Alsim simulators conquer the world Friday 5th January, 2018

Alsim now exports flight simulators all over the world. It set up an office in the USA in May 2017 and the company has just signed a partnership agreement with a Chinese supplier. Alsim is the sometimes turbulent story of a small business from Nantes where you can meet artisans with a passion for aviation and training. Aerobuzz.fr went to visit the company and meet the people who make simulators for training professional pilots.

After passing through the vineyards, we arrive at an industrial zone. The company headquarters is twenty kilometres east of Nantes, at Loroux Bottereau more precisely, where a little fewer than 10,000 people live.

First sim training in a garage

Although the company has become a reference in simulation and training, and exports its products all over the world, Alsim has clearly kept the spirit of its founders. “Who would have thought that all this would be happening today, in 2017, when we designed our first sim in our garage, more than twenty years ago,” explained Jean-Paul Monnin, co-manager and co-founder of the company with Jerome Binachon.

When the first simulators, designed for training in flying clubs, met with little success among these associations, Alsim turned to private schools. “The Airways Formation flying school (today, Airways College) ordered the first simu from us in 1998," remembers Jean-Paul Monnin, "from there we entered a new dimension.”

Today, Alsim is at a turning point. With a turnover that doubled in 2017, after introducing the AL250 and the AL172, Alsim currently has 80% of its customers abroad, strong potential in the United States, a Chinese market that is opening up, and a labour force which went from 28 people in 2016 to 43 at the end of 2017. Yet Alsim has been through some difficult times.

Renewing with success after the turbulence

When I open the door, I am welcomed by the workshop superintendent, Christopher Richard, the living repository of Alsim, having been in the company for 17 years. He explains that certain periods were delicate, but that today, in 2017, the Nantes company has regained lost ground. In 2015, the company sold 13 simulators, 15 in 2016 and then 28 at the end of 2017.

On the technical platform, four AL250 are being assembled under Christophe Richard’s supervision. The AL250 can simulate a single engine or a twin piston engine. Equipped with a real optional Garmin GTN 650, an autopilot and electric trim controls, this is Alsim's entry-level simulator and its best-seller: 15 simulators were sold in barely a year.

For less than 150,000 euros, the AL250 is a suitable tool for schools. The simulator is certified FNPT II. It can replace the aircraft for 40 hours of IFR training.

Intended for small schools, it fits in a 3.7×4.5m “box” 2.5m high, and can even be installed in spaces with windows: the covering that surrounds the simulator means it is almost completely sealed off from light.

The simulator includes the cockpit and an instructor station. It makes it possible to switch from a glass cockpit set-up to a simulated "analogue" dashboard in one click, and switching from a single-engine set-up to a simulated multi-engine is also easy.

The closeness and shape of the screen, with its sharp edges (the pilot is in a rectangular box), onto which the "outside world" is projected, confused me a little at first, being used to semi-circular screens further away from the cockpit. But once in flight, adapting to this at first surprising set-up is painless. You quickly forget the edges of the screen as they merge with the cockpit’s windscreen struts.

Assembling a simulator

When assemblers start putting up a simulator at Alsim, they start at the base: the floor is assembled at first, fixed on the support frame made of welded tubes by a nearby company. Then Christophe and his team, made up of two other people, gradually assemble the pieces to the ceiling.

Each simulator being assembled has a job tracking sheet, which shows the parts needed by the model. A large worktable is used to mount the mechanical pieces, such as the throttle block.

"Sometimes you have to find new tricks," explains Christophe, "as with the AL42: we had to find a way to get exactly the same rudder sensitivity using a different way to how an aircraft normally works.”

Three people provide the electronics in-house for all the simulators. They prepare printed cards in the workshop dedicated to the electric systems. The team welds all the parts for the autopilot, for example, and prepares the electrical wiring and the computer interfaces. Everything will then be sent to Christophe Richard's team for assembly. Alsim does not maintain stocks and designs simulators when requested.

Between 170 and 250 hours of assembly work

After 170 hours of assembly work, the AL250 is ready. It takes 250 hours for the more complex ALX model, which on its own simulates a lot of different aircraft thanks to interchangeable joystick blocks, from a single-engine, piston-powered aeroplane, like a Cessna 172, to a business-jet, like a Citation II, and up to an ATR42 and an A320.

ALX

Once assembled, the simulator undergoes complete tests, in a dedicated space, before being delivered to the customer. The seat rails are tested, the simu is started to test that it

works correctly, the integration of the flight model is checked, as are the various instruments and the instructor station.

Then the giant Meccano is disassembled: all the items are transported by truck or container to the customer. There, a team of two people comes to reassemble the different pieces in the space provided for the simulator. A week’s work is required for reassembly and for the final tests after installation.

Each simulator has a quick maintenance kit that consists of a specific toolbox and sensitive components, including a computer, electronic cards, and so on…

Although all the components are made in-house by Alsim, the company still depends on some suppliers, especially for the GPSs.

Similarly, although all simulator computing depends on the Windows operating system, Alsim's IT team is gradually moving the simulator management computers to a Linux environment to increase reliability and stability.

A presence in the USA and China

In recent months, Alsim has been deploying an expansion strategy, prospecting new regions of the world, developing its services and expanding its range. Recently, the company launched the AL172, simulating a Cessna 172, specially designed for the US and Chinese markets.

It is precisely this Chinese market the company is targeting as it increases its presence a little more in the country. Alsim already had the support of the French Chamber of Commerce and Industry in China located in Shanghai where it had an office. To further ensure its presence in China, the company from Nantes has just signed a partnership agreement with AXAviation , which bought an AL42 and has become Alsim’s distributor in the country.

AL42

If Alsim looks at what is happening in the East, sometimes with concern at potential new competitors emerging, Jean-Paul Monnin, co-manager of Alsim, also looks to the United States with attention. The flagship product for the USA is the AL250. The Florida-based Cirrus Aviation Flying School commissioned an AL250, recently certified, in June 2017.

AL250

To be truly present in the US and not only through shows, Alsim opened an office in Austin, Texas, in May 2017, with two employees (a salesperson and a marketing and communication manager) with the objective of strengthening the sales team in 2018.

Specialising in fixed-wing simulation, the co-manager of Alsim has announced that he is thinking about expanding the range of simulators, especially for rotating wings, but without giving further details.

Airways College, subsidiary of Alsim

In 2012, the company acquired the Airways College flying school in Agen and Nimes, which serves as a test bed for simulators. But the ATO and its instructors should have a major role in the developments envisaged by Jean-Paul Monnin.

Alsim wishes to develop "educational recipes" for schools in the form of scenarios, documentation, and turnkey courses for ATOs that would complement a simulator. The goal is to support and make learning easier while using the full potential of the simulator which, according to the co-manager of Alsim, is often underexploited.

Education and training are key

Claiming to be more than a manufacturer of simulators, the company wants to focus on training and education that are a real cornerstone of the Alsim building. In addition, the company has developed an "engineering pack" offer for universities that allows students to study the aerodynamics and various set-ups of an aircraft, to create instruments such as autopilot and to test them on the simulator. It's a way of seeing what's

going on under the hood. Currently available with the AL250, this "toolbox" will be operational on the ALX within a few months, said Emmanuelle Dagréou, Head of Communications at Alsim.

“Certain French customers sometimes call and speak to us in English, probably not imagining that a company from Nantes is at the origin of their simulator" concluded Audrey Jeffroy, Sales Director at Alsim.

In short, it is the picture of an SME: a small company whose business is open to the world drawing on French roots and a lasting presence in Nantes.

Fabrice Morlon

About Fabrice Morlon

After studying literature, Fabrice Morlon turned to journalism. In 2013, he founded Airia Editions, a publishing agency specialising in aeronautics. A private pilot, he joined Aerobuzz's editorial team in early 2013. Fabrice Morlon is mainly in charge of light aviation, avionics and equipment.