Much ado about aircraft simulator

The struggle
Nigeria is still struggling to have aircraft simulator centre more than six years after the Federal Government proposed to establish the centre in Lagos. More jobs in aviation would have been created had Federal Government walk the talk to set up a flight simulation centre for Boeing aircraft in Lagos. The centre was proposed for the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Ikeja, Lagos. It would help to train pilots who are to be rated on different types of Boeing aircraft.
A flight simulator is a device that artificially re-creates aircraft flight and the environment in which it flies, for pilot training, design, or other purposes. It includes replicating the equations that govern how aircraft fly, how they react to applications of flight controls, the effects of other aircraft systems, and how the aircraft reacts to external factors such as air density, turbulence, wind shear, cloud, precipitation, etc.,
Flight simulators are now extensively used in the aviation industry for design and development and the training of air crew for both civil and military aircraft. In the coming years there is forecasted to be stable demand scale for flight simulator worldwide, especially in emerging market such as China and India, which is expected to drive the industry development of flight simulator. It is forecasted that the global market of flight simulator will reach as high as $4099 Million by the end of 2022. Globally, the flight simulator industry market is quite concentrated as the manufacturing technology of flight simulator is super complex and is related to lots of hardware and software technology.
To complement the centre, the government was expected to acquire a full Jet-Flight Simulator (5000 Series B737) with complete accessories for the Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), Zaria.

Contract award
Former Minister of Aviation, Osita Chidoka noted that the contract was awarded to Messrs CAE of Canada at $21.459 million. He said the project is expected to be completed in 24 months.
He said: “The project will serve a dual purpose of a training facility for the college and a source of revenue generation for the country. In addition, it will be used for the initial training of students as it will enjoy the patronage of commercial airliners in Nigeria and West African countries in training of their jet-airliner pilots in compliance with the ICAO and NCAA regulations. The rule is that pilots must have refresher training every six months.”
Flight simulation has made a major contribution to improve aviation safety. It also offers considerable financial saving to airlines and reduces the environmental impact of civil aviation. This facility will be useful for most of the commercial airline pilots in Lagos. It will save huge foreign exchange spent by operators who used to send their pilots overseas for simulation training. This is one of the many projects being embarked upon by the government to change the face of aviation.
It would be recalled that government under the youth development programme for the Niger Delta trained 66 pilots. Some of the pilots underwent Advanced Commercial Pilot Training on instrumental flying and are already employed while others are at various stages of advanced training. Most of the engineers rated on engines and frames have equally been gainfully employed.

Location
In some countries including Ethiopia, flight simulators are located close to aircraft repair centres also referred to as Maintenance Repair Organisations (MRO). They are facilities the world over, where major repairs on aircraft are carried out by a galaxy of professionals.
In the industry aircraft maintenance hangars are potential creator of jobs for engineers, avionics specialists and other category of technicians who carry out major repairs on aircraft.
The world over, where aircraft maintenance hangars are established, thousands of jobs are created. This explains the attraction to the United States, Turkey, South Africa, Morocco, Kenya and Ethiopia. These countries have aircraft maintenance hangars.
In fact, aircraft maintenance hangar is a major foreign exchange earner for Ethiopia, where the Boeing maintenance hangar continues to generate thousands of jobs. It is against this background that the establishment of aircraft maintenance hangars in Nigeria, by airlines and other technical partners, becomes imperative.
In 2001, efforts were made by an American firm to establish a national aircraft hangar at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, but due to a myriad of issues, the project didn’t see the light of day.
For some years now, the clamour to establish aircraft maintenance hangar has been on the front burner among foreign airlines, domestic carriers and some industry players. For instance, there was a plan by the German carrier – Lufthansa – to set up an aircraft hangar in Abuja, which it expected would be a major hub for aircraft repairs in West, Central and other parts of Africa. The plan is still in the works and it is believed that it has the potential to create thousands of jobs.

MRO and job creation
Apart from creating job, such an aircraft maintenance hangar is expected to reduce significantly the huge cost of repairs by domestic carriers, which have to travel as far as Turkey, Germany, and the United States to fix their aircrafts. Such repairs could also be carried out in Royal Air Maroc facility in Morocco, South Africa or Ethiopia in the Horn of Africa.
A major domestic carrier – Arik Air, a few years ago spoke of plans to rebuild its aircraft maintenance hangar at its headquarters at the Murtala Muhammed Airport, Ikeja, Lagos. The expansion of this multi- billion Naira aircraft maintenance hangar is expected to create thousands of jobs for Nigerians as it is being packaged under partnership with major aircraft manufacturers including: Bombardier, the Canadian aircraft manufacturer, Boeing and Airbus.

Expert’s view
Speaking on the project, Rector, Nigeria College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), Zaria, Capt. Mohammed Abdulsalam stated that the initial plan for the Boeing 737 simulator aircraft was for it to be based in Lagos when the contract was awarded.
He further stated that when this administration came into power, they took the decision to relocate it to Zaria, adding, “As we speak, the simulator is being installed in Zaria. So, when that decision was made, we had to move because the contract didn’t include the housing of the simulator”.
His words, “The contract was for acquisition and installation of Boeing 737GN simulator. So, we looked at our existing facilities if they were adequate enough to house the simulator, but the simulator manufacturer after seeing the dimension, said the building was inadequate and when we looked at the cost of modifying and building another one to accommodate the simulator, so, we now had to make an arrangement to build a new complex that will house the simulator”.
“So, we have to now starts the process from the scratch; we have to get consultants, gets the plan approved by the manufacturer before we could go forward. We had to go to the Federal Executive Council (FEC) for the contract to be awarded. It was only last year that we got FEC approval for the building. We have awarded the contract and it is our belief that the building would be completed and the simulator would be installed this year”.

Last line
Most of the airlines in Nigeria pay heavily to get their crew under simulator training abroad, thereby leading to huge capital flight.

Wole Shadare