Thread: Airnorth Embraer crush, 2 death

Originally Posted by Chucaro

More about the crush HERE

I was under the impression that by now flight simulators was a comon device in all the airports or where pilot training take place

The thing is, as a pilot I know pointed out, that simulators cost money and the Australian Public all seem to think they should be able to fly for free!

Originally Posted by VladTepes

The thing is, as a pilot I know pointed out, that simulators cost money and the Australian Public all seem to think they should be able to fly for free!

The basic problem is that to be sufficiently close to the real thing to be useful, the simulator cost is fairly independent of the type of plane involved. It only becomes economic to replace an aircraft being used for training with a simulator when the cost of running the simulator (mostly capital cost) is less than the cost of running the plane. As the cost of the simulator per pilot to be "refreshed" or trained decreases with the number of pilots, up to the capacity of the time available on the simulator, and the cost of running a plane for training is pretty much dependent on the size of plane, it is clear that below a certain size of plane, and below a certain number of the same type, it is not going to happen. It would seem that the airline in question is just about at that breakpoint!

The argument that the simulator is "safer" is hardly relevant - none of the prescribed exercises are considered too risky - and they are not, but this particular exercise can, as demonstrated have catastrophic results if bungled, as appears to have happened (might still turn out to be something else!). And the statistics bear the safety of it out - you rarely read in the papers of this sort of accident, and this particular exercise is routinely carried out every day, all over Australia by any commercial organisation running small(ish) twin engined planes - and there are a lot of them.

In other parts of the world, such as the USA where there is much more aviation, it might be possible to have an independent business running simulators, but this is clearly not feasible in a low population country as geographically dispersed and with so many different aircraft types in use as Australia.

John

It is the flight simulator dedicated to a few type of planes or with software and some hardware can be used for any plane?
I think that in Mascot is one but for the big Boeing.

Simulators are good but nothing beats the real thing. Pilots need to able to practice engine failure and do so everywhere. This includes practising engine failure on take-off and on missed approach. They even practice it with the big stuff. - sit on the side of a the Geelong Freeway and you'll see lots of different aircraft from Be76 to B747 doing asymmetric training at Avalon airport.

Anyway, as mentioned earlier, it is all speculation until we know the facts.

ATSB - report

Keep your eye on the above site for the preliminary report which should appear in a week (month?) or so.

Originally Posted by Chucaro

It is the flight simulator dedicated to a few type of planes or with software and some hardware can be used for any plane?
I think that in Mascot is one but for the big Boeing.

There are simulators and simulators.

The big end of town are the one you mentioned and the small end of town are set up like an aircraft cockpit but are more like a seat in front of a computer screen. These can be for single engine aircraft too.

Yes, tanks, after I placed the post I have done some research and found THIS in Melbourne.

Nice gear

Originally Posted by Chucaro

Yes, tanks, after I placed the post I have done some research and found THIS in Melbourne.

Nice gear

Nice to see the Ansett name living on.