SOS gets BATD & AATD w/ BX206B3
Posted: 
* Very early version of the panel display in the videos, without hardware overlay or shroud.
Hi All,
I’ll get all the details to everyone later, but the news is that Simulators On Site is now a CERTIFIED Flight simulator manufacturer and the simulator has been Certified as BOTH a BATD (Basic Aircraft Training Device) AND AATD (Advanced Aircraft Training Device). I should have all the “paper work” in hand in the next few days! The only requirement for the “Fixed wing” version only requires a “modified QAG” and a short inspection from the LOCAL FAA and the Washington D.C. Office does NOT have to come back for any approval!
More information later.
Thanks for all the prayer and support!
Steve
I'll be so bold as to cite from some earlier messages about FAA review of SOS that makes the newer news even that much more profound.
I have gotten closer to getting Ver. 9.0 or above (9.22) approved than anyone else, he stated that there are NO approved simulators using anything above 8.64.
While I, of course, am disappointed in not having the certificate on the first visit, I was informed the because of the quality of the overall workmanship, attention to detail and not trying to “explain away” any problems etc. We would not require another visit from “Washington” for the approval. This is a great accomplishment as most companies require EVERY visit to be from Lance as they keep trying to “get away” with all they can and Lance also pointed that this is the first time he has had the pleasure of working with an engineer who is also a pilot and an instructor knowing that I understand both the flight model and the engineering required to get there without compromising the integrity of the flight model. He then also committed to allowing me to submit an amended document to him for future changes including software and even building a fixed wing and Lance would only require the local FSDO to look it over for approval. Everyone else (the competition) all are required to have Lance on site to be sure they have covered all the bases. This is a real accomplishment, as getting Lance to get here has taken almost 5 months, given his busy schedule.
Result, our close friend Steve Nelson, of Simulators On Site, with a ~270 degree FOV front projection using his own patented technologies, with our BX206B3, now has the =only= X-Plane 9, Certified, BATD (Basic Aicraft Training Device) & AATD (Advanced Aircraft Training Device).
I think it is interesting that
we have had several Bell test pilots and military pilots say that my
simulator is more accurate than the one that Bell has in Texas. I now have
about 3 hours flying a real Bell 206 and after one flight, I was able to get
to my simulator and fly it in less than an hour after being in the real one,
it is about as perfect a match as I can imagine. Yesterday we demoed it to a
defense contractor in PA and they brought in two Army pilots to do the
evaluation, they agreed that it was more accurate than anything they have
used before and much better than the simulators that the Army now has at the
base they are assigned to. Both pilots have about 1500 to 2000 hours each
and are now flying Apache's, but started in the OH58 (Bell 206). I now have
the simulator located in one of the larger hangers at Akron Fulton (KAKR)
with two of the "Med flight" helicopters based there, all of their flight
crews want to fly the simulator as often as possible and finally my neighbor
is a CFII rotary and is working on his ATP, he has been using my sim for the
last two months for all the IFR approaches and has not found anything that
can replace the simulator especially when it costs him about $800.00/hr in a
real 206.
The BX206B3, the model is the same, the flight model is the same, the instrumentation is the same.. His is formatted for use in the fullsize simulator with full screen panel and oversized instruments, the one here is formatted for general consumer consumption use 2d panel and 3d niceties. But the same 206 I have here is the one that two or more years of Heli-Expo visitors have remarked to be the best simulator of a 206 ever seen. Instructors, career pilots, Bell factory pilots. and over and over again reports from even career uuber thousand hour Army heli pilots with time in type OH58 reporting.. also.. our 206 is the most realistic, flight right, simulator they've ever run.. even over Bell's own, or the Army's own simulators. And what this also means, as i've eluded to before. as the same method makes one that makes them all.. accolades like this for the 206 extend equally to everything else made with the same methods. So..
Our highest congratulations to Steve for this monumental accomplishment of those certifications, for achieving a solution that even adding on fixed wing credential will be a snap, for doing so on his own, without accepting inferior off the shelf options to seek achieving his goals. It has been years in the making, but i'm entirely confident that Steve's SOS 206 simulator.. will serve to train people fantastically, and serve to save some lives in the process.
