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Toll Group signed a contract for eight AgustaWestland AW139 helicopters in a ceremony at the Avalon Airshow on Wednesday.
Toll will use the aircraft to service its newly-won NSW Air Ambulance contract to operate aeromedical retrieval operations from Sydney’s Bankstown Airport as well as Orange, Wollongong and Canberra. The new helicopters, for NSW’s newly formed Helicopter Retrieval Network’s southern region, will be delivered from later this year, with all eight set to be handed over by early 2016.
Under the deal Toll’s new base in Bankstown also will become an AgustaWestland Authorised training centre for the AW139 and will provide Australia’s first AW139 level D full-flight motion simulator. The base will include facilities for maintenance, crew training, the latest high-fidelity virtual reality crewman and integrated crew training simulator and a full helicopter underwater escape training facility.
Toll Resources & Government Logistics CEO David Jackson announced the news at the Avalon Airshow, saying the simulator will be the jewel in the crown of the new training centre: “This massive investment by Toll and NSW Health will redefine best practice in pilot training and safety.
“The simulator will train all Toll pilots working on the NSW Health aeromedical contract and other AW139 operators in NSW, Queensland and Victoria. It will have capacity to support any new government agency and private operator AW139 operations that cbeginmin the coming years in the Australasian region.”
Jackson says the technology used can be upgraded to support future AgustaWestland models such as the AW169 and AW189: “Being an authorised AgustaWestland training centre means Toll staff working for NSW Ambulance will be trained to international standards utilising the latest training programs, techniques and technology.
“Currently, the closest authorised AgustaWestland simulator is located in Malaysia, so new pilots-in-training have limited opportunity to gain the approximately 80 hours of training required.”
The state-of-the-art centre also will include an advanced underwater escape training complex and wet and dry winching practice towers, and is expected to be operating mid-to-late 2016.
More than 100 operational and engineering roles will be created in the lead-up to operations on the NSW Health contract in January 2017, Toll said.
Mia
says:What about the Careflight AW139 Sim in Queensland? Many operators have already signed up for that one…
Corey
says:I wish RACQ/Care Flight QLD would announce the new fleet of AW139 helicopter they will be buying and the specifications of the AW139 training centre they will have. I know they are the first in Australia to have a AW139 flight simulator not Toll if my facts are correct.
Das
says:The RACQ sim is not level D and not certified…….
Stewart
says:There is no RACQ Careflight AW139 simulator in Queensland.
Thales, the announced manufacturer of the flight simulator for RACQ Careflight, has not built an AW139 simulator before. So I imagine they are still doing engineering designs and gathering the necessary data. It is not even supposed to go into service until some time in 2016.
Given the cost of buying and operating a Level D flight simulator, I doubt there will be enough training demand to support two AW139 flight simulators in Australia.
andrew
says:“The RACQ sim is not level D and not certified…….”
No, not yet…but it will be when its up and running.
Agree with the points above ref two sims in Oz…interesting times ahead.
andrew
says:“The RACQ sim is not level D and not certified…….”
No not yet…its still being built however it will be a level D sim.
Agree with the points above in reference to two sims in Oz though….could be interesting.