The first Bell 429 full-flight simulator is to be installed in Valencia, Spain, through a joint effort between Bell Helicopter and TRU Simulation+Training (both Textron companies). It will be the first simulator in a newly created Bell Helicopter training center, itself housed at the Textron Aviation Service Center in Valencia. The simulator is scheduled to be operational in the first quarter of 2016.
The Bell 429 simulator will be certified to Level D and feature a 240-degree-horizontal by 80-degree-vertical field of view, and 41-megapixel total system resolution visual display. “We want to offer the best realism, and what’s discriminant is the visual system,” Eric Cardinali, Bell’s executive v-p for customer support and services, and James Takats, TRU’s CEO, told AIN. Another benefit of TRU’s Odyssey H design is its roll-on/roll-off capability, which allows the simulator to be reconfigurable for other helicopter cockpits.
Cardinali and Takats anticipate the simulator will log 1,500 to 2,000 operating hours annually by 2018. Europe is the first market for the light twin, accounting for almost one quarter of the 200 delivered as of mid-October.
Many European 429s are based farther east but Cardinali pointed out that Valencia provides a nearby destination for North African operators. “We are looking at two more regions to install Bell 429 simulators,” he added.
