Just a quick question for the community, and (as you can see) since this my first post, I'm hoping I'm posting this in the correct forum:

Question: Does anybody know when many of the major carriers began switching over to using solely Full Flight Simulators in their training/upgrade syllabus?

Background: I'm working on a paper for my Master's (probably not the first of these you've seen) and it has to do with the effectiveness of FFS's as sole training tools since their inception. I must emphasize that this is not a survey. I am merely having approximately 0.0% luck searching "history of full flight simulators" or "first full flight simulator" by using the all-powerful-Google, and figured I'd turn to more human means of finding some answers. Thanks for all the help.

 

I don't have dates for you, but I can offer this - see 14 CFR 121, sub part N, O, And Y and also Appendicies E, F and "H" I believe. Way too many accidents involving training flights and large Part 25 aircraft until rule making pretty much made FSTD use mandatory under 121...

At the end of each section/sub part/appendix is a listing of the Docket numbers and dates they were originally published. It looks like somewhere around 1970... If you are able to pull up the Docket, look at the PREAMBLE to the rule. Lots of good info there...

If you really have a lot of time on your hands, research
Advisory Circular AC 120-40 and 14 CFR Part 60. The Appendices of Part 60 are about 500 pages, all about FSTD's.

FSTD = Flight Simulation/Training Device and includes Full Motion Simulators(Level A,B,C,D) and Flight Training Devices (Levels 1-7)...

 

Awesome! Thank you very much for the quick response. AC 120-40 is exactly what I'm looking for and it gives me a baseline date to start from. I know that FSTD training has drastically reduced the training flight incidents (C-17 Initial Qual is 40 sims and only 3 flights, and we can maintain all but a few currency items in the sim) and I'm going to try to look at the NTSB accident reports over time before and after the implementation of FSTD training.

Per the Research Forum requirements, the paper, once completed, will be available upon request.

Thanks again for the help.

 

My dad began flying commercially in the 60's. DC3's, DC4's, Convairs and B727s. I can't really say before the late 60's, I'll have to ask, but 67 or 68 he was using full motion sims at National Airlines to train in the B727.

 

Commuter airlines flying smaller turboprop planes started after. I remember doing some flight training in turboprop planes in the mid 90's. Still had sims, but the checkride had to be done in the airplane because it was not a level D sim approved for landings. Also did some recurrent training in the airplane too.