High School Project

Good Morning, Afternoon, Evening every one,

I write to you today to introduce myself (per the forum title) and also seek some help with a project. I am a high school teacher / CFII MEII on the east coast of USA. As I gear up for what will be an exciting year of teaching, I hope this forum will be a helpful item in my online toolbox.

At the end of last year the powers to be in my school had authorized the budget and plans for a flight simulator of some kind in the school. After much back and forth of what type, category, class it should be, they finally made a decision. They then started assigning us teachers various jobs over the summer to do some research. Although I was not really involved in the purchasing, building(if needed), or maintaining the sim. I was more on the lines of Instructing in it. That was until today.

I just received a phone call from an administrator saying the following. "The teacher who was leading the research has stepped down and wont be joining us this year." He then proceeded to ask if I would take over. Which brings me here.

The school has decided to go with a Jet simulator since we have a few prop FAA approved ones in the building. After spending the whole day digging into the research it seems that there are plenty to choose from. I suppose I will just dive into some of the options the school has approved and spell them out here. With hopes of getting some feedback from those of you who have the knowledge I seek.

Since the school year totals a full 9 months the idea of a build is very much on the table. This will allow for not only the build but for instruction (ground school) could take place. Then allowing the returning students next year to fly the sim, and new students to do ground training etc. The program is geared for Juniors and Seniors.

I guess my major question would be, is there a one stop shop online that I could order every piece needed for the simulator to be built by the students? I have failed to mentioned that the school has a full Airframe and Powerplant program. Therefore the assistance of teachers are there. and if there is such a place could a detailed inventory sheet be supplied to me?

Re-reading the above question I realized it could be a fairly loaded question. Please understand I am very new at the sim building research, however the A/P instructors will handle the build :smile:. I just have to do the legwork in getting parts.

Which airplane would be the easiest to build or are they equal, a 737 or A320 (which seems to be the more readily available sims)? Or would you suggest something else?

I will end here with a big thank you for everyone's time and effort in helping me with this project. It will for sure make for a hectic but exciting year for myself, and of course the future aviators in which I have the pleasure of teaching.

FlyingTeacher
aka Charlie