Flight Training - October 2011 - 16

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NEWS

Redbird, King Schools announce flight training research lab, school
Facility intended to study simulator integration
REDBIRD FLIGHT SIMULATIONS and King Schools have announced a state-of-the-art aviation research and development laboratory with a working flight school that will open November 8. The facility will study curricula, practices, recruitment of students, and all other aspects of flight training to gather measurable data about what’s working and what isn’t. Currently under construction in San Marcos, Texas, Redbird Skyport will include a Part 141 flight school and fixedbase operator that will train students for the private, instrument, commercial, and CFI certificates. The students who progress through the flight school, called ProFlight Academy, will serve as “lab rats” for the laboratory, according to Redbird Chairman Jerry Gregoire.

Everyone in the aviation industry wants to remedy the growing problem of student pilot retention, and everyone has their own theory about what’s driving it, Gregoire said. “You can’t [fix] what you can’t measure,” he said, adding that the students who progress through ProFlight will give the laboratory measurable data. Aviation companies and organizations will be asked to feed projects to the lab, and the results will be shared with everyone in the industry, Gregoire said. “As a step toward fixing the problems with flight training, it’s a drop in the bucket, but it’s a start,” he said. ProFlight Academy enrollees will undertake scenario-based training that utilizes Cessna’s online scenario-based training plus Redbird simulators.

“Can you imagine if, every time you scheduled a lesson, you did something—flew an airplane, a simulator, or did ground training?” said King Schools President John King. “If you incorporate a sim, you can have a predictable schedule, predictable costs for the customer, and predictable revenue for the flight school.” King also pointed to the scenario-based training that ProFlight will utilize, saying that it will enhance safety. Students will be trained to be risk managers for each and every flight, he said. AOPA President Craig Fuller praised the project as a whole, as well as the use of simulators in the program, saying, “I’m excited to see some of the breakthrough thinking represented by Redbird.” Student pilots who participated in AOPA’s Flight

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Flight Training - October 2011

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