Organizational Structure for Sim Maintenance

[SimTech1]

I'm interested to hear what kind of organizational structure is in place at the larger sim sites, say more than 10 full flight simulators plus various other training devices and emergency procedures equipment at one site.

Are the sim techs broken into teams for the various traing devices, and if so, how is it broken up? Do you have visual specialists, motion specialists, etc, or, is it split into training devices that each sim tech is responsible for. For example, Thales specialists, CAE specialists, etc.

[andy]

Where I work there's about 20 full flight sims, plus a few fixed base, CPTs and PTTs. The company has tried just about every option throughout the years. Currently, we are running 2 teams which are split up by aircraft types (analog versus digital cockpits), They also tried not having a separate visual and component repair, but that was a miserable failure. The 2 team concept is really not a good one either... there's just too many types of manufacturers to become completely comfortable on, unless you have a few years for your workers to learn the quirks.

We worked best on a 3-4 team concept, with separate visual, mainframe and component repair groups. That's when the pilots were the happiest training here. But only because there are so many sims, and most of them are unique here.

[SimTech1]

Thanks Andy, I agree with your comments!

Any other input from larger sim sites appreciated (more than 10 sims on site).

Also, what is the average number of sim techs per device on these larger sites? (i.e. number of sim techs divided by number of sims supported / maintained).

Regards, simtech1

[Luke]

In large shops you may be able to get away with 3-4 person teams. In smaller shops you need to immerse yourself into the sim world and gain as much knowledge as you can on all the systems. Everyone usually finds there 'niche' , but you still must not be afraid to tackle a problem , unless, of course, you don't feel comfortable doing it or it is totally out of your realm. In any shop teamwork is a must and the key to a successful , happy shop, but you can't please everyone.

[Egyptian]

The last big shop I worked in was the F111D shop at Cannon AFB. Left there in 1980. When I left, there were 45 people assigned to keep up 2 sims. Now, we are lucky if we have 2 guys to cover a single sim. We did have a lot of specialization in the shop. You needed it with Radar Land Mass, GP4s, DTGs, and that old Link linkage system.

Ah, the good ole dayswink:


Egyptian

[simtech_gr]

i believe that it's all a matter of the types of the sims you want to support. most modernized sims can be very easily maintained and user(tech)-friendly.

i used to work on an abroad shop that supported the T-6A simulator,of FlightSafety. during the training by fsi i saw many different specialists, who are of course necessary in the development-making of the simulators.

taken as a granted that most of the uptodate equipment use many COTS, i think that for a two shift schedule, 4 persons are more than enough.

hope I helped