Canadian-based simulation training provider CAE (Booth No. 4525) announced here at NBAA that it has signed an agreement with Brazilian jet manufacturer Embraer to form a global training joint venture to provide pilot and ground crew training on the new Phenom 100 and 300 light jets.

The initial training program will be offered at CAE SimuFlite in Dallas beginning in 2008, when the Phenom 100 is expected to enter service.

“This light jet market is very interesting to us,” CAE group president for civil training services and innovation Jeff Roberts told NBAA Convention News. “They’re making great progress.”

As owner-operators of smaller, less capable aircraft transition into jets that can fly much faster and higher than anything they’ve flown before, Roberts said CAE’s instructors will need to pay special attention to these pilots’ decision making skills.

“You have to understand how to best manage it without becoming encumbered by the speed and the sophistication,” Roberts said, referring to the various new electronic situational awareness tools that are being integrated into new aircraft. “Business aviation is segmenting and stratifying itself more and more. The specificity with which you design [a training program] has to be tailored. To assume one size fits all would be a mistake.”

The company’s Northeast training center in Whippany, N.J., is on schedule to open early next year featuring simulators for the Falcon 7X, 900EX EASy and 2000EX EASy; Gulfstream IV and G550; and Sikorsky S-76. A second G550 simulator will be available in Dubai as an upgrade to a GV simulator.