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BANGALORE (PTI): The Helicopter Academy to Train by Simulation of Flying (HATSOFF) Wednesday announced that its simulator cockpit for the civil or conventional variant of Dhruv helicopter has arrived at its training centre here following design and manufacture in Montreal, Canada.

“This is the world's first simulator representing the indigenously developed HAL Dhruv helicopter and we are excited to begin offering simulation-based training that will undoubtedly prove to be a safe and cost-effective method for training Dhruv helicopter air crew,” Wing Commander (Retd) Chandta Datt Upadhyay, CEO of HATSOFF, said.

A joint venture of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) and CAE, a leading Canadian maker of flight simulators, HATSOFF began operating here in 2010.

The Dhruv simulator cockpit will be installed and integrated with the CAE-built full-mission simulator currently in operation at HATSOFF, a release said.

The simulator features CAE's roll-on on roll-off cockpit design, which enables cockpits representing various helicopter types to be used in the simulator, it said.

The cockpit for the civil or conventional variant of Dhruv is the second for the HATSOFF training centre, and will be ready for training in May 2011, the release said.

The first cockpit for the simulator represents the Bell 412 helicopter. Training for Bell 412 operators commenced in July 2010.

The CAE-built full-mission helicopter simulator at HATSOFF and the Bell 412 cockpit were certified in 2010 to Level D, the highest qualification for flight simulators, by India's Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA), the release said.