ST Aviation Training Academy (STATA) plans to launch a beta test of its multi-crew pilot licence (MPL) training course by the end of this year.
The training company, which is part of Singapore-based St Aerospace, intends to run three trial courses with 12 students each, says Adrian Cheok, STATA vice-president operations. The course will take 16 months, with four months contingency built in for making any changes, he says. Following the beta trial, STATA aims to make any necessary changes to the course and launch MPL courses for airlines, training 500 cadets a year, by 2010.
Phase one of the MPL course, comprising core flying, will take place at STATA's Australian flying training school in Ballarat, Victoria, on Cessna 172s. Multi-crew training will be conducted using flight simulation training devices in Singapore.
Cheok says STATA is working in conjunction with key stakeholders, such as academic institutions, aviation authorities, equipment manufacturers, government bodies and pilot associations to develop the course. Thales, for example, is providing simulation solutions, while Embry Riddle Aeronautical University is providing scientific validation. Captain Dieter Harms, a senior adviser to the International Air Transport Association, is a consultant to STATA on the programme.
One problem with MPL development, according to Cheok, is that each individual aviation authority will have different standards and legislation for MPL that are developed independently from each other. "STATA believes that the best recourse to overcome this problem of patchwork approvals is the collaboration of regional partners such as national authorities, airlines, academics and other aviation specialists," he says. As a result, STATA is in discussions with national aviation authorities throughout the Asia-Pacific region and plans to bring them together to address MPL issues next month, with a view to developing some sort of standardisation in the region.
Harms says Asia is taking a lead in MPL implementation because of the region's need for airline pilots, the ability of Asia-Pacific aviation authorities to quickly adapt aviation regulations and the fact that the region is not "contaminated by entities that fear a negative impact on their business by the new training scheme".
Source: Flight International
