Story ID: 
SimCom: Flight Departments ‘Rightsizing’ Aircraft
By: Chad Trautvetter
Caption: Flight departments are rightsizing their aircraft equipment.
Word Count: 175
Over the past year, SimCom staff at the company's four pilot training locations have seen a clear “rightsizing” trend among its customers. “Rightsizing is the process of more closely matching the capabilities and size of the airplane to the missions being flown,” company CEO Wally David said. “Before the economic realities in today’s marketplace, it was not uncommon for a large jet to be used for a 300-mile trip. Pilots now tell us a smaller jet, a turboprop or in some cases a piston twin is being used for those trips instead.” A refocus on matching the aircraft to the mission has led to a resurgence in the use of turboprops, he noted. “Operators say their twin- and single-engine turboprops are just hard to beat on trips up to 750 miles or so. As a result, we are seeing training activity in our turboprop simulators on the increase. We think the future of this category will remain strong and so we are increasing the number of turboprop simulators and training courses we offer.”