Posted by John McHale
BENGALURU, India, 25 May 2011. Officials at a joint venture between CAE in Montreal and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) of India -- the Helicopter Academy to Train by Simulation of Flying (HATSOFF) -- announced that its Dhruv helicopter simulator cockpit for the civil/conventional applications is now certified to Level D by India's Directorate General Civil Aviation (DGCA).
The helicopter simulator cockpit is integrated with a CAE full-mission simulator used at HATSOFF. The simulator is somewhat platform agnostic, enabling cockpits from multiple helicopter versions to be used in the simulator.  

More HAL-built Dhruv and the Eurocopter Dauphin cockpits will be added to the training center for the Indian army and air force within the next year.
The full-mission simulator uses a vibration platform, common motion system, and visual display system, as well as four separate cockpit modules that can be used in the simulator. When not in use by the simulator cockpits are used as a fixed-based flight training devices.