Page 98 - AA 2018_09

Flight Options
academy from 2019 with initial
capacity for 100 pilots a year rising to
a potential capacity of 500.
At the same time there are them using
numerous CASA Part 142-accredited
schools around the country capable of the SOPs for
training pilots to ATPL level. So what
makes the Flight Options proposal that airline.’
stand out?
For Holland and his senior TIM HOLLAND
colleague Phil Laffer, the Flight
Options head of operations and chief
pilot, it’s down to the quality of the
personnel, the sophistication of the
equipment, and a cleverly-tailored
regimen that will train each pilot to his
or her operator’s standard operating
procedures (SOPs).
“Between Phil and myself we can
do everything from zero to the ATPL
flight test – RPL, PPL, CPL, ATPL,
instrument ratings, and including all
the endorsements and ratings on the
way. It is literally a one-stop shop,”
Holland said.
The experience of the leadership is
beyond reproach.
Holland is a pragmatic
Yorkshireman with a depth of
knowledge that belies his age. His
career opened with the military in
the UK before he gained further
experience in other parts of the world
including the United States, Europe
and West Africa.
Holland and his wife Anita, a
doctor and also a pilot, came to
Australia via New Zealand where
he opened a flying school and was
the youngest flight examiner in the
country. He flew Citations in WA
before the couple decided to move
east with Holland setting up another
successful, and ongoing, flying school
in Gympie in Queensland. As he tells the basics to CPL training in
it, Steve Padgett had an eye on him for
98 AUSTRALIAN AVIATION
a while as a potential academy leader of writing, Flight Options was working
‘We will train given his background. on the interior of a building acquired
“He always wanted an academy but from Hawker Pacific and linked to its
had never been able to find the right Sunshine Coast Airport site HQ. It
person to run it,” Holland said. was still in the process of carpet laying
“I have an ATPL Grade One and office fitout.
training endorsement, with all The reality, however, is that the
the flight examiner upgrades and training course foundations have a
privileges that make me one of the longer history. Laffer stressed that the
most senior examiners in Australia. Flight Options team has been building
Steve kept talking to me to open elements of the school and the
this academy for him, so about three program for the past couple of years.
months ago I gave in and came over,” Both believe the training to an
he said. individual operator’s SOPs makes all
Holland also happens to be a the difference.
licensed aircraft engineer. It goes without saying that the
Laffer needs little introduction to course may have synergies with
those familiar with training and the Padgett’s Alliance Airlines operation,
world of business jets. As he puts it, but expressions of interest have gone
he is “part of the woodwork” having beyond the obvious: “We have a few
worked with Padgett for 21 years, different companies who are really
graduating from piloting tourist keen on the idea of taking cadets and
flights to running Sunshine Express training them to the specific airline
for several years before becoming they want to go to after they have been
integral to Padgett’s then aircraft sales interviewed,” Holland said.
business Aeromil as a ferry pilot and “Once they have passed their
more. interview for a particular airline we
“Steve got involved with Cessna will train them using the SOPs for
and I’m endorsed on just about every that airline, backed by once a month,
Cessna Citation,” he said. weekend visits to the airline to further
“Working support services for the learn their systems. It is a similar
aircraft sales team saw me involved concept to something they have been
in training. I thought that if we were doing in the UK and Europe for years.”
going to sell Citations and Mustangs, Cadets will progress from the basics
we needed to train our customer to CPL training in Cessna 182s before
operators. At the time we did a deal migrating to a multi-crew cooperation
with Singapore Flying College to use course (MCC) under the SOPs of their
their sim.” airline, and then instrument rating,
That simulator is now a keystone of as a pair, in the full motion Citation
the Flight Options operation alongside simulator.
the Ansett Aviation Training King Air, “So all of a sudden they are doing
and both come under Laffer’s remit. the same SOPs when they pop out the
In part, the three-month timeframe end and go to their airline for their
Cadets will progress from quoted by Holland underlines the type rating,” Holland said.
speed with which the new training Training fees would involve a
Cessna 182s. flight options regime is coming together. At the time cadet bonding on a three-year debt