJ4 training there soon, Smith said. “It's a very exciting time for the Carlsbad facility as well.”
“We spent a lot of time setting up these facilities to take advantage of our next-generation courseware and more interactive and realistic form of instruction,” Smith said. “On one display screen in the classroom our instructors can have cockpit layouts and on the other they can have our interactive courseware that show system schematics and things that are more rich learning experiences for the clients. The instructors make use of all the various monitors and screens. We staff an entire team of software developers and coders who can make this entire process very animated.”
The display screens provide visual representations of how various aircraft states and configurations would actually appear to the pilot in the classroom with depictions for details including how the electrical system would look if it were running off an external power cart. The interactive depictions in the ground school course are identical to what the student sees in the online distance learning course. When they come on site, those who complete the distance learning do an FAA validation test and can therefore go right into the FTDs and full motion simulators. “Frankly most people don't enjoy ground school as much as they do logging time in the devices,” Smith said. “And the realism of our simulators is amazing.”
However, TRU weights its training to provide clients with more time in FTDs. “We believe that the vast majority of our clients struggle more with avionics and the procedural part of operating the aircraft,” Smith said. “One of the most important parts of that is just spending time doing reps, doing approaches, doing planning and takeoffs, with the avionics operational. The FTDs give them tactile feedback that will stick with them forever. So clients coming in can spend time in the FTD and really learn how to operate the FMS, or the pages on the MFD. Now this is not a certified FTD, we use it for a lot of our avionics work. Going forward, we will have a one-to-one ratio: an hour in this device and a full flight in the simulator for every program that we offer.” He expects the center and its devices to run six to seven days per week, approximately 20 hours per day. “For every hour of device time there will be about two hours of ground time.”
Smith said the combination of distance learning and using more FTDs not only provides a more effective way to train, it also has the potential to provide a cost advantage.
“In the CJ space we can beat anyone–by that I mean our peer-level providers who provide high-level, quality training–out there on price,” he said. “We spend a lot of money on high-end electromechanical actuators and modeling, and very-high-end visual systems including laser projectors. There are a lot of CJ owners and operators out there who can afford quality training like this. Our instructors have a lot of experience. My director of standards flew Airbuses. We have a lot of team members who flew high-end charter, who have deep experience with their aircraft.”
TRU coordinates in-airplane check rides with local providers in the central Florida area or near the client’s home base when it is required, such as in the case of European clients.
Smith said that TRU is picking its training and simulator platforms carefully. “In most cases [the market] is too small a volume or there already are too many simulators and providers out there to meet the training needs. If there are four players and they each have two devices it can get very aggressive out there on pricing. Conversely, if you look at something new like the HondaJet, there just isn't enough of the product out there, so you just have to wait a while before you jump into those markets.”
TRU is carving out certain niches, such as developing programs that help piston pilots transition into turbines and building ATC communications into the FTDs to help students familiarize themselves with the increased velocity of radio traffic. The company also delivers a pinch-hitter program for pilots’ spouses, something that ProFlight Carlsbad also originated. TRU's natural synergy is to work with Textron Aviation to develop courses and hardware in support of training for its products and to that end is already involved in Cessna’s new single-engine turboprop program, the Denali. “Products like that are right in our wheelhouse, the challenge is how to make them work economically for us and our clients while giving them a top-notch training experience,” Smith said.
TRU builds all its own bizav simulators and FTDs in Lutz with a local team of engineers and with the help of major subcontractors. The combined engineering, manufacturing and training facility currently employs 150. The major physical assemblies are constructed by TRU North in Montreal, which specializes in the company’s airliner simulators. The Latitude simulator is currently under construction and will weigh 30,000 pounds when completed.
The build on the first new simulator typically takes about 18 months, Smith said. “There's a lot of tuning and tweaking.” TRU builds all its simulators with at least 1080P high-definition visual resolution and is looking at Ultra HD 4K for new products in the pipeline. “You have to make sure the higher resolution does not create any additional latency,” Smith said. “In most cases the technology is there for our needs and we are excited about getting it into more of out products.”
Smith said TRU’s control loaders have larger force ranges and displacement values to enable the modeling of higher forces farther out on stick throws which makes the control feel much more realistic and more like the real aircraft, compared to competitive products. The electrically-actuated stroke legs on the simulators are also longer to create a more realistic “seat feel” for pilots, even though this means TRU has to build its simulator bays taller to accommodate them. “We go that extra step for the realism it adds,” he said.
Going forward, Smith said TRU is looking at options for offering training on fixed-wing platforms at Textron centers in Valencia, Spain, and Singapore. TRU recently shipped a Bell 429 Level D simulator to the Bell Training Academy facility in Valencia, and this should receive EASA approval by January. There is room to add another simulator in the existing building.