Article By Juan Mendez, ATP/CFII
Established in 1990, Precision Flight Controls, Inc. (PFC) is recognized as a global leader in providing the flight training community with affordable, high-fidelity flight training devices and components. Its flight training devices simulate dozens of general aviation and commercial aircraft, as well as today’s most popular technically advanced aircraft. Our simulators are approved by regulatory agencies around the world and are utilized in hundreds of aviation and educational facilities on just about every continent, including such prestigious organizations as the Navy, Air Force, Army, State Department, Department of Defense, FBI, FAA, the European Space Agency, and NASA.
Precision Flight Controls embraces and promotes the spirit of innovation as an integral component of design and production. Recently added is its Technically Advanced King Air, featuring a technically advanced digital flight deck based on its flagship Modular Flight Deck (MFD) platform. The King Air analog flight deck simulator has been manufactured at PFC for over 12 years, and its veritable simulator has been in use as a training device for King Aircrews and pilots with unparalleled success. PFC has hit it out of the park with the latest version of its King Air flight training device.
The highly advanced digital flight deck has resulted in a simulator with the capability to train King Air initial and recurrent pilots in a modern state of the art avionics system, which emulates G1000 functionality with seamless fidelity. Because of its popularity, it is rapidly being retrofitted into older King Airs and is the functional equivalent of newly manufactured King Airs today. The result for PFC customers is a simulator that enables the training of pilots in a complex avionics system before stepping into the aircraft. This training is both cost-effective and presents far less risk exposure compared with in-aircraft training. In addition to the digital avionics, the simulator has received a comprehensive modernization upgrade and new features, such as control loading, 3DOF and 6DOF motion, and upgraded fuel and electrical systems that represent the aircraft systems and facilitate teaching those systems at a level equivalent to type-specific training. PFC has raised the bar by substantially enhancing quality through tightly controlled manufacturing processes that have produced the look, form, and function of the actual King Air aircraft.
As a Flight Instructor, I have conducted training in PFC’s legacy King Air simulator for over 10 years with great success. I have watched with what can only be described as intense anticipation for the completion of the new King Air’s technically advanced flight deck. My impression upon flying the new simulator was that I was flying a modern level C or D simulator with a highly technically advanced interface. The amount of information available facilitates teaching at a level that approaches type training. The new digital King Air is currently certified as an Advanced Aviation Training Device (AATD) and will be submitted to the FAA for FTD certification later this year. For more information on the latest innovations from Precision Flight Controls, visit www.flypfc.com or Booth #N5631.
