07:00 GMT, June 2, 2009 Bangalore, India | CAE and HAL held a ceremony to lay the foundation stone for a new helicopter training centre in Bangalore on Monday. The facility— Helicopter Academy to Train by Simulation of Flying (HATSOFF)—is an equally-owned joint venture between HAL and CAE. The centre will be operational by mid-2010.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr Sanjeev Sahi, Director (HR), HAL, said that this facility would be first of its kind once operational. “HASTSOFF will offer Level-D simulator training to helicopter pilots and maintainers. By partnering with CAE, we are making sure the simulation technology is at the leading edge in order to play a key role in training and producing skilled and mission-ready helicopter crews. HAL is committed to enhancing the safety of helicopter operators in India and to provide a complete service offering for our military and civil clients of the Dhruv helicopter,” Mr Sahi said.

Mr Martin Gagné, Chairman of the HATSOFF Board of Directors and CAE’s Group President, Military Simulation Products, Training and Services, said HATSOFF will serve a critical need for enhancing safety and mission readiness. "We are proud to partner with HAL to create a training centre of excellence offering high-quality simulation-based helicopter training programs to pilots and technicians of India and the surrounding region. The centre is an illustration of our commitment to provide high-quality, customized training in locations most convenient to our customers,” Mr Martin added.


The centre will be equipped with a CAE-built full-mission simulator featuring CAE's revolutionary roll-on/roll-off cockpit design, which enables cockpits representing various helicopter types to be used in the simulator. When fully operational, HATSOFF will be able to train up to 400 helicopter pilots each year. Initially, HATSOFF will offer comprehensive training to civil and military customers operating four helicopter types: the Indian Army/Air Force variant of the HAL-built Dhruv, the civil variant of the Dhruv, the Bell 412 and the Eurocopter Dauphin.

The training centre will feature multimedia classrooms, computer-based training, brief/debrief facilities, and a training management information system. The CAE-built full-mission simulator for HATSOFF will feature a common motion system, vibration platform, and visual display system, and four separate cockpit modules that can be used in the full-mission simulator. When a cockpit is not used in the full-mission simulator, it will be used as a fixed-based flight training device (FTD). The simulator will be certified to Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and Indian DGCA Level D, the highest qualification for flight simulators.