Your Simulator Is Probably Your Most Under-Used Asset

Captain Rohit Iyer · Published 2026-07-01

An FNPT sits idle on most afternoons at most Indian FTOs, while students wait weeks for aircraft slots. Better sim scheduling shortens courses, cuts cost per student and keeps training moving on no-fly days.

An expensive box that waits

A certified flight training device is a significant investment. It needs a dedicated room, maintenance, periodic qualification and a trained instructor. Yet at many Indian FTOs it runs a few hours a day, mostly in the mornings, and sits dark the rest of the time.

Meanwhile, students queue for aircraft slots — including for exercises that the simulator could teach as well or better.

Under 40% — Common simulator utilisation at FTOs that schedule it informally. Indicative. Schools that schedule the sim alongside aircraft routinely reach far higher levels.

Why the sim gets left out

The usual reason is not the equipment; it is the scheduling. When aircraft and simulator are booked in different places — a whiteboard for aircraft, a notebook for the sim — nobody sees the combined picture. The sim becomes an afterthought, filled when someone remembers.

Treat it as a first-class resource

Schedule sim and aircraft together

The simulator should appear on the same schedule as the aircraft, with the same visibility for instructors and students. When a student's next aircraft slot is four days away, the scheduler should immediately see an open sim slot tomorrow.

Pair sessions deliberately

The most effective pattern is sim first, aircraft second: rehearse a procedure in the sim, then fly it within a day or two while it is fresh. Students arrive at the aircraft better prepared, and expensive flying hours are spent on consolidation rather than first exposure.

Make it the weather-day default

When weather cancels flying, affected students should be offered a sim slot automatically. That turns a lost day into a productive one — especially valuable during the monsoon.

Staff it properly

A simulator without an available instructor is as idle as one that is switched off. Many schools benefit from a dedicated sim instructor — often a senior instructor stepping back from line flying, or a qualified ground instructor — so that sim capacity does not compete with aircraft rosters.

Measure utilisation

Track scheduled hours, flown hours and utilisation percentage for the sim exactly as you do for each aircraft. Once the number is visible, it usually improves quickly — because every empty slot starts to look like what it is: training capacity the school has already paid for.