Tulsa Flight Simulator is Fourth in Country to be FAA Certified

TULSA, Okla. – The Oklahoma State University Center for Aerospace and Hyperbaric Medicine and the Tulsa Community College Flight School have gained certification from the Federal Aviation Administration for its GAT II flight simulator.  The flight simulator is only the fourth in the nation to be FAA certified and is the only certified simulator west of the Mississippi River.

“We’re excited to offer to the aviation community an FAA certified flight simulator that will allow pilots and student pilots to record time spent in the device as simulator flight time in their official flight records,” explains Dr. Paul Rock, director of the OSU Center for Aerospace and Hyperbaric Medicine, located at the Tulsa Technology Center campus at Jones Riverside Airport near Jenks, Okla. 

The GAT II is a three-axis-motion flight simulator and trainer that replicates flight in a Cessna 172, the most frequently used and popular aircraft for flight training in the civilian, general aviation community.  During operation, a pilot or student sits inside the simulator, which responds, moves and sounds like the Cessna 172.  The GAT II can simulate flight anywhere in the United States including taking off, flying between and landing at any airport in the country.  It also simulates any weather condition and night flight.  Additionally, it is used to demonstrate visual-spatial disorientations that are a major cause of loss of control in flight resulting in fatal aviation accidents.

The certification of the flight simulator is the result of more than three years of collaborative effort between the OSU Center for Aerospace and Hyperbaric Medicine and the Tulsa Community College Flight School.  Support for the certification effort has come from the Tulsa Aviation Education Alliance.  The TAEA is an association founded more than 10 years ago for the purpose of sharing resources between local educational institutions and facilitating access by students to high school through doctoral-level programs in aviation mechanics, flight, management, aerospace engineering, physiology and medicine.  The five member institutions include OSU-Stillwater, OSU-Tulsa, OSU Center for Health Sciences, Tulsa Community College and Tulsa Technology Center. 

The OSU Center for Aerospace and Hyperbaric Medicine is part of the OSU Center for Health Sciences in Tulsa, which offers programs in osteopathic medicine, biomedical sciences and forensic sciences. The OSU College of Osteopathic Medicine has been nationally ranked by U.S. News & World Report as one of the top medical schools in the nation for the past six years. OSU Medicine operates five physicians clinics, four in Tulsa and one in Enid.