At High Flight Academy, our goals are to develop a pilot’s skills properly, enable them to earn their certificates quickly, and foremost help our clients obtain an aviation career successfully. High Flight’s new flight simulator program, which launched this past August 12, 2024, is another tool that helps us achieve these goals for our pilots.
Flight simulators have several advantages over real aircraft. They provide access to a virtual world where emergency scenarios can be practiced repeatedly (even paused), in a safe environment: inadvertent VFR flight (Visual Flight Rules) into IMC (Instrument Meteorological Conditions), loss of control in-flight, and powerplant/system failures – all leading causes of general aviation (GA) accidents and fatalities. After GA, when pilots transition to a commercial carrier, all type rating training and even ATP check rides are accomplished in simulators. Flight Training Devices (FTD) and Full Flight Simulators (FFS) are resources used in Part 121 (airline) and Part 135 (charter) operations. At some point in our piloting careers, we will experience a simulator – a hard reality.
The High Flight Redbird simulator is a FAA approved AATD (Advanced Aviation Training Device). Training time in the Redbird is loggable towards all Part 61 and Part 141 private, instrument, commercial, and even ATP aeronautical experience. Considering this federal endorsement (and western Pennsylvania weather) the dedicated use of sim time towards your next certificate or rating creates opportunity.
Training time in the flight simulator at High Flight is designed to replace lessons in the airplane which delivers a cost savings to the student. Moving forward, our flight instructors will help tailor training with use of deliberate simulator experiences beginning in students’ next stage of training or program enrollment. If you have questions about this new simulator program, please reach out to your instructor.