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FlyThisSim Plans to Unveil TouchTrainers with Expanded Field of Vision, Enhanced Luminance and Industry’s Most Accurate Visual Displays

Scientifically based software also include broadest and most capable avionics simulations.

San Jose, CA-July, 2015--At FlyThisSim, “seeing is believing” isn’t just a familiar phrase; it’s the basis for the latest addition to a line of

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software-based Touch Trainers which will literally revolutionize personal flight instruction simulation. FlyThisSim is headed to the annual Experimental Aircraft Association’s (EAA’s) AirVenture 2015 in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, July 20-26, 2015 with exciting new Visual Motion simulators featuring monitors that provide broader horizontal and vertical fields of vision and “simply the most realistic depiction of landing an aircraft available for this type of instruction.”

That’s the opinion of experienced flight trainers who have had the opportunity to experience the newest addition to FlyThisSim’s product line. They include veteran CFIs like Ross Russo, with an extensive background in both military and commercial FAR Part 121 Level D trainers and Aircraft Training Devices. He offered enthusiastic endorsements of FlyThisSim’s versatile, software-based aircraft TouchTrainers which “are phenomenally good at accurately reproducing the avionics packages and capabilities offered in the aircraft our students fly. These days, flight instruction is stick, rudder, and avionics; if you’re not teaching them how to understand and utilize the avionics they have on-board, you’re short-changing your students,” Russo says.

“I’ve had other, more expensive simulators that haven’t been as effective in this regard,” he added. “We instruct in a variety of airplanes with various levels of Garmin equipment, for example. With the FlyThisSim Touch Trainers, I can teach everything that the avionics can do and that really enhances the training experience. It’s especially helpful to be able to replay approaches--and watch them from an external perspective. We also know that our students can benefit a great deal from being able to do ground reference maneuvers and fly patterns at virtually any airport. We’re looking forward to what FlyThisSim is bringing to EAA this year because we already know that their visual displays are really crisp and extremely well-done. We’ve seen our training business grow simply because these simulators are making it possible to do so much training so effectively and so economically.”

Doug Robertson at DBL Aviation in Norfolk, Virginia says that FlyThisSim Touch Trainers have allowed him to offer both first time flyers and recurrent training students experiences that make them enthusiastic and wanting to come back for more. “There are factors that can discourage even seasoned pilots when it comes to training; they don’t want to waste their time or their money,” Robertson pointed out. “The FlyThisSim Touch Trainers are so accurate, realistic and user-friendly that we’ve even been able to use one as a ground-trainer--we were able to help a new student learn how to taxi at his local airport before he ever got into the airplane--and another as an extremely effective means of offering IFR currency. We put together a corporate pilot training package that includes some night IFR. We call it ‘going into the Bag’ because we completely surround the entire device--60” screens and everything--with black draping that obscures all other visual cues. The only thing besides the device and the student under the drape is a camera. It’s an incredible tool and it allows us to run scenarios we wouldn’t be able to or want to create under the hood in an actual aircraft.

“As a relatively new flight school, we’re not trying to re-invent the wheel, but we’re trying to offer students economical and realistic programs to meet their goals, whether they’re learning to fly, stepping up to the next level or trying to stay current. I’ve been able to use the Touch Trainers to demonstrate to teenagers and their parents that learning to fly is a great way to stimulate both sides of their brains, to enhance their cognitive and motor skills, develop their decision-making abilities and judgment and gain valuable experience that will serve them well for the rest of their lives. Parents buy kids expensive musical instruments and spend a lot of money on lessons or invest in a lot of athletic equipment during their adolescent years. A TouchTrainer could be an extremely reasonable and worthwhile alternative,” he noted.

Carter Patterson might be inclined to agree. The Georgia native decided he wanted to learn to fly so he joined the Ascension Club at Peachtree-DeKalb Airport north of downtown Atlanta, one of 30 pilots sharing seven airplanes. He signed up with Flight Instructor Trip Taylor and managed to get his Private Pilot’s license and began working on his Instrument rating. The problem was, Carter lives even further north in Forsyth County, and it can often take an hour or longer to get to the airport from his home. Co-ordinating schedules with his instructor also posed a problem. When Taylor suggested he consider a FlyThisSim TouchTrainer, Carter found information on what he needed on the Cirrus Owners & Pilots Association website. A couple of phone calls and an online order later, he had what he was looking for delivered directly to his home. “I was impressed with it from the outset,” he said. “It arrived in a timely fashion and it very closely simulates the aircraft. I was preparing for my Instrument checkride and I faced the dilemma of needing to fly in IMC conditions but not being able to find them. I probably put 20 hours of IFR time on it as soon as I got it. I passed my checkride and I’m planning a trip to New York soon. I’ve already done a ‘practice’ trip up to the Hudson River on the TouchTrainer and, as a new instrument pilot, I’m using it to practice holding, intersecting a course, and staying current. I see that as a great benefit.”

The Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA’s) approval of FTS’s TouchTrainer represents a first for Basic Aviation Training Devices (BATDs) allows them to make extensive use of computer graphics and touch screens to replace controls normally required to be provided as physical devices. This enables TouchTrainers to be more aircraft specific, versatile and cost less than other BATDs while providing all the privileges of FAA approval to TouchTrainer owners and operators. FTS’s products include:

  • The TouchTrainer SD, priced at $4,900. It can be used to maintain instrument currency and to stay sharp on aircraft normal and emergency procedures. A complete FAA approved turnkey package, it includes a wireless connection to iPad aviation applications such as ForeFlight;
  • The TouchTrainer VX priced at $7,400. This package extends the use of the TouchTrainer into VFR training and mission rehearsal. The visual system is fast and smooth to match specific aircraft dynamics, electrical system and autopilot simulations; and
  • The TouchTrainer VisualMotion, priced at $11,400. The ultimate visual system, this version shows what flying by attitude is all about. The large display area stimulates central and peripheral vision and provides a full range of motion cues. Its 1:1 correlation with aircraft pitch and roll angles enable accurate flight control making the TouchTrainer a superior learning environment for all pilots.

Founded in 2007, FlyThisSim markets fixed and rotary wing simulators to Pilots, Flight Schools, Aviation Colleges and Independent Instructors motivated to stay sharp on their aircraft using high quality simulations of the specific aircraft. For more information contact [email protected] or call (844) 746-2846 ext. 1.

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