Loft Dynamics and Pathfinder Aviation to Install Alaska's First Airbus H125 VR Simulator in Anchorage

Loft Dynamics and Pathfinder Aviation announced on September 17, 2026 that Pathfinder will install Alaska's first Airbus H125 virtual reality flight simulator at its main base in Anchorage, giving its pilots year-round access to aircraft-specific training. The simulator is expected to arrive in Anchorage in October 2026, and Pathfinder plans to begin using it immediately for proficiency and mission training.

Pathfinder operates a fleet of 22 helicopters — 18 AS 350s and four Bell 212s — and averages approximately 8,000 flight hours annually, supporting remote operations and precision external-load work across Alaska and the continental United States. The company employs 35 pilots, 40 mechanics and 17 administrative and support personnel. Pathfinder plans to use the simulator for inadvertent IMC (IIMC) avoidance, Part 135 emergency procedures, Part 133 external-load operations, normal and abnormal procedures, whiteout conditions, and mountain, pinnacle, slope and confined-site operations.

Loft Dynamics is developing simulator scenery based on Pathfinder's real-world heli-ski operating areas in the Chugach Mountains, including the Valdez/Thompson Pass region and north Cordova. The simulator will initially support Pathfinder's internal pilot group, with plans to make it available to other helicopter operators and pilots in the region as local demand develops. Pathfinder intends to pursue FAA Level 7 flight training device qualification for the simulator and, once qualified, incorporate available FAA training credits into its formal training programs.

Sebastien Borel, CEO of Loft Dynamics, said "Alaska exposes the limits of a training model that depends on good weather, spare aircraft and long-distance travel," adding that "Pathfinder is changing the equation by putting H125 training at its base in Anchorage, where pilots can train more often, safely and on their own schedule." Rogan Parker, CEO of Pathfinder Aviation, said "The value of having this simulator in Anchorage is repetition," and that "We can put pilots through a whiteout, IIMC event or emergency, work through decision making, then run the scenario again. That kind of repetition is hard to achieve consistently in the aircraft." The Anchorage installation follows Loft Dynamics' work with operators including Air Greenland and Helitrans Norge.

This installation belongs to a broader move to place aircraft-specific simulation directly at remote operating bases rather than requiring pilots to travel to centralized training centers. Helicopter training in Alaska is complicated by weather-limited flyable days, restricted winter daylight and peak operating periods when aircraft are needed for missions, and most of Pathfinder's pilots live outside Alaska and travel in for training events — conditions a base-sited simulator addresses directly by decoupling training from weather and aircraft availability.

How much this changes Pathfinder's training economics depends on FAA Level 7 qualification, which the company intends to pursue but has not yet secured; only once qualified can available FAA training credits be folded into formal training programs. The scenery work tied to Pathfinder's actual Chugach Mountains operating areas, including Valdez/Thompson Pass and north Cordova, points toward scenario fidelity that generic simulators would not offer.

Watch whether Pathfinder secures that FAA Level 7 qualification and whether the simulator's planned expansion to other regional operators and pilots materializes as local demand develops, which would extend the base's utility beyond Pathfinder's own 35 pilots.