Source: Massey University
The School of Aviation is off to a flying start to 2022, with training flight hours achieved for January breaking all past records. Approximately 1371 flight hours were recorded for the month, in comparison to 880 in January 2021 and 707 in January 2020.
Chief Flight Instructor Paul Kearney says the record reflects the efforts not only of the instructors, students, and the scheduling team, but also the efforts of the maintenance engineers. Under the close supervision of Maintenance Manager Tom McCready, they keep the aircraft in top shape. “It’s not unusual to see our aircraft start flying at 7am and still going at 9pm, seven days a week. A huge thank you to everyone who did their bit to make this happen,” Mr Kearney says.
Bachelor of Aviation student pilots are required to complete a demanding schedule of training flights as part of their professional development. Achieving this schedule can be challenging as there are a number of factors that influence when flights are able to occur, such as aircraft availability, weather events, staff availability, and accommodating students’ academic obligations.
Despite this, the high number of flying hours achieved in January reflects very high productivity, says Mr Kearney.
He adds that this productivity is also tied to the requirement of keeping aircraft in a safe flying condition at all times, which the team of engineers are tasked with. This means adhering to the standard mandated ground aircraft maintenance inspections by hours, plus regular spot checks and responding to issues on demand as identified by pilots or students during flights.
“Achieving flight hours as submitted means that engineers, flight schedulers, instructors and students all have to work in sync, which is not always an easy task. As well as all that, the weather has to be suitable too.”
