Simloc CEO explains the company’s presence at EATS 2018

Simloc, a Spanish company that designs, develops and manufactures flight training devices, will be present for the first time at the European Airline Training Symposium (EATS) in Madrid November 6-7. In this interview their CEO, Carlos Pérez, explains why and talks about the brand’s present and future plans.

Why is Simloc going to be at EATS?

Simloc has grown over the past two years, with a clear commitment to the development of high quality flight simulators, aimed at the emerging Flight Training Devices (FTD) sector. On the one hand, EATS is a one-off opportunity to check out the trends in the simulation industry, thanks to its series of conferences and, on the other, it is an unbeatable occasion to show what we can offer to potential users of this technology.

What are your aims with attending?

As this is the first time for us at EATS, our main aim is to “introduce ourselves to this world”, making the brand and its services known. Simloc will gradually be present more and more at these kinds of events and we hope to become more prominent as the different editions advance. The message we want to send to the market is that Simloc is a technological and financial partner that focuses its commercial activities on offering pay-per-use Flight Training Services (FTS) and FTDs. (Simloc will unveil its A320 at EATS).

Speaking of FTDs, before the summer it was announced that the Canary company Brok-air had bought a Simloc training device to integrate it into a real A320 cabin. What is the current situation of this original project?

Thanks to the engineering capacities developed over the past two years, Simloc has been able to take on a unique project such as that proposed by Bok-air, integrating many emulated components in the fuselage of a real A320. But the greatest difficulty was the installation of a visual system at the height required. The installation phase is completed and the simulator is now working.

What are Simloc’s priorities right now and what sectors is it focused on?

Simloc has prioritised all of its developments towards the specific Airbus A320, in order to meet the needs arising from the MCC APS courses, MPL programmes and even airline-specific programmes, whether they are type-ratings or part of recurrent training. Future regulations are being aimed at training models where FTDs are more important, allowing for very advanced simulation devices to be offered, but in a more accessible price range that allows for high quality, efficient training. The current demand of crews and pilots accessing the airlines with little experience requires the best tools for all of their training.

What does Simloc’s pay-per-use involve?

The users of our devices have the option to buy directly; in the best cases they can make the investment with their own funds, but in many cases they approach companies that finance their project, which increases the time frames and decreases the probabilities of success. Simloc proposes a pay-per-use model where the customer does not pay a single penny until the device is operational and even then, payment is made by quotas associated with a minimum number of hours of simulator use. Really what we do is share the project’s risks with our customers and accompany them in its success.