Virtual pilots flying the world from homes

New Delhi: Inside a Boeing 737 cockpit, a co-pilot announces, “We are set to take off from Kai Tak airport... the temperature is set to 15 degrees.” He then tells a young boy in an aviator hat sitting next to him how much throttle the aircraft will require to take off. The monitor in front displays the runway of Hong Kong’s famous airport, while the engine’s roar signals that the plane is ready for take off. Seconds later, the airport’s glittering lights disappear behind the clouds.
The cockpit — with a control column, a throttle quadrant, instrument panels and overhead panels — is only a replica of the real thing. It is a flight simulator, the kind used to train pilots in real life, with a cockpit that resembles a real one, and software/hardware to re-create crises such as bad weather, engine failure and technical glitches.
Of course, this one at Flight 4 Fantasy in Bangalore is purely for “hobby purposes”. It was set up in May this year by Vybhava Srinivasan, an accountant, who quit a job with PricewaterhouseCoopers India to build a replica of a Boeing 737 cockpit in his home. His friend and business partner, Deepak Agarwal, similarly quit his job with the Aditya Birla group. Sourcing parts wasn’t easy, however, and the duo travelled all over the US, Canada and Europe looking for the control column, instrument panels, rudder pedals, throttle quadrants and even the cushy chairs that pilots sit on. The partners have now shifted the cockpit to the Forum mall where they charge a cool Rs 1,000-1,800 (higher on weekends) for hourly sessions. Flight 4 Fantasy also boasts of a 4D fighter jet and a Cessna 172S simulator. The duo have invested around Rs 2 crore into the project.
The aviation industry in India, feels Srinivasan, saw a boom a few decades after other developed nations. Similarly, virtual flying as a hobby has taken longer to come to India, owing to the unavailability of components and flight simulation centres.
11/08/12 Priyanka Sharma/Business Standard

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Categories: Indian Aviation- In General Aug 2012