First batch of SQ pilots heads to Toulouse for A380 training

[Denny Yen 0]

By Asha Popatlal, Channel NewsAsia | Posted: 04 July 2007 2044 hrs

 

SINGAPORE : The first batch of seven Singapore Airlines pilots heads to the French city of Toulouse this weekend.

 

They will be there to start training to fly the world's largest commercial plane - the A380.

 

The group is also the world's first commercial pilots to fly the superjumbo.

 

Captain Gerard Peacock has been an SIA captain for the last 25 years.

 

He'll be among the first batch to go to Toulouse for a training stint.

 

He and the other chosen pilots who started their training last month will first have to learn the advanced computer systems in Singapore.

 

They will have practice procedures on the Flight Training Device, an Airbus innovation which SIA is using for the first time.

 

After that, it's off to Toulouse for training on the simulator.

 

An important part of an A380 pilot's training will be at least 40 hours in a flight simulator.

 

The simulator training is important because the A380 is a new plane and the simulator will take them through abnormal situations and how to deal with them.

 

Pilots will then do about 12 hours of test flights where they get behind the controls.

 

Despite all the advances, there are still a lot a pilot will have to get used to, and it will take at least a month of training to get him or her A380-ready.

 

Said Captain Gerard Rene Peacock, an A380 Project Pilot with Singapore Airlines: "In the past, we had to refer to manuals on board the plane for our computations and despatch requirements. Now, it's using a computer instead of flipping through pages of manuals. So, pilots will have to get used to that.

 

"It's a little different from the plane I fly now. I am rated on a 747. I realised very quickly I need to be a lot gentler on the controls."

 

But Toulouse will not be new for Captain Peacock.

 

"I was one of two project pilots attached to Toulouse, with Airbus. I basically constituted the airline input into the training syllabus so I spent about 12 months there. My colleague spent the other 12 months there and we alternated every month. We sat down with Airbus instructors and Airbus design engineers, and looked into airline requirements for training syllabus," said Captain Peacock.

 

More batches of pilots will go to Toulouse every fortnight.

 

By September, a total of 40 pilots will be trained.

[LeeCH 0]

?? Simulator training in Toulouse?? The simulator is already up and running in Singapore Training Center.

[Sandeep G 1]

?? Simulator training in Toulouse?? The simulator is already up and running in Singapore Training Center.

 

LeeCH, perhaps you can confirm. Heard that the first few (5?) batches have to be trained in Toulouse, thereafter they will return to Singapore where they will have to fly a couple of hundred hours on the A/C with no pax. In Toulouse they will be flying around Europe and unfortunately, from what I've heard from a Captain who is in Batch 2, the flights from Singapore after delivery of bird number 1 will be "squeezing" circuits in Changi, flying to a point out in the South China Sea, coming back, landing changing crew and off again.... unfortunately KLIA won't be receiving the SIA A380... I cannot deny nor confirm this, but you know how it is....

Edited July 6, 2007 by Sandeep G

[LeeCH 0]

I am just curious as the rest here with regards to training in Toulouse. Makes me wonder why the need to set up the simulator in a hurry since they pioneer batches are off to Toulouse for training. As for circuits, your news is news to me.