Simulator Firm Returns to the Air

Flight simulator company Flight Experience is in business again after one of the company's founders bought it back from the receivers.
Russell Hubber and Iain Pero reclaimed Flight Experience Group's assets last week under a new company, Pacific Simulators 2010, and are planning for a new push into the United States.
Before it was put into receivership, Flight Experience was designing and building flight simulators, mostly as entertainment attractions.
It has sold 11 franchises, worth about $640,000 each, including five in New Zealand, four in Australia, one in Singapore and one in Hong Kong operating two simulators.
Last month the company was put into voluntary administration and two weeks later lender ASB Bank put it into receivership.
ASB was owed $4 million by Flight Experience but receiver Simon Thorn, of Grant Thornton, said money retrieved in the sale would not cover debt to the bank. It is understood Pero and Hubber paid about $400,000 for the company's assets leaving the bank with a significant shortfall, with other creditors and investors receiving no money.
Russell Hubber built the first simulator in his garage in Lincoln, outside Christchurch, during the 1990s. Iain Pero owns one of the simulator franchises in Sydney and is brother to Mike Pero, another big investor in Flight Experience.
Explaining his return to the business Hubber stated last week that "people have asked me why I'm getting back into it but I'm not hesitating in saying this company has a huge future (adding) "the US market is where we will be looking."
Equipment and the five remaining staff are now to be employed were moving to a smaller manufacturing plant.
Iain Pero added he had bought into the firm to keep the support going for his franchise in Sydney as "without the parent company we don't really have a business."