Noone is saying that but when you have a facility that people commute into it really should be in a big city. All this is going to do is drive the cost of using the simulator up as you have to have a two sector flight, then you also have less competition for hotels etc etc. As mentioned before it's not just the RFDS but every GA operator with a King Air will have the same costs.

How long before some bean counter declares using a sim is too expensive? I'm surprised an RFDS accountant hasn't already choked on all the extra costs that will be incurred using this thing.

Don't most cheapo GA King Air operators just use the Level B King Air sim at Ansett anyway?

Fact is Bundy is not the boondocks.

Aussie companies have sent pilots to China for recurrent, Singapore for recurrent, Miami for initials, the list goes on. Corporate jet companies fly pilots to USA, UAE, for recurrents.

Nope Bundy ain’t the Boonies. Yes point taken it’s not a capital city and it will add 2 days travel, far from ideal, however everyone using the sims will have the same expenses.

Anything to revive rural Aus has to be a great thing. Don’t like it don’t use the sims, you have choices, ahh what? The next sim is in the states which takes xyz days……..

Not havin a dig at ya mate, yes I do understand where you are coming from, just don’t think it’s as bad as you say.

Hopefully the Maroochy one stays as well.

Gday Global
I'm all for the regional areas. I grew up in the country, 4000 people town, and I live rural now. But before retiring I was rung by Ansett and asked "IF??? Maroochy closes and we have to use Bundy, how will that effect our company?" The numbers we ran were huge. Aviation is a wildly expensive business - this doesn't help. Yes I know some need to go overseas. I've been doing that myself for over 20 years. And that HAS to be done when there is no sim in Oz. But the fact remains - this move will cost many companys dearly.

Gunner - the old sim at Ansett is level B - cannot be used for IPCs and it is a 200, doesn't cover the 350.

Morno - I thought you were better than stupid sarcasm.

neville_nobody

That is infinitely cheaper than the obscene land rents at Brisbane Airport!

Sorry Captn Rex, but I’m a big advocate for growing regional areas. It really gets on my nerves when people **** all over them and push for everything to be in the city. Not saying that you were necessarily doing this, just the vibe I was getting from a few.

Sure Bundy may not work for some, but Sunny Coast doesn’t work brilliantly for others as well, so it’d be no worse in a lot of cases.

As far as I’m aware, the B200/350 Proline sim in Maroochy will be remaining for a while. It sounds like RFDS will only be putting a B360 Fusion sim in to begin with. Not exactly a lot of them in Australia yet.

Cheaper for who?? Sure it's cheaper for the owner of the simulator. The end users meanwhile get screwed forever. Seen this in aviation on so many levels so many time. Someone in the office makes a decision that's cheap for them that introduces ongoing costs that everyone else pays for them and in some cases makes the business more inefficient. 'Oh but it was cheap' is always the justification.

The Townsville Refueller, reckons the Bundaberg Refueller will be working a lot harder now that the RFDS will be doing all these extra training flights out of Bundaberg!

I'd be very surprised if the RFDS is paying anywhere near rack rates at BNE.

I suppose city folk think that Brisbane West Wellcamp Airport is in the western suburbs of Brisbane near the Gap.
Build it and they will come
Brisbane West