Bird Aviation in Vereeniging is now the proud host of a custom-made Seneca III simulator, manufactured in-house at the Simuflight offices and delivered on Friday 18 January 2019.

Delivery of a simulator involves carefully disassembling and packing each part in bubble wrap, loading it onto a truck, making sure the weather is CAVOK and driving the machine to its destination slowly and carefully. On arrival, each part is offloaded, unwrapped and re-assembled and then key team members begin the finishing touches, such as installing oxygen masks, completing the interior design, final software and graphics tests and making sure that everything is in perfect working order.
For a simulator to be signed out by the SACAA, master QTG (qualification test guides) tests need to be completed, printed out and signed off. Every phase of flight is tested and fine-tuned for the highest level of accuracy, including the ‘feel’ of the controls and the response of pilot input to graphic output displays. Once completed, the SACAA spends up to five days checking and testing every aspect of the fixed base training device and then it is signed off and ready for training.
Regarding this particular simulator, the SACAA said that it is one of the very best that they have seen in the country, with the highest standard of graphic displays, capabilities and realistic training environments available. The owner of the simulator, Lawrence Ryan (Operations & Engineering Manager of CapeGate) is very pleased with the outcome of the simulator, which was a previously owned Seneca III simulator that became an upgraded masterpiece featured in a world-class training room in Vereeniging.

Derek Bird, the director of Bird Aviation, looks forward to seeing his students in training in this new simulator, where they can build some twin hours, practice for all normal and abnormal flight procedures, prepare for their test flights and type ratings, etc. The simulator offers day and night training scenery, which is perfect for multiple types of training preparation, including multi-crew training, VFR and IFR training, CRM, auto-pilot functionality and more.
This is Simuflight’s 39th simulator delivery to date, which is a great achievement and a milestone to remember. We look forward to many more orders and deliveries in the future, which could even include the possibility of creating drone training simulators and more!