Dubai Aerospace Enterprise Flight Academy to launch flight training in March 2008

The DAE Flight Academy today received the decision by the UAE General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) to approve the flight academy's integrated Air Transport Pilot License (ATPL) curriculum.

Commenting on the approval, Dr. George H. Ebbs, President and CEO of DAE University said:

'The GCAA approval is an important milestone in our aviation education strategy. In approving our curriculum the UAE GCAA has st a very high standard for the academy but one which we can meet. With our unique bank of instructional and training methodologies we aim to establish the academy as a key centre for professional aviation pilot training, regionally and globally.'

Comfortably housed in 48,000 square feet of hangar and classroom space, the DAE Flight Academy's advanced training syllabus - used by a highly successful programme in the USA for three years - will ride on state-of-the-art infrastructural support to deliver qualified professionals directly into command positions.

The DAE Flight Academy's innovative approach to flight training will build in key instructional components: the optimising of learning by focusing on realistic flight scenarios using high fidelity aircraft simulators, progressive airline philosophy that pilots are members of a cockpit crew - not solo pilots, and the use of turbine powered (jet) multi-engine aircraft as a core component.

The DAE Flight Academy will use advanced technical single engine aircraft which l feature all-glass cockpits that are standard in large, modern commercial airliners, and will be powered by diesel engines when certification is completed within the first half of 2008. The planned multi-engine aircraft is a very light jet (VLJ) and will be the only turbine-powered training aircraft used as a basic trainer outside the defence environment.

'Our graduates make safer and more effective airline pilots because significant time is spent helping cadets improve critical thinking and judgment skills through the use of scenario-based training,' said William Roe, Director of the DAE Flight Academy. 'At the Academy, cadets spend a notable part of their training in simulators, thereby learning like airline pilots.

Superior airmanship, judgment, aeronautical decision making, and threat and error management are key qualities that the DAE Flight Academy's revolutionary curriculum promises to deliver. This curriculum has been adapted to also meet European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) / Joint Aviation Authorities (JAA) training requirements for an approved flight training school

The DAE Flight Academy's first students have already joined. Among DAE University's inaugural undergraduate cohort are future cadets who have enrolled into DAEU's Flight and Aviation Management programme. These students will spend their fourth year at DAE Flight Academy completing their training to become degree-holding first officers for an airline. They matriculate into the flight training portion of their academic studies in 2010.

Superbly qualified, they will enter a demanding industry. Strong and continued growth in air traffic is predicted for the GCC region by airplane manufacturers Boeing and Airbus while AeroStrategy, an aviation and aerospace market research firm, has estimated the region and subcontinent will by 2015 need more than double the current number of skilled positions in the civil aviation sector.

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