[nicolas]

Most of you may have noticed that, when you start X-Plane, the splash windows says
'Want the FAA-Approved version of X-Plane? Check out www.flypfc.com'


www.flypfc.com points to Precision Flight Controls (PFC) of a manufacturer of flight training controls and flight simulators.

To find out how they use X-Plane, I have talked to Mike Altman, the president of PFC.

Mike, how long have you been using X-Plane?

I have know Austin Meyer for 12 years and always liked X-Plane. We have been using it at PFC for over 4 years now.

What do you do with X-Plane?

We build FAA approved flight simulator systems.
We were the first ones to produce an FAA approved flight simulator using X-Plane.

Our simulators are approved by the FAA and the Canadian Transportation Authority.

In the US, we have the BATD and AATD ratings (Basic Advanced Training Device and Advanced Training Device).

Who do you sell you simulators to?

Anyone who wants a FAA approved simulators:

Mostly Flight Schools, but also individuals, FBOs (Airports), as well as the FAA, NASA, etc ...

How much does a complete system cost?

It varies a lot depending on what the customer wants. It can go from $30K for an open cockpit to $150K for a full cockpit.

We build our own parts for the cockpit. Customers can also purchase these parts like yokes, pedals, separately.

What does it mean to be FAA approved?

It means that we have gone through the FAA certification process. For each aircraft that needs to be validated an FAA employee will come to our office and spend an entire day on our system.
An aircraft has to perform within 5% of the official performance data.

How many planes do you have approved and who designs them?

We have about 30 certified planes. Some of them are designed in-house, but most of them are designed by STMA (Shade Tree Micro Aviation).

The latest one to be FAA approved is a Pilatus PC12.

What version of X-Plane do you use?

Currently version 8 but we are switching to version 9

Why did you pick X-Plane for your systems, and not Microsoft Flight Simulator?

I've always like it better. I love the fluidity of the product and it is more flexible. We only use X-Plane for all our FAA approved systems.

Thank you Mike.

www.flypfc.com

Here some example of hardware and cockpit provided by PFC:

Flight Controls:




Cockpits:

[Seafire12]

Wow, I'd shure love to be flying a 737 in that last picture there!

[Boogie84]

who wouldnt

[sgabriel]

Actually, their "737" is even better!

www.flypfc.com/aats_jet.html

[VNA9218]

Actually, their "737" is even better!

www.flypfc.com/aats_jet.html

Kinda funny how he says they only have FAA certified ones with X-plane, however at that link, it only lists MS FS2k4 and FSX as compatible sims

ah well, maybe I am missing something....

[vezePilot]

Fidelity Flight Simulation of Pittsburg has been using X-Plane far longer than PFC, and in more involved products. Fidelity was the first company to get X-Plane Approved by the FAA.

http://www.fidelityflight.com/

I was the support engineer at Windsong Aviation, Denver CO when X-Plane v6.03, a custom version from Austin, was approved for pilot training in the Cessna 172 in 2001--the very first time X-Plane earned Approval for Logging time in Pilot Logbooks. The Fidelity MOTUS 600 series is a Full-Motion 6 DOF electric system that is quite impressive to fly. The MOTUS uses a custom installation of the Elite motherboard and hardware, and custom Fidelity interface and motion control software.

[3Point]

www.3pointaircraft.com participated in over 25 projects with PFC (not mentioned above) . that's far more than STMA.

[Lily065]

Kinda funny how he says they only have FAA certified ones with X-plane, however at that link, it only lists MS FS2k4 and FSX as compatible sims

ah well, maybe I am missing something....

Yes i also agree with you. tell me why there is so miss guiding.

___________________________
Branding Sydney

[Aerospace]

Kinda funny how he says they only have FAA certified ones with X-plane, however at that link, it only lists MS FS2k4 and FSX as compatible sims

ah well, maybe I am missing something....

Yes i also agree with you. tell me why there is so miss guiding.

I don't know that they are being "misleading", but the 737 only uses FS2004 and FSX because they are using Project Magenta for their instrumentation and FMC displays, which is only compatible with MSFS.

As far as the FAA certification, you have to read the certifications carefully. They are only really certifying the Instrumentation aspect of the sim. The fact that it is using MSFS for the out the window visuals and flight model is apparently of no concern to the FAA. It seems that with this combination, the instrumentation and navigation is accurate enough to use for instrument training, and since the focus is on the Project Magenta software and not the visuals or the flight model (at least in theory), then they are able to circumnavigate the clause in both the FS2004 and FSX EULA that forbids using either version for commercial purposes or flight training.

Cheers,
Jim

[mikeflbiker]

I got to fly one of their twins (A Baron I think) at AOPA Expo 2008 last November. The cockpit looked like the lower right picture, housed in a cockpit shell with 5 bigscreens ahead of it. It was SOOOOOO Sweet. I would love to have the panorama setup even if it was small 19" to 23" monitors. I was having a good time trying to land it when he failed the left engine from the Instructors station!! A testament to my lack of practice with multi-engine, it took me more than a few moments to make the connection, Left yawing tendancy->failed left engine->need to feather left prop.. I was getting comments from the peanut gallery of more experienced pilots standing behind me, lol.. I still got it down on the ground at SFO (or maybe it was Oakland.) I thanked them loads for such a cool experience!!