“We developed the first and only PA-18 Super Cub simulator in the world,” said Dennis Ward, executive director of the Medallion Foundation. “After a survey of the National Transportation and Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration statistics, we found that over 90 percent of the aircraft accidents in Alaska happened during the take-off and landing sequences of flight and wanted to address this as part of our agenda.”

Ward said the $250,000 simulator will be used to curb pilot's bad decision-making habits - not to train pilots how to fly the popular tail-wheeled aircraft. The simulator was unveiled July 12 in Anchorage for the FAA and local experts to review.

“After we train local flight instructors on how to use our curriculum, they will be able to bring their pilot/students here to use the simulator to improve their mental piloting skills,” said Ward.

The Alaska-based nonprofit Medallion Foundation, formed to improve aviation safety, is moving efforts into the instruction arena in hopes to get FAA-approved instructors and pilot examiners to use its program and to improve accident rates.

“Many instructors are training pilots how to fly, and those pilots are buying their own aircraft and flying them in situations that they have little experience with or their skills have become rusty. We hope this will change the in-flight training awareness by the instructors of their students abilities,” said Ward.

The simulator has three 46-inch flat screen monitors that give the pilots a 180-degree visual of the terrain. Built to Medallion Foundation specifications by Precision Flight Controls, the simulator uses X-Plane software.

The two-axis simulator has a plus and minus pitch and roll of 25 degrees. It has a five-inch heave that can simulate a rollover or nose-over that feels like half the force of gravity.

The object of the FAA-approved simulator training is to show the trainer/instructor that the pilot can ferry loads of hunting equipment from a regular 2,000-foot airstrip to a 700-foot Bush strip 10 times without crashing.

“The idea behind this is to change the culture of pilots who may only fly once or twice a year, and have it in their minds that they are going to land. But become like a passenger instead of the pilot in control on landing,” said Ward. “This is meant to show your decision making skills and to force pilots to fly the aircraft all the way to the ground.”

Each pilot using the simulator will be required to sign up, take an online test, complete the five-hour curriculum successfully and then take an exit test.

Spencer Yearns, the simulator trainer and program monitor, says that the device has the ability to throw some curves at pilots, much like real flying.

“We can program in crosswinds, tailwinds and loading factors like density altitude and gross weight factors that pilots will need to remember to make adjustments in their thinking during their flight simulations,” said Yearns.

The simulator can also be programmed for flights on skis, floats and tundra tires, and to simulate spot landings, according to Steve Farring, a Medallion Foundation flight training device technician.

A side benefit of the simulator will be to keep Alaska pilots' mentality and flying skills honed at a time when flying has become more expensive, thus they may be in the air less often.

“This is particularly useful to pilots who are not flying enough to keep their flying skills perfected,” said Lars Gleitmann, a pilot originally from Germany who tried the simulator. “With the price of fuel, many pilots are going to forego practicing basic things like takeoffs and landings. In Germany the price of aviation fuel has been high for sometime and it has caused pilots to fly less. They become complacent and make poor decisions while flying. The most common crashes in Germany are during takeoff and landing. This simulator may be a way out of this problem and a way to retain flight competency.”

Ward says that the Medallion Foundation will not charge for the use of the PA-18 simulator for six months in an effort to get input from local instructors and other Piper Super Cub pilots around the state.

“We think this will be the cheapest tail-wheel flying in Alaska, when we do charge,” said Ward.

The price will probably start at $40 an hour as a maintenance fee, he said.

Local Flight Safety District Office manager Bruce Walter popped in on Saturday afternoon to see the simulator.

“This will be a great tool to help change the accident rate here in Alaska,” said Walter. “Right now we have a Super Cub that crashed on landing and is on fire 70 miles west of Anchorage. We need to do everything possible to keep these events from happening.”