First A400M crews trained! While the first deliveries of the A400M to France and Turkey will begin shortly, we take a look at the crew training. Pilots, and the people in charge of cargo, the load masters, train at Airbus Military in Seville, Spain. At the Airbus Military Training Centre in Seville, Spain, crew-training on the A-400-M has started. The pilots have access to the latest simulator, developed by Thales. The loadmasters have, at their disposal, an exact life-size replica of the rear of the military transport plane’s fuselage. To pilot the Atlas, 80 hours in the simulator are scheduled, and are often supplemented by two real flights; even though, regarding the realistic aspect, this flight training machine is in every way comparable to the cockpit of the A-400-M. "This simulator is designed to meet the specific military training ... Drivers can thus lead to in-flight refueling, the parachute jumps, maneuvers at low altitude ... The size of display screens is much greater than what we see on civil simulators, as it allows drivers to have a good visual representation of the ground when flying at low altitude, and the sky when performing refueling flight. » 16 French air force pilots and engineers are already operational, and three Turkish teams are in training until the end of August. Eventually, the seven nation clients should all have two simulators, but for the moment France is the only one, and this will be operational in October. But the A-400-M is primarily a military transport plane, capable of carrying 37 tonnes of cargo in the hold. In addition to piloting training, loadmasters, therefore, must also be trained; it is they who are responsible for the loading and unloading of equipment. To do this, Airbus Military has developed a life-size replica of the aircraft hold. One way of training staff without having to immobilize an A-400-M on the ground. "Until now we used to train at the loading and unloading of equipment that I would describe as 'basic' as trucks, 4x4 or pallets ... but in the longer term, when we will move to a more tactical training, we will use all the material that can carry the device as helicopters, large containers." It requires 64 hours to train a loadmaster. So far, 14 have been trained, and to accelerate the pace, the United Kingdom and Germany have ordered this imposing training tool. Whilst the A-400-M is not yet in service, the first crews are fully prepared to deploy the aircraft in the field of operations.