The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : Flight simulator developed in city

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Wednesday, Jun 25, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

Flight simulator developed in city

K. Srinivas Reddy

Cessna-172 Garmin-1000 model developed at almost half the cost of an imported one

- PHOTO: P. V. SIVAKUMAR

Riding High on success: Kusumba S, MD of Tell-E Technologies, who designed the indigenous Cessna-172 flight simulator of Garmin-1000 model, in Hyderabad.

HYDERABAD: The 12 x 14 size room can hardly be called a lab or a workshop. Atop the office table sit two monitors and another sits on the nose of the cockpit. As the air-conditioner hums silently, the technocrat entrepreneur chafes his hands in glee and lays his hands on the controls.

As he flicks one switch after the other, four high-end servers spring to life and the discernible chug-chug of the Cessna-172 develops into a drone. On the computer monitor one can see the taxiway and the Cessna begins to roll. It gains velocity and as it touches the required speed, Kusumba S gently pulls the yoke to take the Cessna airborne.

Indeed, it’s a flight simulator but made in Hyderabad! Yes, innovation and adaptation are the keys to success. And if all goes well with the DGCA’s certification, Kusumba S, the technocrat would add a feather in his cap for having designed a flight simulator for Cessna-172 Garmin-1000 model totally indigenously, at almost half the cost of an imported one.

Indica car seats

“We made the knobs and switches locally. The cockpit was fabricated by a man from Eluru to exacting measurements. The seats were taken from an Indica car and modified. It took us nearly four months to get the precise standards expected of a flight simulator,” Kusumba would narrate with a chuckle. He has every reason to smile.

Experienced pilots and flight instructors of different aviation schools in India had test-flown in the simulator and they had certified that the indigenously made simulator prototype would stand the scrutiny of the DGCA.

The four high-end servers have large quantity of data that can simulate different weather conditions at over 1,800 airports in the world. At the flick of a button the simulator can give different variables like the flight plan, way points, weather information and can even suggest alternate routes.

“The most difficult part was in converting the signals from the switches and making them recognisable by the software”, says Kusumba, MD of city-based Tell-E Technologies.

He and three of his employees took nearly four months to develop the prototype, which is being sent for DGCA clearance shortly.

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