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IAF finalises plan to induct flight simulators

The first flight simulators for the Russian medium-range Antonov-32 transport aircraft have already been installed in Bangalore, Air Chief Marshal S Krishnaswamy told reporters in New Delhi on Thursday.

He said contracts for the acquisition of upgraded simulators for the Jaguar deep penetration strike aircraft and the upgraded MiG-21 BIS variant have also been finalised.

Contracts for the purchase of flight simulators for long-haul transport aircraft, Ilyushin-76 and Dorniers are in the final stages, he said.

Krishnaswamy said simulators for the IAF's most advanced fighter aircraft, the Sukhoi-30MK-I (Indian variant), acquired recently, were part of the original contract signed with the Russian manufacturers.

The air force chief was speaking at a function in which the director general of civil aviation formally granted approval to three major IAF training institutes --- the Air Force Academy, the Air Force station Yelahanka near Bangalore and the Air Force station Hakimpet near Hyderabad --- for basic training in civil aviation.

These approvals signify the increasing interoperability between the air force and civil aviation, after Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee issued directives to the IAF and the civil aviation department to move towards more operational synergy by amending procedures governing recognition and aviation certification.

Krishnaswamy said that as part of the efforts to follow the directives, Air Force headquarters had opened the IAF air and ground training institutions for DGCA inspection checks, which are mandatory under the International Civil Aviation Organisation. Approval for these institutions was granted only after these checks.

Terming the approvals "momentous" for the IAF, Krishnaswamy said the air force had also introduced the entire DGCA syllabus in all its institutions.

The air force chief's comments on the induction of flight simulators for IAF aircraft came after a senior DGCA official, Captain Kharkar, drew his attention to the ICAO's insistence that flight training certification can be awarded only if the training institutions possess advanced simulators.

Krishnaswamy said the IAF had faced a problem with Russian transport aircraft, since the Russian manufacturers had no simulators for them. "So we have designed such simulators and then awarded the contract for making them."

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