KF Aerospace, through its subsidiary KF Aerospace Defence Programmes, has received a contract from Canada’s Department of National Defence to provide a new Bell 206 Flight Training Device (FTD) for the Contracted Flying Training and Support (CFTS) Programme.
The CFTS Program, situated in Southport, Manitoba, central Canada trains 100 percent of the candidates seeking to become Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) pilots, and has a majority role in training 80 percent of new pilots inducted into the RCAF every year, according to both KF Aerospace and the RCAF.
This new capability, which will begin service in April 2018, represents a capital investment of over $4.9 million and is part of a larger scope of work by KF Aerospace Defence Programmes to provide the RCAF with primary, basic, rotary and multi-engine pilot training at CFTS until 2027.
Built by Frasca International of Urbana, Illinois, the new Level-7 FTD will provide helicopter pilot trainees and instructors with the most up-to-date flight training simulator available. The Frasca FTD system will be the first configuration of its kind in Canada, and will be equipped with a 220-degree field-of-view visual system.
The FTD will also incorporate Frasca’s proprietary SimAssist software which provides varying levels of automatic instructor assistance during the earliest phases of helicopter flight training: “We are very pleased to provide cutting edge training systems for the CFTS Programme. Introducing devices like the new Bell 206 FTD is one example of how we’re continually honing our training system to provide exceptional service, efficiency, and throughput for our Canadian armed forces customer,” Peter Fedak, site manager for the CFTS programme told asianmilitaryreview.com, while Tracy Medve, president of KF Aerospace added: “In addition to enhancing our ability to train emergency and other procedures, the new simulator will yield cost benefits as it will eliminate the need to increase our flying fleet by four aircraft.”
