Helicopter training unit

Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) on Thursday said the helicopter pilot training centre to which the company had earlier announced to set up in Bangalore in partnership with Canadian training solutions provider CAE, will be operational in mid-2010. HAL and CAE had earlier proposed an investment of about $52 million for this training academy to be known as Helicopter Academy to Train by Simulation of Flying (Hatsoff).

On the eve of the Rotary Wing Society of India’s Heli-Power conference, both the company said the training academy was on-schedule for the opening in mid-2010 of India’s first Level D helicopter simulator training facility.

CAE's full-mission helicopter simulator for HATSOFF is currently en route to India following the completion of manufacturing and in-plant acceptance at CAE’s facility in Montreal, Canada. The simulator is scheduled to arrive in Bangalore later this month to begin installation at the HATSOFF helicopter training centre. The first cockpit for the simulator represents the Bell 412 helicopter, and is scheduled to be ready-for-training this summer, they said.

Once operational, the training cost of pilots at this centre is expected to be in the range of $1,200 to $1,400 per hour. Globally, the training costs of helicopter pilots is about $2,000 per hour.