Director of A350 flight operations and training support for Airbus, Christian Norden, says customer feedback from all the early A350 buyers has so far been unanimously enthusiastic, as has the reaction of the national aviation authorities. Meanwhile the EASA and the US Federal Aviation Administration have accepted the A350 as a variant of the A330 series, thus according it a common type rating.
Norden says Airbus has noticed major changes in what airlines look for when introducing a new aircraft into service. “The days of rewriting manuals are gone – even for the legacy carriers,” he says. “It’s a cost issue, but the complexity is too high now. And where manuals used to be written by development engineers, now they are written by Airbus flight operations engineers, with the customers.”
Norden says that all kinds of carriers are now more likely than ever to seek turnkey solutions to training needs, and they expect the original equipment manufacturers to be able to supply them.
The “learning by discovery” concept puts pilots into the A350 full flight simulator to experiment with the full range of aircraft manual handling characteristics far earlier in the type rating course than is traditionally the case. Airbus has also introduced new training tools that extend that philosophy.
One of them, a laptop-based programme called ACE (Airbus Cockpit Experience), replaces traditional computer-based learning. It introduces pilots to the flightdeck and its systems via a virtual display that allows them to scan 360° around the instrument and control panels, push buttons with mouse-clicks, and see the results.
Toulouse, France-based Airbus Training will see its revolutionary “learning by discovery” pilot and engineer type-rating training system put to the test for the first time next month as Airbus A350 launch customer Qatar Airways prepares to put its aircraft into service.
(David Learmount - FlightGlobal News)
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