LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- UPS is spending millions of dollars on “video games” to train new pilots inside the company’s new UPS Global Aviation Training Center.
UPS Airlines pilot Will Ashlock said the flight simulators are “probably one of the most expensive, most dynamic and most accurate [video games] you’ll ever be able to play.”
The simulators look, feel and even sound like the inside of a real cockpit, but UPS Airlines pilots don’t have to set foot inside an airplane to do most of their training. The simulators help pilots practice procedures, so if a plane malfunctions in the air, it won’t be their first time handling it, whether “it’s weather, wind shear, low weather conditions like we have here today, or malfunctions,” Ashlock said.
The simulators are about $10 million each, and UPS just bought three more of them. There is space for four total simulators inside the new 28,000-square-foot UPS Global Aviation Training Center, which opened near UPS Worldport on Thursday. The new building took eight months to complete.
“We are hiring pilots,” UPS Strategic Communications Director Mike Mangeot. “We've hired several hundred over the last few years. We're also adding 40 aircraft, primarily 767 and 747s, to add capacity for our customers all over the world.”
Pilots who are new to UPS will train in the simulators for two months. About 75 to 80 percent of the total training is spent inside a simulator, Ashlock said.
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