Former Metro student
designs flight simulator
 

By Sean Weaver
The Metropolitan

Metroâs aviation department might handle simulated passenger traffic in the fall semester, when aviation students use a computerized cockpit-training device.

Carmen Opidee, a former airline mechanic and Metro graduate, said the project of building the simulators is about 80 percent complete.

ãItâs become part of my soul,ä said Opidee, who started working on the project as a work-study student.
Opidee said he and part-time instructor Hans Kiener, who is writing software programs for the simulator, have spent  three years building the simulators from shells donated by United Airlines.

Assistant professor Kevin Kuhlmann said Kiener and Opidee built the simulators for 10 percent of what an outside contractor would have charged. Kuhlmann said most of the money from the simulators is covered through a grant from the Federal Aviation Administration.

ãIt was a lot of trial and error,ä Opidee said explaining the building process. In addition to writing the software programs and installing the simulatorâs computers and monitors, he and Kiener made mechanical modifications to simulate working conditions.

ãWe would try plan A, go to plan B, and modify it for plan C,ä he said.
Kuhlmann said the simulator will give students the opportunity to feel what itâs like to be in the cockpit of a major airliner.

Will there be simulated peanuts aboard?

ãProbably not,ä Kuhlmann said, ãWe donât want any food or drink in there, considering the money we put into it.ä