CAE SIMULATORS • INDUSTRY PROFILE
‘Fly as you train, train as you f ly’
A customer-centric approach is key for CAE’s global expansion. We fly the right seat of the company’s new Phenom 300 simulator and talk to CAE’s president of Civil Business Aviation. Mike Stones reports
CAE’s Burgess Hill facility, UK: Home to Embraer Phenom 300 CAE7000 XR series simulators.
CAE SIMULATORS • INDUSTRY PROFILE
‘Fly as you train, train as you f ly’
A customer-centric approach is key for CAE’s global expansion. We fly the right seat of the company’s new Phenom 300 simulator and talk to CAE’s president of Civil Business Aviation. Mike Stones reports
CAE’s Burgess Hill facility, UK: Home to Embraer Phenom 300 CAE7000 XR series simulators.
“FEEL THE jolt as you release the brakes. That’s very realistic.” After a surge, we begin to roll down the simulated runway. Clutching one of the two control yokes, feet gingerly on the rudder pedals, I’m sitting in the co-pilot’s seat of the new Embraer Phenom 300 CAE7000 XR series business jet simulator. The full-flight sim is one of 18 similar installations, sited at CAE’s Burgess Hill facility, West Sussex, UK.
Talking me through the take-off from the captain’s left seat is my instructor Kevin LaRosa Jr, stunt pilot and aerial coordinator. He knows a thing or two about the aircraft – having filmed hundreds of hours of aerial sequences for the $1.493bn grossing Top Gun: Maverick in a specially adapted Phenom 300 camera ship. He also trains regularly on CAE simulators and loves to share his passion for aviation.
The simulator itself is a free standing, small-room-sized installation that fully pivots on three axes to mimic the movements of flight. It normally accommodates more promising candidates than me. Typical clients include: corporate business pilots, high-net-worth owners; converting to the Phenom 300 or those revalidating their type rating. Clients for other simulators include air ambulance and government aircrew.
Installed in February and welcoming its first trainee pilots in March, the full-flight simulator is the ninth Phenom 300 installation operated by Embraer and CAE as part of their joint venture Embraer-CAE Training Services.
For all clients, regardless of their size of organisation, CAE is determined to create the same training experience. Alexandre Prévost, division president, Business Aviation Training puts it like this: “Whether you have one aircraft or 100 aircraft, our aim is the same,” he tells us. “We want to make it as easy as possible for customers to do business with us at our locations around the world. We want to make sure that everything around training is as easy as possible. It should be seamless, so customers can focus on learning and make the most of their training experience with us.”
Examples include harnessing the latest innovation to deliver the best flight simulation possible, having one point of contact within the organisation and introducing a digital ecosystem. During the past two years, the company introduced an app designed exclusively for pilots and earlier this year a new portal for larger-scale operators to cater for all their CAE training needs.
“The clients who come to us are looking for world-class training,” says Prévost. “Expectations are very high. We make pilots as confident as possible, so they are truly ready for the moments that matter that could impact any one of their missions,”
Expansion is key to CAE’s customer-centric approach. “It’s really important to offer training in the right location where our customers want us to be with the right deployments in terms of simulators,” he says. “In business aviation, during the past five years we have virtually doubled our global footprint in terms of the number of locations. The organisation has opened new training centres in three locations – including its first North American West Coast training centre in Las Vegas, Nevada. Other new facilities are at Lake Nona, Florida in partnership with Simcom and a Savannah training centre for Gulfstream operators. A new facility is also under construction in Vienna, Austria, due to open next year.
The new sites complement a network of training centres spanning from Dubai and Singapore to Dallas and Montreal.
CAE already has the world’s largest civil aviation training network, with more than 340 full-flight simulators in over 70 training locations for business and commercial aviation. Each year the organisation trains hundreds of pilots and graduates across its global network of owned, third-party, and joint venture training centres.
Simulator sessions typically involve an instructor and student pilot in the front seats. Behind them sits the flight controller.
New under the sun: The company’s new CAE Savannah training centre, Georgia was inaugurated in June 2024. Located close to the Gulfstream Service Center East, the facility will feature four Gulfstream Full-Flight Simulators, advanced maintenance training devices and briefing rooms.
It offers a full range of training from ab initio training programmes – mainly for commercial aviation) to type training on a wide range of aircraft. In business aviation, the main form of training is type certification and recurrent training. It’s been a big ride for business aviation over the past five years, says Prévost. After a bleak outlook in March 2020, business rebounded quickly– despite the challenges of the supply chain. “CAE made a commitment many years ago to be a leader in the training industry and that has not wavered,” he says. “It’s one thing to build facilities around the world, but it’s also our focus to invest in our people and tools and to elevate the all-round experience for our customers around the world.”
But there are challenges. The supply chain has proved problematic for all aviation companies grappling with the post Covid surge in business in 2021 and 2022. It was also challenging in the past to attract and retain all the instructors CAE needs. “Right now, we are in a very good place from a retention standpoint,” Prévost tells us. “But you can never drop your eye from the ball because for us, as a service industry, it all comes down to people.”
Attracting and retaining high calibre staff is about far more than just attractive rates of pay. CAE’s strategy is to offer the best possible quality of life with stability in training programmes and a positive work culture. “For us, that means a culture of empowerment and accountability with everyone engaged around the common objectives of the group,” he says. “Listening to employees is as important as listening to customers. They need to know their voice matters in our roadmap of priorities and that helps them to feel valued and increases engagement.”
Continued simulator innovation remains a top objective. The quality of the visuals in CAE’s full flight simulators, for example, has improved significantly in the past 10 years, says Prévost. Speaking after my simulator session, he tells me: “The simulator you flew in at Burgess Hill did not have our latest generation visual technology. That’s a real game changer.”
Prévost is talking partly about CAE Prodigy Image Generator technology. Using Epic Games’ Unreal Engine, this delivers next-generation visual systems, incorporating high-fidelity graphics and physics-based simulation. The company describes it like this: “CAE Prodigy enhances the virtual training areas with higher resolution 3D content, more entities and lifeforms to realistically populate virtual environments, which will positively impact training efficiency and transfer of training to real flight scenarios.”
In control: The pilot sits at the controls but the controller manages the training – issuing instructions, clearances and the occasional in-flight emergency.
Movie star: A modified version of the Phenom 300 was flown by Kevin LaRosa to film the aerial sequences of the blockbuster Top Gun: Maverick.
Movie star: A modified version of the Phenom 300 was flown by Kevin LaRosa to film the aerial sequences of the blockbuster Top Gun: Maverick.
Kevin LaRosa: Top Gun: Maverick camera ship pilot and Phenom 300 enthusiast.
Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) systems are already making an impact. This is not just for pilots but also airframe and powerplant (A&P) technicians. Its CAE Master Technician Program is designed to enhance the theoretical and practical skills of maintenance technicians. (Courses within the programme include Master Technician certification, Maintenance Initial, avionics systems and practical aircraft wiring).
Obvious advantages include lower cost and greater convenience freeing students from the need to travel to the company’s training centres.
New VR and AR technology will also play a role in the training of eVTOL pilots, according to the company. CAE has already partnered with Joby, Volocopter, Vertical and others. It is developing a mixed reality simulator and designing training programmes for eVTOL pilots. Its level of engagement varies from helping the eVTOL developers build simulators to planning the construction of simulators and designing training programmes. CAE is also talking to aviation authorities about how the regulations will apply to support training for these types of aircraft.
“We must look at this new industry as a clean sheet opportunity for pilot training,” according to the company. “New training technologies and methodologies will shift the training paradigm towards cost-effectiveness and scalability while keeping safety paramount for the unique challenges of Advanced Air Mobility.” Prévost thinks “tremendous opportunities” will unfold for eVTOL simulator training over the next 10 years.
While that technology is to come, CAE is focusing on analysing the data it already records from its simulators to improve the service it offers clients. Its new system called CAE Rise aggregates pilots’ simulator performance during training, among other things, helping to spot industry trends and any recurring manoeuvre issues pertaining to certain individuals or aircraft. “We mine this training data so we can focus on the main safety trends to make the training as relevant as possible to get pilots as ready as possible for the moments that matter,” he says. The company also offers feedback to companies on the performance of their pilots during specific manoeuvres.
Alexandre Prévost Division President, Civil Business Aviation, CAE
‘A customer-centric culture’
UNTHINKING REPETITION is the enemy. “I’m always challenging the status quo,” Alexandre Prévost, division president, Business Aviation Training, CAE tells CJI. “You may have been doing the same thing for 20 years, but what worked 20 years ago might not work today.”
Finding a better way to do things and forging strong partnerships with clients, partners and staff is key to Prévost for what he calls “a customer-centric culture”.
A 16-year veteran at CAE, Prévost has a strong finance background. Both a certified professional accountant and a certified financial analyst, he holds a Bachelor of Finance and a Master of Finance from Université de Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada.
Joining the company as a financial analyst in the Structured Finance and Mergers and Acquisition department, gave him an overview of all the company’s divisions and industries from civil to defence and commercial aviation to helicopters.
Today, based at the company’s Montreal headquarters, he leads a team of more than 1,500 employees supporting clients worldwide. In this position, he is responsible for steering the division’s overall strategic direction, with a focus on “bolstering customer centricity and delivering world-class experiences”, according to his company profile.
He has moved around a bit too. Prévost spent seven years in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, culminating in the role of vice president, Commercial Aviation Training – Asia Pacific in March 2018. This role involved working with clients in a host of countries such as Japan, Korea, Hong Kong and India.
“Something I gained from that role is cultural familiarity,” he says. “Working with different people from different cultures is key because it enables you to understand both your customers’ and your team members’ needs and to turn this into action.”
Partnership is a key word for him. Whether it’s small or large-scale customers, Prévost always tries to approach business from a partnership angle. “We want to make this relationship successful from both sides in order to form long relationships with customers and partners.”
The other key stakeholders are team members, he tells us. “From an employee standpoint, there’s a huge focus on creating a culture of empowerment for team members. It’s the key to unlocking the full potential of the organisation.”
It’s not just flight simulator data from simulator sessions that is informing this ever-growing picture of business aviation pilot trends. Added into the mix is live flight operator data fed to CAE by its clients. Gathering telemetry data has become increasing important to the company – and its clients. “Our strategy, in response to customer demand, is to make our training more of a living tool to help them deal with what they encounter when they fly and the safety profile they face. Our moto is fly as you train and train as you fly.”
It’s technology that CAE hopes will help the company reach its simple business ambition. “We want to be the industry leader, pushing the boundary to improve training, change the way we do things and elevate safety for the whole industry.”
For example, few pilots will ever encounter an in-flight engine fire. But some will (as I find out later). While pilots can never train in real life for such a calamity, flight simulators offer the opportunity to practice the skills they need to turn such events into safely managed incidents rather than fatal accidents.
There’s every indication the company, and its competitors, are likely to face a deluge of demand over the next seven to eight years. Up to 1.3m new civil aviation professionals will be needed by 2032, according to the latest biannual CAE Aviation Talent Forecast published last year. It forecasts 106,000 new business aviation professionals will be needed over the next 8 years and 1.18m new commercial aviation professionals. That includes the need for 284,000 new pilots and 402,000 aircraft maintenance technicians.
Future flight: CAE has partnered with Vertical Aerospace (whose eVTOL is pictured 1), Joby (2) and Volocopter (3) to plan the future of flight simulators for advanced air mobility aircraft.
It’s not just flight simulator data from simulator sessions that is informing this ever-growing picture of business aviation pilot trends. Added into the mix is live flight operator data fed to CAE by its clients. Gathering telemetry data has become increasing important to the company – and its clients. “Our strategy, in response to customer demand, is to make our training more of a living tool to help them deal with what they encounter when they fly and the safety profile they face. Our moto is fly as you train and train as you fly.”
It’s technology that CAE hopes will help the company reach its simple business ambition. “We want to be the industry leader, pushing the boundary to improve training, change the way we do things and elevate safety for the whole industry.”
For example, few pilots will ever encounter an in-flight engine fire. But some will (as I find out later). While pilots can never train in real life for such a calamity, flight simulators offer the opportunity to practice the skills they need to turn such events into safely managed incidents rather than fatal accidents.
There’s every indication the company, and its competitors, are likely to face a deluge of demand over the next seven to eight years. Up to 1.3m new civil aviation professionals will be needed by 2032, according to the latest biannual CAE Aviation Talent Forecast published last year. It forecasts 106,000 new business aviation professionals will be needed over the next 8 years and 1.18m new commercial aviation professionals. That includes the need for 284,000 new pilots and 402,000 aircraft maintenance technicians.
Future flight: CAE has partnered with Vertical Aerospace (whose eVTOL is pictured) to plan the future of flight simulators for advanced air mobility aircraft.
Joby
Volocopter
“So, there’s a huge need for pilots and technicians to come into business aviation in the next 10 years,” says Prévost. That’s not just organic growth but also a lot of attrition as huge numbers retire or change their career path. More than one third (38%) of pilots are older than 50, according to FAA estimates. “For us, the next 10 years will be about continuing the growth and that expansion trajectory we have created. And, also capitalising on the big investments we have made in technology.”
Meanwhile, back in the Phenom 300 simulator, at CAE’s Burgess Hill site, I’m working hard. After LaRosa let me fly the take-off, I followed him on the controls as we navigated a valley and then a mountain ridge in the Phenom 300 simulator. Eventually, he turns the controls over to me. Light and responsive, I’m surprised how realistic the graphics are – but what’s LaRosa’s view?
Picture this: New virtual reality and augmented reality technology is opening new horizons for pilot training.
Picture this: New virtual reality and augmented reality technology is opening new horizons for pilot training.
Touch training … in virtual reality. New technology enables airframe and powerplant technicians to train remotely.
“The Phenom 300 simulator is an almost perfect match for the real aircraft,” LaRosa told CJI. “While the visuals are not perfect, they are amazing. The movement of the simulator is very accurate.” LaRosa is the only non-military pilot cleared for a 240-knot (276 mph) flyby 25ft above the deck of the Nimitz-class, nuclear-powered super carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt, as part of filming Top Gun: Maverick. (The Phenom 300 camera ship, fitted with two cameras, one below the nose and the second beneath the fuselage, is owned by LaRosa’s friend and business partner Jonathan Spano).
Sitting behind us, controlling our simulator session is Domenic Di Iorio – a 40-year-plus veteran of CAE and simulator instructor, examiner and global head of Training with more than 1,200 hours on type in his logbooks. He is one of the most experienced of more than 2,000 instructors working with the company.
Today, he is playing the role of Air Traffic Control – giving us instructions and clearances. In addition to his own currency training on the simulator, Di Iorio also acts as both an instructor and examiner on type. Towards the end of our ‘flight’ back to the ‘airfield’, Di Iorio slips seamlessly into the role of tormentor.
Without warning, he announces a fire in our port engine. LaRosa immediately takes command and starts the emergency engine drills. Right engine shut down and ignite fire extinguisher, single-engine operating speed and configuration together with emergency radio calls before touch down at our home airfield. It goes flawlessly.
But the simulator is so realistic, and I’m so invested in the simulated emergency, I can’t dispel a rising tide of queasiness. Pete ‘Maverick’ Mitchell would not be impressed.
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