Canada orders Bell 412/429 simulator

CAE has been contracted by Public Works and Government Services Canada to provide a CAE 3000 Series helicopter simulator for the Bell 429 and Bell 412EPI helicopters to the Canadian Coast Guard, it announced on 25 February.

The simulator will feature CAE's roll-on/roll-off cockpit design to accommodate cockpits for the Bell 429 and Bell 412EPI helicopters that the coast guard uses for maritime security and other fisheries activities.

CAE will deliver the Level D qualified simulator to Transport Canada's training centre in Ottawa in 2018. It will include the Medallion-6000 visual system that will enable the coast guard to conduct virtual training for tasks such as sling load and long line operations; and 12ft dome display with an extreme field-of-view display system.

CAE's full-flight helicopter simulator has a common six degree-of-freedom motion system, vibration platform, and visual solution. The cockpits of Bell 429 and Bell 412EPI helicopters can be used interchangeably in the full-flight simulator. When one cockpit is in the simulator, the other can be connected to a docking station and used as a fixed-base flight training device.

Mike Greenley, vice president and general manager, CAE Canada, said: ‘CAE will develop a highly innovative and advanced training system that will significantly enhance the coast guard's ability to train for a range of missions, and enable it to transfer a significant amount of required training to the simulator.

‘The comprehensive synthetic environment we will deliver with the Bell 412/429 simulator will push the boundaries of creating an immersive and realistic virtual world for coast guard helicopter training.’

Related Equipment in Defence Insight

Bell 429

Bell 412EPI