Three new flight simulators coming to Waterloo Wellington Flight Centre

Officials break ground on the Waterloo Wellington Flight Centre's new Aviation SIM Centre and Innovation Hub on Oct. 31, 2023. (Submitted/Waterloo Wellington Flight Centre)

Three flight simulators dedicated to training the next generation of pilots are coming to the Waterloo Wellington Flight Centre.

The new machines will be housed in a 3,330 square-foot expansion at the school’s hangar at the Region of Waterloo International Airport. Officials were on hand to break ground on the project, dubbed the Aviation SIM Centre and Innovation Hub, on Tuesday.

While the Waterloo Wellington Flight Centre already has two flight simulators, general manager Bob Connors explained the new additions are different in that they each specifically replicate a common commercial plane – the Boeing 737, the De Havilland Q-400 and the Airbus 320.

“These new ones are type specific, so the cockpits and the flying characteristics are true replicas of what that kind of airplane actually does,” Connors explained.

That’s especially important because graduates of aviation programs like the Waterloo Wellington Flight Centre are often going directly into jobs where they’ll be flying these larger planes, Connors said.

“Because of the pilot shortage in Canada, graduates from aviation programs, ours and others, are finding their way into the right [co-pilot] seat of airline-type aircraft much more quickly than they ever have,” he said.

Connors said the total budget for the simulators and the hangar expansion is just over $3 million – jointly funded by the school and the federal government.

Construction is expected to take five months, with the targeted opening of the new facility set of March 2024.

The Waterloo Wellington Flight Centre is one of the largest flight training schools in Canada. Its students made up more than 20 per cent of domestic pilot graduates in Canada last year.