Air Transport

At every level of advanced pilot training, competition among training organisations is forcing the pace for simulator manufacturers.

Boeing-owned training organisation Alteon, which specialises in advanced pilot training, recently launched its first multi-crew pilot licence (MPL) courses aimed at providing young pilots to airlines who want oven-ready first officers.

Selected ab initio students gain their basic flying training in Diamond DA-40s with its partner company, the Airline Academy of Australia, co-located at Alteon's Brisbane site. Each student gets 84h as pilot flying in these four-seaters, but another 84h as pilot monitoring - effectively the normal pilot-not-flying role - and again as pilot observing.

The simulator training will begin in fixed-base devices representing the type the pilots will fly in service, so the training process seamlessly integrates with the type rating process, which migrates into a full flight simulator when that becomes essential to meet the type rating requirements.