OREANDA-NEWS. Russian Helicopters, a subsidiary of Oboronprom, part of State Corporation Rostec, will this month host pilots from Mongolyn Alt Corporation (MAK) at Ulan-Ude Aviation Plant's Aviation Training Centre, under an agreement on training of flight and engineering personnel. The Mongolian company operates two Mi-8/17 series helicopters - a Mi-171 and a Mi-8AMT - both produced at the Ulan-Ude plant and delivered to the customer in 2008 and 2011, respectively.

MAK staff will undergo mandatory further professional training including 54 hours of theoretical classes and nine hours of practical courses on the Training Centre's Mi-171 simulator.

“Our Training Centre has first-class pilots on its staff with thousands of flying hours and experience of pilot instruction. Some of them also have military experience,” said Training Centre head Gennady Leonov. “The suite of additional professional education that we offer to operators of Russian-built helicopters enables them to optimise spending on their mandatory regular refresher training for staff.”

Ulan-Ude Aviation Plant's Training Centre specialises in further professional education and retraining of flight and engineering personnel for Mi-171 and Mi-8AMT helicopters. The Centre provides a complete range of courses including theoretical, simulator and flight-training work, including on helicopters owned by the customer.

The Centre began offering its full complement of services for flight and engineering staff training following the commissioning and certification of its Mi-171 flight simulator in September 2013. It helps flight crew to master piloting and navigation skills in various flight modes and all weather conditions, as well as actions to be taken in the event of pilot error, technical failure and other emergency situations. The simulator closely recreates real flight conditions.

Previously Chinese operators of Russian-built helicopters had undergone training using the Mi-171 simulator at the Ulan-Ude Training Centre. They praised the work of the centre, and noted the high level of expertise of the centre's staff, the convenience of training using the simulator and its close approximation of a real helicopter.