Archive 2000

September 21, 2000 

Lufthansa Flight Training and Lauda Air sign Cooperation Agreement

+ Vienna becomes new site of computer-based training

Lufthansa Flight Training´s complete course of computer-based training (CBT) will henceforth be available to airline customers in Vienna too. A cooperation agreement making this possible was signed today in the Austrian capital by Niki Lauda, head of Lauda Air, and Dieter Harms, managing director of Lufthansa Flight Training. LFT´s extensive CBT software for training pilots and cabin crews of other airlines is being installed in the hardware of Lauda Air´s 25 learning stations. Flight crews will be able to train directly at the Vienna-Schwechat airport, on the Lauda Air base at the World Trade Center.

This is the second cooperation agreement to be signed within the framework of the Star Alliance CBT Network created in 1999. It further strengthens training cooperation among the Star Alliance members. LFT signed the first such agreement in the middle of last year with SAS Flight Academy. Cooperation with Lauda Air, now officially formalized, had been occurring previously on a smaller scale. Pilots of Denmark´s Maersk Air were already being trained in Vienna with LFT software to fly the Canadair Regional Jet (CRJ). Rubin Siddique, CBT product manager at LFT and head of the Star Alliance CBT Network, and flight captain Herbert Schwarz, CBT manager and assistant manager of flight training at Lauda Air, have signed the confirming contract.

The LFT learning software, developed by pilots for pilots, enjoys an excellent reputation worldwide. With its new CBT site LFT is bringing its CBT programs closer to the customer. The curriculum includes type-rating programs, airport-familiarization software, refresher courses along with programs for flight attendants. For airlines based in Austria or in neighboring East- and Southeast-European countries, training in Vienna is often more economical and more convenient than it would be in Frankfurt, Bremen or Berlin.

While airlines that have their flight personnel trained in Vienna are already customers of Lufthansa Flight Training or Lauda Air, the cooperation between the two should have the effect of bringing in new customers. Both can contract with outside airlines and pay the other party rent for the hardware or license fees for the software, as the case may be. Of course likely to be attracted are airlines that to date have not been having LFT or Lauda Air do their training. Any airline that wants to purchase or test LFT´s CBT software can now do so in Vienna under the same conditions as in Frankfurt.

Another service being offered to customers in the Vienna region who do not wish to be limited to a particular training location is computer-based training via mobile training units (MTUs). These enable airlines to take the pilot-training hardware and software home with them, and the learning is done at their own facilities.

July 27, 2000

Launch of new "ready-entry" course for future LH cockpit personnel

In early July twenty-four licensed pilots began taking the 6th "ready-entry" course at the Pilot School in Bremen designed to qualify them for switching to cockpits of Lufthansa Group carriers. Fourteen graduates of KLS, the flight school of the Dutch airline KLM, along with ten pilots from other airlines are receiving a month´s instruction to prepare them for cockpit assignments at Lufthansa or Condor. Ensuing they will start the process of qualifying for individual type ratings. Once they obtain their type ratings, they will be flying Boeing 737s and Airbus A320s for Lufthansa, or Boeing 757s and 767s for Condor. Lufthansa Flight Training´s Career Center is in charge of these "ready-entry" applicants from the moment of initial contact until they are ultimately assigned to cockpits at Lufthansa Group airlines.

At present, as many as 30 fully trained pilots contact the Career Center every day inquiring about opportunities to fly for Lufthansa. A good ten percent of them actually enroll in the course and go on to take the general and LH-specific qualifying test given by the DLR (German Aerospace Research Institute) in Hamburg. Roughly a quarter of those taking the test pass it. Since April 1999, 118 male and female pilots have begun their careers in Lufthansa cockpits by taking LFT´s "ready-entry" course.

+ Newly ordered A340-600 simulator to become operational in 2002.

At the beginning of July, after intense negotiations with a number of simulator manufacturers, Lufthansa Flight Training placed an order with Canadian simulator producer CAE Electronics Ltd. for the construction of an A340-600 simulator. It will become operational in Frankfurt at the end of May 2002. Though LFT customer Lufthansa will not be receiving its first A340-600 until July 2003, its A340 crews are to undergo refresher training in the new simulator as early as the first half of 2002. Unused simulator capacity will be sold to third-party customers who will be operating A340-600s starting in 2002.

In writing the specs, negotiating the purchase and overall implementation of the project LFT´s simulator specialists are working closely with Swissair, which also needs an A340-600 simulator to train its own crews. CAE´s parallel production of the two simulators plus LFT´s collaboration with Swissair in the acceptance process and in monitoring the project can save the simulator manufacturer as well as the simulators´ future operators a bundle of money.

+ Cross-cultural training of cabin crews

In the training of cabin crews, more attention will be paid in future to the unique aspects of the cultural differences. Both in their basic training and in the advanced seminars for flight attendants, the diverse cultural requirements characteristic of the different airlines routes are receiving greater emphasis. The seminars on cross-cultural communication deal not only with the different types of food and drinks to be served, but they instill greater overall sensitivity to prevailing cultural differences.

+ News from LFT´s airline customers

Cockpit crews from new LFT customers Egypt Air (MS) and Varig (RG) are currently undergoing training on the B737-300 simulator in Bremen - eight crews from the Egyptian carrier, some with an LFT instructor, and seven from the Brazilian airline, which has brought along its own instructors.

For the first time India´s Aviation Research Center (AVIA Re Cent), which operates two Boeing four-engine 707s, is undergoing at LFT a specially tailored training program designed to help it maintain its license. The trainees involved are three captains and four flight engineers.

Under the terms of a wet lease, Olympic Airways crews have obtained their Airbus A300-600 type ratings.
Cockpit crews from Royal Flight Oman have undergone refresher training on LFT simulators.

To meet prevailing legal requirements for refresher training of cabin crews in how to deal with emergencies, Royal Nepal Airlines and Air Kazakhstan have selected LFT to provide that training for their personnel.

June 6, 2000

Special course for China Eastern copilots successfully completed

+ LFT brings pilots from trainer directly into a four-engine A340

Eighteen young Chinese have gone straight from basic pilot training to the copilot´s seat in an Airbus A340. They were trained for China Eastern Airlines under a program specially developed by Lufthansa Flight Training (LFT). After three months of training, in mid-May the final group of six student pilots successfully earned their type rating on the Airbus A340 full-flight simulator in Frankfurt.

The young pilots had begun their basic training ab initio (with no prior knowledge or experience) at a U.S. pilots´ school in Florida, where they earned their ATPL (airline transport pilot´s license). In basic training, copilots usually acquire some experience in a two-man cockpit and then some professional experience flying twin-engine short-haul aircraft. However, these Chinese had been trained on the single-pilot principle. Moreover, they were to be assigned immediately to the four-engine A340 without the previous flight experience that long-haul pilots have normally accumulated.

So LFT designed a training program tailored to this special group. It consisted of an "Advanced Cockpit Skills" (ACS) course newly developed in Bremen, combined with broadened type-rating training involving an additional basic jet module and subsequent progress-review lessons as repeated tests of the skills being learned. The students´ learning progress was thus continuously monitored so that any changes needed in the curriculum could be made immediately.

The various modules of the ACS course gave instruction in such subjects as cockpit communication, human factors, air-traffic control (ATC) and the handling of documentation. The course included training in intercultural communication and practical radio telephony. The ACS courses were coordinated with the ensuing type-rating program and ended with a performance-assessment flight graded by the A340 instructor. Initially a Piper Cheyenne PA42 simulator was used to train the students in crew coordination in a modern two-man cockpit and in essential standardized cockpit procedures so that the much more expensive training time in the big A340 simulator could be reserved purely for A340 familiarization.

What was completely new was that the PA42 simulator was used solely for training in communication and operating procedures without imparting any basic knowledge of the Cheyenne system. This enabled the Chinese pilots to concentrate on the essentials. It also saved the considerable amount of time and money that familiarizing them with the Cheyenne system would have cost.

All eighteen students then easily earned the demanding type rating itself, in the training for which LFT´s training captains had devoted much attention to the group´s unique requirements. The check captains pronounced themselves very satisfied with the students´ performance level. Type ratings in hand, the checked-out A340 copilots flew back to Shanghai in mid-May, where at the China Eastern base they reported for duty in that airline´s A340 cockpits.

June 5, 2000

300th class at Pilot School starts today

Now in the 44th year of its existence, Lufthansa Flight Training´s Pilot School is celebrating the start of its 300th class. As a first step in their journey into a Lufthansa cockpit, 32 student pilots today begin their training at the Pilot School in Bremen. This anniversary class has grown unusually large: 29 male and three female students had passed all qualifying exams in time for admission.

The tradition-rich Pilot School is known throughout the world for the quality of the ab initio training of commercial pilots that it has been providing for decades. Founded in May of 1956, it immediately began training future pilots, but at first only for Lufthansa German Airlines. Throughout the 60s and 70s it enrolled a new class on an average of once every six weeks. The class size varied between 12 and 16 students. As early as 1960 the school began training pilots for other airlines as well as Lufthansa. In 1967 much of its actual flight training was switched to the U.S., initially to San Diego in California. In 1970 its facilities were moved from there to Goodyear near Phoenix, Arizona, where more than 80 percent of its practical flight training is still being done today. In 1986 the first women students were admitted.

In January 1997 the Pilot School along with all other Lufthansa divisions involved in training flight personnel were spun off to form an independent company: Lufthansa Flight Training GmbH. This Bremen-based "pilot bakery", as it has become fondly known over the years, owes its excellent reputation primarily to its strong tradition of providing top-level aviation training embodying the latest advances in technology and air transport. Strict quality criteria, customer orientation and innovation characterize its training curriculum and are at the heart of its development of new concepts for the future.

Students spend about two years in Bremen and Arizona being trained as copilots to serve in cockpits of the Lufthansa fleet - as did their roughly 5,500 predecessors in classes 1 through 299. Six and a half months of basic training in theory and practice in Germany and the U.S. are followed by four months of more instruction in theory in Bremen. Next come five months of practice flying in Arizona before it´s back to Germany for another seven months of theory and practice in the hectic runup to the final exam. After two years the students have earned their airline transport pilot´s license (ATPL) as well as their long-distance flight rating. At this point they have behind them approximately 1,300 hours of instruction in theory and have accumulated some 310 hours of practice in a Flight Navigation Procedure Trainer, single- and twin-engine aircraft and simulators.

At the Pilot School the learning conditions are ideal. The students have at their disposal a modern training fleet of 65 aircraft, 6 flight-practice trainers, 8 full-flight simulators plus 86 PC workstations for computer-based training (CBT).

Innovation and unceasing improvement of its training are LFT hallmarks. The changes occurring in the cockpit workplace have led to greater emphasis being placed on human factors and crew coordination even in basic training. Teaching aids such as PC-based instructional materials are continuously upgraded by highly qualified personnel. Future training will be further enhanced by new concepts.

May 1, 2000

Market success continues in third year

Lufthansa Flight Training GmbH (LFT) again enjoyed market success throughout 1999, the third fiscal year of its operating independently. With its innovative aviation training it continued to do well in the face of intense competition. Its sales rose from 206 million to 210.7 million DM. Of that, some 50 percent was to customers outside the Lufthansa Group. The growth of its business in all training areas boosted the number of its employees, which reached a total of 463 by year´s end. Twenty-seven new jobs were created, mainly in the operating departments.

LFT is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Deutsche Lufthansa AG (Lufthansa German Airlines). Since 1997 it has been operating independently in the world´s aviation-training market, providing basic and advanced training of flight personnel plus a number of related services. In addition to companies belonging to the Lufthansa Group, it numbers among its customers more than 40 airlines from all over the world. As a business, the basic and advanced training of pilots is benefiting from the worldwide boom in air transport. The training of cabin crews is also growing at substantial rates. LFT increased its sales in all areas.

At the time of its founding, LFT was the repository of the know-how and capacities of the entire Lufthansa Group in the domain of basic and advanced training of flight personnel. The company is headquartered in Frankfurt am Main, where in April 2000 the new Lufthansa Flight Training Center opened its doors for business in close proximity to the Lufthansa base. The center has 240 workstations and slots for 970 trainees, everything state-of-the-art. Training in inflight service, emergency procedures, human factors along with computer-based training are offered here all under one roof. Frankfurt, too, is where most of the flight simulators are located, for the time being still on the old Lufthansa base. The pilot school and another simulator center are located in Bremen, with additional simulators in Berlin. In charge of training is Dieter Harms, B747-400 captain and for many years head of the pilot school. LFT´s business manager is Ludwig Merkel.

+ Experience and innovation: guarantors of quality

The high quality of the training provided by LFT stems from Lufthansa´s more than 40 years of experience in training flight personnel and from LFT´s close involvement with Lufthansa´s actual flight operations. This enables LFT to offer to its trainees an essential mix of theory and practice. However, no less important than past experience is the ability to see into the future. Since its establishment as an operationally independent company, LFT has launched numerous innovative new projects and has improved and broadened its existing training activities, extending their scope into new areas. It aims to continue shaping the future of aviation training so that it meets the latest requirements. The hallmarks of the training that it offers today and of its development of future concepts will remain its adherence to strict quality criteria, its customer orientation plus its pervasive innovativeness. In the early days of 1999 LFT introduced in all its departments a quality-management system, which has since been certified as being in compliance with DIN EN ISO 9001.

As part of its core aviation training, at its pilot school LFT trains commercial pilots; it also develops and programs computer-based training courses, and provides human factors training, which deals with the intercommunication, teamwork and decision-making processes that go on in the cockpit and the cabin. It also offers training in emergency procedures, in inflight service and in being generally customer-oriented. Its training in providing service and in being customer-oriented is also available to customers in nonaviation businesses. Consulting - giving helpful advice to airlines and other types of service-oriented companies - is another important LFT product.

LFT is constantly trying out new training methods and testing their applicability to its training activities. One example of current innovative approaches is the Lilienthal Project, in which a number of European flight schools and universities are jointly investigating the feasibility of teaching flight theory via the Internet.

+ Globalization promises new markets

Lufthansa Flight Training sees globalization as an opportunity to find new international markets for its services. Its planned expansion will be partially through joint ventures or subsidiaries involving regional partnerships with entities carefully selected to meet LFT´s stringent requirements for high-quality aviation training. Its goal is to internationalize its activities, which to date have been restricted to Germany and Arizona, and to become the quality leader in the different regional markets. The first steps toward the company´s globalization was the establishment of the Star Alliance CBT network in January 1999 and the founding of the Flight Training Center Chile in June 1999.
As in the first two years of its operating independently, LFT´s 1999 earnings were good. Its net income after taxes was 7.5 million DM, which was again transferred to Lufthansa, its parent company.

May 1, 2000

Training at new LFT facility started at beginning of April

+ Official "takeoff" of new Lufthansa Training Center

The new training center of Lufthansa Flight Training GmbH (LFT) in the immediate vicinity of the Lufthansa base at the Frankfurt airport has become operational on schedule. The first phase of its construction having been completed, the training departments have moved in. Since 1 April 2000 training courses have been in full swing at the new facility, known as the Lufthansa Flight Training Center (LFTC). Its official "takeoff" took place on May 10th, when a dedication ceremony washeld, attended by Lufthansa executive-board chairman Jürgen Weber, government officials, business leaders and representatives of the media. On May 27th the employees will have their own "takeoff" party celebrating the new building, which is shaped like a modern airplane hangar, with an arched roof and many glass surfaces making it seem transparent and very lightweight.

It was designed by the Frankfurt architects Heil und Partner, and construction began in November 1998. The initial construction phase has been finished on schedule with considerable cost savings for the new center´s owner, Deutsche Lufthansa AG (Lufthansa German Airlines).

The structure houses all of LFT´s administrative departments and its facilities for training aircraft crews, bringing them together in Frankfurt all under one roof, with the temporary exception of the flight simulators. It provides some 240 workstations and can accommodate 970 trainees. LFT occupants of the new center include its executive offices, executive staff, office of planning and control, sales and marketing, plus its human-factors, inflight-service and emergency-procedures training departments. Other occupants are the mockup-maintenance section and an outside tenant, the firm Aviation Support Services GmbH, which rents space there.

For hands-on training of cabin crews the new center has some 4000 square meters (ca. 46,000 square feet) of floor space containing seven cabin mockups for emergency-procedures training, five mockups for inflight-service training along with a swimming pool for practicing emergency landings on water.

The second phase of construction - erecting another training building as the "central building" as well as a simulator building - has already begun. The sharp growth in demand for training in emergency procedures and in inflight service aboard airliners has increased the needed amount of training space by 75 percent and the needed amount of office space by 110 percent over the originally planned dimensions. The new buildings are expected to be ready for occupancy by the end of this year. By the year 2005 the simulator building will have undergone modular expansions enabling it to accommodate as many as from twelve to fourteen simulators.

May 1, 2000

High-tech training equipment for new Lufthansa Flight Training Center

+ LFT has new full-motion simulators for emergency-procedures training

In April of this year Lufthansa Flight Training GmbH (LFT) began operating two brand-new emergency simulators at its new training center in Frankfurt. A third will follow shortly. These cabin mockups for the training of crews in emergency procedures are "full-motion simulators" that for the first time can realistically simulate virtually all the movements of an aircraft, thereby making possible training that is better-focused and more intensive. LFT has invested nearly 16 million DM in this latest training technology.

These emergency simulators for aircraft types Airbus 340 and Boeing 737 - soon to be supplemented by another for the jumbo Boeing 747 - are replacing three older mockups whose use has been discontinued. The latter have not even been set up at the new flight-training center in Frankfurt, into which LFT moved in April. Procurement of a new simulator for the A320 is planned. The specifications for the simulators produced by Eurocopter reflect that manufacturer´s many years of training experience and include all the latest features. The training for coping with emergencies will now be even more realistic.

Unlike earlier models, the new emergency simulators provide hydraulically controlled motion simulation with three degrees of freedom, outside-view simulation at the doors, noise simulation and simulation of sudden drops in pressure. Turbulence and air pockets can also be simulated, as can vibrations, produced by a 3000-watt woofer, or the development of smoke in the cabin. In the "windows" next to where the crew sits, the outside-view simulator displays scenes involving water, fire or other emergency scenarios. Built-in cameras enable the instructor to record the entire training session and to analyze it later with the participating crew members.

The mockup hall at the new training center had to be specially designed for the emergency simulators. A special foundation was required, capable of supporting moving objects weighing 60 metric tons. Such a simulator weighs about as much as an actual Boeing 737.

For the hands-on training of cabin crews the center has a total of 7 mockups for emergency-procedures training, 5 mockups for inflight-service training plus a swimming pool for practicing emergency landings on water.

This new equipment enables LFT to improve the quality of its emergency-procedures training and to conduct refresher seminars on crew-resource management directly in a simulator instead of in a classroom. Last year LFT provided 6,200 course units of instruction in emergency procedures, 538 more than in 1998. Its present customers for aviation-safety training include Lufthansa Group companies, other airlines as well as the German armed forces. Others are certain to be added to the list in future.

May 1, 2000

New Lufthansa Flight Training Center - jam-packed with high-tech goodies

+ Modern "hangar" for advanced aviation training

The new Lufthansa Flight Training Center of Lufthansa Flight Training GmbH (LFT) had its official opening on May 10,.2000. Its arched roof and numerous glass surfaces make the building seem transparent and very lightweight.

Aviation training of the highest order occurs within its walls. The new center houses all of LFT´s administrative offices and facilities for training aircraft crews, bringing them together in Frankfurt all under one roof. Only the simulators for advanced cockpit training and the staff of the associated departments remain at the nearby Lufthansa base at the Frankfurt airport. These will move to the new center only after completion of the second and third construction phases.

The new center has some 240 workstations and slots for 970 trainees. LFT occupants include its executive offices, executive staff, office of planning and control, sales and marketing, plus its human-factors, inflight-service and emergency-procedures training departments. Other occupants are the mockup-maintenance section and an outside tenant, the firm Aviation Support Services GmbH, which rents space there.

+ Transparency and high tech

The five-story structure has a spacious lobby with enormous glass walls that make it very bright. Its bamboo parquet also gives it a friendly look. Strips of light along the floor impart the feel of an airport runway. But training is what it´s all about. Monitors in the ceiling indicate which courses are being given in which rooms. In addition to LFT´s standard course offerings such as "Training for Inflight Service Aboard the A340" or "Cabin Crew Resource Management" the visitor notes the astonishing breadth of the content of the courses. The courses qualifying the participant for promotion up the cabin-crew hierarchy include such subjects as "Life without Jet Lag", "Religions of the World" and "Frustrations of the Dream Job". On the ground floor there are two touch-screen infosystems that enable crews and budding cabin attendants to get the latest information about training courses being offered. There are other such systems on every floor. Also on the ground floor are PCs affording access to the Lufthansa Intranet and thus to all relevant internal information. There is also a ground-floor luggage room for those who have to serve on flights immediately before or after their training session.

The physical wellbeing of the course participants and employees has also been provided for. Next to the lobby is the "LFT Lounge", a cafeteria in the round that seats 170 persons and offers not only "normal" menus but a variety of pizzas and Chinese wok dishes as specialties of the day. A clubroom with its own bar is available for special events and for the graduation parties of flight attendants who have just completed their training.

+ Over 4,000 square meters (ca. 46,000 sq. ft.) devoted to hands-on training

The new training center has optimal facilities for the hands-on training of cabin crews. Some 3,700 square meters (ca. 40,000 sq. ft.) of floor space are devoted just to inflight-service and emergency-procedures training. The hall for emergency-procedures training has 3,100 square meters (ca. 33,000 sq. ft.) of floor space and contains seven cabin mockups. These include three new full-motion emergency simulators for the Airbus A340, Boeing 737 and Boeing 747, respectively. They provide hydraulically controlled simulation of virtually all the movements of the aircraft fuselage in all conceivable scenarios ranging from air turbulence to smoke developing in the cabin to emergency landings on water. The mockup hall had to be specially designed for the emergency simulators. A special foundation was required, capable of supporting moving objects weighing 60 metric tons. Such a simulator weighs just about as much as an actual Boeing 737.

Visitors obtain the best view of the large hall for emergency-procedures training from a glass-enclosed observation terrace just outside the spacious conference room that seats 22 people, located on the fourth floor.

Next to the emergency-procedures training hall is the swimming-pool section (650 square meters = ca. 6,700 sq. ft.), where trainees practice emergency landings on water. A specially designed movable bridge enables them to practice exiting through aircraft doors at different heights. The escape slides serve as rafts that the occupants can propel with paddles. Rain can be generated artificially and, if desired, a sound system convincingly creates the sounds of a real storm.

Course participants practice serving passengers aboard an aircraft in the inflight-service mockups, which occupy 600 square meters (ca. 6,400 sq. ft.) of floor space. Such mockups are currently available for the B747, A340, A310 and B737. Another for the A320 is to be procured. To simulate actual catering, the training materials used for this purpose are supplied to the Lufthansa Flight Training Center by LSG Skychefs.

+ Offices and training facilities are all high-tech

The lecture halls and CBT (computer-based training) rooms for training pilots and cabin crews are located on the second and third floors. Most of the lecture halls are already equipped with video beamers through which instructional videos can be centrally stored. Thirty-four seminar rooms are linked via a network to a "media server". This UNIX server makes video and audio data available for use in presentations. Likewise linked to the network are the CBT rooms, which have a total of nearly 140 learning slots. Those rooms are divided into cubicles in which each participant has his or her own assigned station. This allows the participant to call up and work through the different programs at whatever learning speed he or she finds most comfortable. From the course-attendance information computer one can tell at a glance which CBT stations are occupied and which are not.

The administrative offices, marketing, and CBT development are mainly on the top floor and of course are also networked. The entire Fast Ethernet network was developed by Lufthansa Systems GmbH.

+ Second construction phase under way

As part of the second phase of the project, construction has begun on a simulator building and another training building. The latter will house offices and ten lecture halls and will serve as the "central building". Initially the simulator building will contain four simulator cockpits for the MD-11, Boeing 747-200, Boeing 757 and Boeing 767, respectively, for training pilots of Condor and Lufthansa Cargo. The sharp growth in demand for training in emergency procedures and in inflight service aboard airliners has increased the needed amount of training space by 75 percent and the needed amount of office space by 110 percent over the originally planned dimensions. The new buildings are expected to be ready for occupancy by the end of this year. In a third construction phase, by the year 2005 the simulator building will have undergone modular expansions until it can accommodate twelve simulators.