Sask. Polytech students learning on new flight simulator

With the airline industry facing a shortage of pilots, students at Saskatchewan Polytechnic are quickly learning the basics from the safety of the ground.

A new flight simulator machine is helping students gain valuable experience that will get them into industry faster and better trained.

In a small room at the Sask. Polytechnic flight school campus at the airport, students take a morning tour of the city.

Using a brand new AL-250 flight simulator system, they’ve been training on different situations and procedures on their way to a commercial pilot licence.

“The year is going fantastic,” said Reed Willison, program head with the pilot training program at Sask. Polytechnic.

“The simulator came to us in August of last year. I was here when it arrived. It came from France. We unloaded it, set it up and when the students came in September, we hit the ground running with a lot of simulator training and then eventually the students work their way into aircraft.”

Willison says it’s a long road to get to a commercial pilot’s licence. The sheer number of instruments and dials can be overwhelming. That’s why hours spent in the simulator are so valuable.

“I remember it well,” said Willison. “They would sit down in the seat and of course, the simulator’s full of buttons and gadgets and a lot of the students would sit down and say, ‘whoah, this is going to be a lot to learn.’ But we worked through it, and hours of work in the simulator, eventually they understand what each instrument does, and now they’re at the point where they have private pilot’s licences and they’re well into their commercial pilot training.”

For students, the shortage of pilots is a good thing for those looking for good jobs out of training.

“From what I’ve heard, when you come out and graduate you’ve got a good possibility of getting a little more high-end job than you might have ten years ago, which is always good,” said Finlay Hart, a first year pilot program student.

While Hart has his sights set on flying for one of the big airlines one day, he’s in no rush to get there.

“You have a long life, you have a long career in aviation and it’s a fun job as well, so I want to have as much fun with it as I can,” said Hart. “If I could do some float stuff, or maybe up north in the snow, I think that would be fun, but the dream as a kid was the airline pilot.”

Despite still feeling the nerves before a solo flight, Hart says it’s all worth it when you’re in the air.

“As soon as you get up there, all the nerves just go away,” Hart told CTV News. “It’s like that old tale, as soon as you step on the field, just take a breath and it’s gone. You’re just there to play.”

The commercial pilot program is looking at adding another state of the art simulator to help train more students, but for now the flight sim is working well for the current class.