New Multi-Crew Pilot License (MPL) training standards recently adopted by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) are causing an explosion in flight simulator sales as training organizations and airlines rush to implement the simulator-heavy training regimen. Under the new standards, a student can become a fully qualified first officer with as little as 40 hours of actual stick time and 200 hours in the sim (although real-world beta testing suggests 70 to 100 hours flight time and 330 in front of the screen is more realistic). The new standards cut training costs by as much as half and speed up the process but it won't sacrifice training standards, according to Jeff Roberts, of CAE Inc., one of the world's largest simulator makers. "With the capability and fidelity that exists in simulation today, it's pretty hard to argue that we cannot create a synthetic environment that is as realistic as any physical environment that you can encounter," Roberts told The Canadian Press.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://www.avweb.com/news/simulator-sales-boom