Toll Group has announced a deal with Finmeccanica-AgustaWestland to build and operate Australia’s first AgustaWestland-authorised training centre.
Toll was selected in December to operate a 10-year aeromedical contract for NSW Health to service the southern half of NSW and the ACT. The work involves buying eight purpose-built AW139 helicopters.
Toll also will build and operate an aeromedical training centre at Bankstown Airport, south-west Sydney, a first for Australia.
The centre will include a $15 million CAE 3000 Series AW139 Level D full-flight motion simulator, one of only eight in the world.
Toll Resources & Government Logistics CEO David Jackson announced the news at the Avalon Airshow, saying the simulator will be the jewel in the crown of the new training centre: “This massive investment by Toll and NSW Health will redefine best practice in pilot training and safety.
“The simulator will train all Toll pilots working on the NSW Health aeromedical contract and other AW139 operators in NSW, Queensland and Victoria. It will have capacity to support any new government agency and private operator AW139 operations that cbeginmin the coming years in the Australasian region.”
Jackson says the technology used can be upgraded to support future AgustaWestland models such as the AW169 and AW189: “Being an authorised AgustaWestland training centre means Toll staff working for NSW Ambulance will be trained to international standards utilising the latest training programs, techniques and technology.
“Currently, the closest authorised AgustaWestland simulator is located in Malaysia, so new pilots-in-training have limited opportunity to gain the approximately 80 hours of training required.”
The state-of-the-art centre also will include an advanced underwater escape training complex and wet and dry winching practice towers, and is expected to be operating mid-to-late 2016.
More than 100 highly-skilled operational and engineering roles will be created in the lead-up to operations on the NSW Health contract in January 2017.
