News
New Mechtronix A320 sim for Kitakyushu training centre
Sept. 21, 2011, Bangkok, Thailand - Mechtronix Systems Inc. is to equip a new training centre at Kitakyushu Airport, south of Japan, with an Airbus 320 Full Flight Simulator to support the increased training requirements of Starflyer, one of the region’s fastest growing “reasonable price high-quality” airlines. Starflyer currently operates a fleet of six A320 aircraft on daily flights to Tokyo.
September 21, 2011 By Carey Fredericks
The contract, which also includes maintenance and support services for the next five years, sees Starflyer becoming the first in the region to adopt Mechtronix train@home business model with its proven ability to dramatically cut the costs associated with sending pilots away to train while at the same time improving availability and quality of their training operations. Any spare hours on the simulator will also be sold to other A320 operators in the region, thus maximizing the efficiency of the equipment installed.
The new simulator, the first Mechtronix full flight simulator to be installed in Japan, was chosen both for its reliability and proven performance, but also because of the credibility of the manufacturer according to Shinichi Yonehara, President and CEO of Starflyer: “We demand the very best in quality and reliability of the technology,” he says, “but also greater flexibility in our operations. We looked at the other established players in the market but selecting Mechtronix as the right partner became quickly obvious”.
“By having a Mechtronix simulator at our own training centre we will be able to train our pilots at home, in their local environment, with all of the commensurate savings in costs and time that this brings. We will no longer have to send our pilots away, and will have the capacity to cope with further training demands, both initial and recurrent, as our airline grows.”
Mark Dransfield, Senior Director Strategy and Business Development for Mechtronix, says that finding the right cultural fit was critical: “We worked closely with our local agent, JALUX, in ensuring we fully understood the needs and expectations of Starflyer and this partnership proved essential,” he says. “This order, the first of its kind in Japan, proves once again the success of the business model for regional airlines with the desire to grow.”
The Mechtronix FFS X™, which will be ready for training by October 2012, replicates the Airbus 320 to be qualified Level D by the Japanese civil aviation authorities JCAB – the highest qualification level for full motion simulation. The simulator features a 60 inch electric motion base, an RSI image Generator and a 200° horizontal field of view visual display.
This recent success follows only a few weeks after Mechtronix announced the sale of a further Airbus FFS X™ (for the A330) at the Paris Airshow – one of six simulators sold by the firm since the start of 2011 with total contract values in excess of US$65 million.
