Diamond has introduced an airline training package for its DA40 that it says will jump-start students into the airliner environment and make the process more efficient. The Advanced Airline Trainer Concept was unveiled at Aero Friedrichshafen 2013 and the company says it will help schools and airlines mitigate the pilot shortage that many agree is coming. Diamond says the sophisticated environment of current and future airliners should be what the student works with right from the start. “This requirement starts from the Ab Initio training phase, therefore the flight academies need adequate equipment right from the start,” Diamond said in statement released at Aero.
Diamond used the standard operating procedures used for transport category aircraft to set up the AAT cockpit. It even includes mounts for tablet-based electronic flight bags for student and instructor along with a state-of-the-art panel. The DA40 is only the first airframe to be equipped this way. Diamond intends to make it available on all its aircraft.
