Tamworth flight training soars with million-dollar airliner flight simulator

Tamworth's flight training capabilities have received a million-dollar investment that has turned Tamworth Airport into one of the few places that offer classroom-to-cockpit airline pilot training.

"Today [Monday] marks an important milestone for Sydney Flight College (SFC) and for our academy here in Tamworth: the introduction of the Alsim AL400 series simulator represents the final piece of delivering a complete airline pilot training pathway," SFC chief executive Joseph Pilo said.

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"Importantly, this investment also reinforces our commitment to regional NSW and Tamworth as a growing centre for aviation training in the country."

SFC president Steven Kastanias said the simulator was an important investment as a "step up" for the college.

"The rationale is that the costs of flight training are getting higher and higher, and leading organisations are using immersive technologies like this to test and refine certain scenarios in a safe, yet realistic, environment," Mr Kastanias said.

The simulator, one of only two in Australia and the only one outside a capital city, can simulate the full flight deck conditions of two of the world's most common airliners, the Boeing 737 MAX and the Airbus A320.

The only other training facility with this kind of simulator is in Adelaide.

Mr Kastanias said that getting a simulator that handles the most common airliners in use in Australia was "timely", with the A320 forming the backbone of Virgin Australia's domestic fleet, and Qantas mainly operating the 737 but transitioning to the A320 as well.

While technologically advanced and able to simulate flight for those in the pilot seat, the true value of the simulator is in "multi-crew cooperation (MCC) training", where students take on the various roles on a real airliner flight deck and learn to work together as a team.

"It's more about the human factor side of it," Mr Pilo said, with more airlines looking more for graduate pilots to already have MCC skills when they join the airline.

SFC has been working closely with Tamworth Regional Council to accommodate its college and the simulator here, with mayor Russell Webb seeing it as a feather in the city's cap.

"I think it's fantastic," mayor Russell Webb said.

"Tamworth, we call it the capital of country, and it is certainly the capital of flying training in NSW, and probably the rest of the nation as well."

Tamworth MP Kevin Anderson was similarly effusive.

"I want to be sure every time I get on a plane that the pilot knows what they're doing," he said.

"This is going to produce the very best pilots in Australia and the world, and thank you SFC for your confidence in Tamworth."

The first cohort of students to graduate from the simulator are already at the college, with students Greg Harris and Kristan Ashley being two of them.

"I started my flight training here in May last year, and I'm due to complete training in May this year," Mr Harris said.

"I should be flying in this flight sim in the next month or so."

Ms Ashley said that the simulator was impressive.

"This simulator is very different to anything that I've learned, so it's a whole different world.

"It'll be really exciting to get to learn to work with other pilots, again, multi-crew cooperation and a lot of emergency training as well."