Company Hopes To Have Four Full-Motion Sims In Place By End Of
'08
Eclipse Aviation held a grand opening ceremony Thursday morning
for its Customer Training Center, the company's first facility at
Double Eagle II Airport (KAEG) in Albuquerque, NM.
Eclipse tells ANN it has committed to an extensive pilot
training curriculum that will prepare customers for real world
operations of their Eclipse 500s and says the new facility will
help the company to deliver its training program.
Eclipse 500 customers will receive all of their classroom and
simulator training in this building including the type rating
course and recurrent training. The 41,500 square foot two-story
facility will accommodate four simulators, four classrooms and
eight briefing rooms.
The first Flight Training Device (FTD) has already been
installed in the Center, and Eclipse says it will be used to train
Eclipse 500 pilots shortly. An additional full motion simulator is
expected to be certified and operational in the coming months, with
the goal of four full motion simulators operational by the end of
2008.
Once the full complement of full motion sims is operational,
Eclipse 500 pilot training will transition from the current
in-aircraft training to full motion simulator training.
"Since arriving in Albuquerque seven years ago, we have always
planned to grow at the Double Eagle II airport. This Customer
Training Center is the first step in our commitment to create an
Eclipse Aviation campus and help grow the city’s planned
Aerospace Technology Park at this airport," said Vern Raburn,
president and CEO of Eclipse Aviation. "This new facility also
shows our dedication to providing our customers with the ultimate
training experience. We have an excellent flight training program,
and we are extremely excited to start training our customers using
the flight training device and the full motion simulators in this
new state-of-the-art facility."
The Center is located on 3.5 acres of Eclipse Aviation’s
150-acre tract, which borders the northern boundary of
Albuquerque’s Aerospace Technology Park at Double Eagle II
airport. In the coming weeks, training personnel will start moving
their offices to the facility. The company plans to employ
approximately 100 people at the Center when it is in full
operation.
Local politicians present at Thursday's groundbreaking ceremony
included Congresswoman Heather Wilson, and Bruce Perlman, City of
Albuquerque Chief Administrative Officer.