Page 15 - Volume 11 Number 1

Full motion simulators don’t look like much on the outside, but these are multi-million dollar machines on massive hydraulic actuators that make the experience unbelievably realistic. The moment you enter the simulator, you feel like you’ve stepped into the real aircraft.
us train at CAE and one of the charter companies had us train at FlightSafety International (FSI). The other charter company had us train in the aircraft. I can attest that the corporate flight department and charter company that
trained in the simulator had lower insurance rates from one of the best insurance companies. Additionally, the charter company with the simulator training was able to secure $100,000,000 of liability coverage and the corporate flight department maintained $300,000,000. The charter company that performed in­aircraft training was only able to secure $10,000,000 of liability coverage. In addition to not being able to get higher liability limits, their policy did not contain the broad ancillary coverages.
Why do insurance companies prefer full­motion, simulator­based training over in­aircraft training? There are a couple of reasons; statistics show that aircraft accidents typically happen during the takeoff, departure, approach to landing, and landing and/or go­around phase of flight. What do these all have in common? They are typically below 3,000 feet AGL and combine with a busy workload for the pilot. The margin for error is limiting. When you want to push and enhance your skills to see what you are capable of, the insurance company doesn’t want this exposure to happen in the aircraft on their nickel. Additionally, they feel you can do more, and learn more, in the full motion simulator environment. When I completed in­aircraft training, we did not take the aircraft to the extreme limits that we could safely do in a full­motion simulator.
Abraham Maslow, an American psychologist, created “Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.” He hypothesized that
JANUARY 2017
KING AIR MAGAZINE • 13