Aircare International is offering a new enhanced hypoxia training course for business aviation pilots and cabin crew at the company’s training centers in Dallas; Morristown, New Jersey; and Long Beach, California. Paris and the company’s other locations also have hypoxia training and are expected to offer the enhanced course in the next three years, a spokesman told AIN.

The enhanced course combines classroom instruction on high-altitude physiology with practical training using a hypoxia training platform. According to Aircare, the hypoxia training system fuses flight control simulation with a hypoxia-inducing reduced oxygen breathing device.

“Students are safely exposed to simulated altitudes of up to FL320 while operating an aircraft flight simulator,” Aircare said. “The system is designed to demonstrate how altitude can alter their performance, without the potentially harmful physical side effects of a decompression chamber.”

Brian Hayvaz, vice president of operations for Aircare’s Facts Training services, concluded, “This new system adds an element of realism while providing a safe environment in which to experience the dangers of hypoxia in flight.”