Curriculum Staff Visit Local Aviation Simulator Business – Flyme
Recently, the Curriculum Team for Computing and Digital at Dearne Valley College were invited to tour the facilities of the local Flight Simulation business – FlyMe.
Founded in 2019 and opened in 2020, FlyMe is a one-of-a-kind virtual airport and flight simulator experience located in Barnsley, South Yorkshire.
The business regularly welcomes schools and colleges from across the country, offering an immersive airport experience, which includes fully themed areas including check-in, departure lounge, security, gates and air traffic control. They also have a genuine Boeing 737 aircraft that was previously operated by a major UK airline.
The team were given the full tour including seeing behind the scenes and were shown how the whole experience is set up, with masses of computing and graphics power required to power the inclusive experience.
FlyMe also offers a wide range of hands-on training from Cabin Crew to Pilot training as well as practical experience for courses related to Travel & Tourism and Air Cabin Crew with a full-day curriculum covering everything from Pre-flight safety demonstrations, on-board medical emergencies, pilot incapacitation, operating the aircraft doors, on-board fires, emergency evacuation procedures, lifesaving, resuscitation & first aid.
Staff were given a tour by the Head of Operations at FlyMe – Becky Hutchinson, who has worked for the business for the past 3 years.
Becky had this to say: “It was great to welcome the team from Dearne Valley College, we’re always happy to work with schools and colleges in the local area who are interested in the aviation industry. Whether that’s students studying travel and tourism and looking to work as cabin crew or pilots, or perhaps students interested in the more technical side of the simulation software and the hardware required to run all the systems necessary to deliver a professional experience to our visitors.”
Talking about how the trip would benefit the College students, Curriculum Team Leader for Computing and Esports – Lee Bowes said: “The purpose of this visit was to see how this successful business is using Virtual and Augmented Reality systems to deliver real-world simulations and training to the aviation industry and see how cutting edge gaming technology is being utilised to deliver a seamless and enjoyable user experience. The team were also strengthening their industrial links with a view to this being the start of a mutually beneficial relationship between the two organisations.