What Makes a Great Flight Simulator Technician? Hiring for Potential, Not Just Experience
- Sam Austin
- Jul 20
- 6 min read
Maybe your next standout Flight Simulator technician isn’t the most experienced, just the most ready to learn.
Ask most simulator or training centre managers what they want in a technician or engineer, and you’ll get a long list of highly specific skills: electronics, avionics, IT networking, mechanical repair, software troubleshooting, and on the spot thinking under pressure. And yes, those are all important. But there’s a real problem with this approach: people like that are almost impossible to find.
And if you wait until they walk through the door, you’ll be waiting a very long time.
The best technicians are rarely the ones who come in knowing it all.
We help training centre operators find and train new simulator technicians and engineers all the time. We’ve worked with national training centres, private sim owners, defence contractors, and major airlines. And the lesson we keep learning is this:
The best technicians are rarely the ones who come in knowing it all. They’re the ones who are built to learn, and never stop learning.
What the Simulator Industry Needs Right Now
If you operate flight simulators today, you already know the issue. It’s getting harder and harder to hire. Many experienced techs are retiring. OEM support for older sims is drying up. Graduate and training pipelines are thin if they exist at all. And it’s becoming clear that the next generation of sim support is going to have to be built from the ground up.
So what should you be looking for?
Hiring Based on Traits, Not Just Tools
Let’s flip the usual hiring checklist on its head. Instead of asking who knows how to replace a pitch potentiometer or debug a motion system, start by asking:
Can this person figure things out without giving up?
Do they stay calm under pressure?
Are they curious about how things work?
Can they work independently and as part of a team?
Do they take pride in fixing something that was broken?
That mindset matters far more than whether they’ve worked on a flight sim before.
We’ve seen excellent techs come from backgrounds like:
IT support
Vehicle mechanics
Broadcast engineering
Industrial controls
Aviation ground schools
None of these are a perfect match. But they all share the kind of cross discipline thinking simulator maintenance requires.
If you’re willing to train, these people can learn the skills that your business needs to successfully operate your simulators for the long haul.
Why Most Job Ads Miss the Mark
We reviewed 20 simulator technician job ads posted by operators around the world. Here’s what we found:
Around 65% stipulated a degree in electrical engineering or avionics
Approximately 60% asked for flight simulator experience
Almost 40% listed five or more years in the aviation industry as a requirement
Because the people you want to attract aren’t just sitting around waiting for their perfect job description.
This sounds impressive until you realise the best junior technicians and engineers out there don’t meet those requirements.
Worse still, they won’t even apply.
That’s a problem. Because the people you want to attract aren’t just sitting around waiting for their perfect job description. They’re fixing things in other industries, looking for more meaningful work.
If you want to build a long term team, you need to start by hiring for potential.
What Makes a Great Sim Tech/Engineer? Let’s Break It Down
We spoke with operators, engineers, and former military sim maintainers and compiled the traits they value most.
Here are the top ten traits that show up again and again:
1. Curiosity
Great technicians ask, “Why did this fail?” instead of just, “How do I fix it?” They dig deeper. They want to understand what’s really going on. People that are genuinely fascinated by how things work; they're the kind of people you want.
2. Logical Thinking
Simulators are systems of systems. Fixing one fault often means tracing a signal path, testing software behaviour, or checking physical alignments. Good techs think in cause and effect chains, and have a natural knack for problem solving and trouble shooting.
3. Calm Under Pressure
Pilots are waiting. Instructors are watching. The sim is down. The best technicians don’t panic. They keep their head cool and work the problem. They also don't overpromise and underdeliver - they manage the expectations of the sim users anxiously waiting to get back in the box.
4. Adaptability
Every day brings a new challenge. It might be a blown fuse today and a corrupted config file tomorrow. Great techs change gears fast. An adaptable mindset and attitude go a long way to ensuring that systems don't stay down longer than absolutely necessary.
5. Hands On Instincts
Simulators are physical machines. Being comfortable with tools, connectors, panels, and wiring is essential. Basically, the best techs/engineers are the ones who can work with a keyboard, a multi-meter and a torque wrench all within the one fault rectification.
6. Good Communication
Techs don’t just fix things. They explain what happened, write logs, and teach others. Being clear, brief, and honest matters. They also are you front line customer service representatives; they're the first people that your simulator end users interact with when something goes wrong. Poor communicators can harm you company's reputation.
7. Pattern Recognition
Sim faults repeat. A great technician can see when a small glitch points to a bigger problem they’ve seen before. Pattern recognition is one of the great traits of effective problem solvers.
8. Ownership Mentality
They treat the simulator like it’s their own. They’re proud of its performance. They clean up their work areas. They leave it better than they found it.
9. Desire to Learn
No one knows everything. A good tech keeps growing, reading manuals, asking questions, and picking up new skills. A strong desire to learn is one of the foundational characteristics we look for in good future technicians.
10. Ethical Judgment
This one is huge. Simulators are training pilots who will carry lives or carry out critical missions. Techs sometimes face pressure to cut corners. A great one doesn’t; and knows how to manage the pressure that comes along with that.
What We Look For When Training New Technicians
We run technical training programs for operators who want to build their in-house talent. Here’s what we’ve found most helpful:
Hire people with general technical confidence and competence, not necessarily simulator specific experience.
Pair them with mentors early so they can see how the work is actually done.
Give them real tasks, but support them with fault guides and escalation options.
One client started training a junior IT support worker that they hired to join their internal team. After six months of mentorship and hands on work, she became the go to tech for their visual system.
She didn’t come in with simulator experience. She came in with the right mindset.
“But I Need Someone Who Can Hit the Ground Running”
We hear this a lot. It’s a valid concern. But here’s the counterpoint:
Even the best experienced hire will need time to learn your sim.
Every device is different. Configs are customised. Fixes are often based on past quirks. Whether someone has 20 years or 2 months under their belt, they’ll still need:
time to learn your simulator's specific systems
support to get up to speed with other requirements like record keeping systems
encouragement to ask for help or seek out support in the right places
If you hire for potential, you can build loyalty and skill that lasts.
And with good training and documentation, they’ll ramp up faster than you think.
“What if They Leave After I Train Them?”
Fair point. No one wants to spend months building someone up just to watch them walk away. But here’s the truth:
They’re more likely to stay if they feel valued and challenged.
"Train people well enough so they can leave, treat them well enough so they don't want to." - Richard Branson
If you build a workplace where techs and engineers can grow, use their brain, solve real problems, and know their work matters, they won’t be eager to leave. We’ve seen junior techs stay with their teams for five, ten, even fifteen years, just because someone gave them a shot early on.
Yes, people will leave over time, it's inevitable, but as Henry Ford so succinctly put it "The only thing worse than training your employees and having them leave is not training them and having them stay."
How We Can Help
If you’re ready to think differently about hiring and training your next sim technician or engineer, we can help in three ways:
1. Recruiting Support
We can help you write job ads that speak to real people, not just checkbox qualifications.
2. Targeted Training
We offer practical, focused training that gives new hires the confidence to take on their first solo tasks.
3. On Call Mentoring
We provide remote technical support so your junior techs always have someone to call when they hit a wall.
The Next Great Tech Might Be Right in Front of You
Your best future technician might already be working in your IT department, fixing your forklifts, or finishing up an aviation diploma. They might be someone who’s never even seen a Level D sim before, but who can trace a signal, ask smart questions, and stay calm when a system crashes.
They just need a chance.
At Simutech Solutions, we help you find, train, and keep people like that; so you’re not stuck every time someone retires or moves on.
Want help building your next generation of technicians? Let’s talk.
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