Flight training academy that's so well grounded

Instead, he learned his skills in the USA and, as an investor in the world’s most popular general aviation aircraft company, Cirrus Design, he began to appreciate more and more about first-class training facilities and what was needed to change the perception of careers in aviation.

“Aviation has been seen as a secondary career in the Arab world,” Atalla said. “Yet it is something that is needed to meet the future demands in our region. I felt that piloting is about a lot more than just flying the airplane. It is about leadership, about working in teams, about loyalty and responsibility.”

So Atalla decided to create his own training academy. The result is Ayla.

Based at King Hussein International airport in Aqaba, Ayla Aviation Academy has been training pilots from Royal Jordanian Airlines, Gulf Air, Kuwait Airways, Bahrain Air and Oman Air and is providing aspiring self-funded pilots with training using state-of-the-art aircraft, simulators and training techniques.

From the moment you enter the glass doors of the flight-centre at the airport, the sense of style and command is apparent.

Instructors are dressed in crisp uniforms, as are the students. This is a centre that means business.

While most of the classrooms are at the ground school in the centre of Aqaba, there are also immaculate lecture rooms. In the dispatch centre, all of the charts, the weather reports, NOTAMs and other data is available for students to check before lessons. Here you live and breath aviation.

The quality of the students is high. For Atalla, it is not about numbers. “We have a limit on our student intake. We have a comprehensive selection testing process, and stay innovative and progressive in our training,” he said. “We stick to our basic principle of providing quality over quantity. It is of no use to us taking on a student who is not going to make it.”

Atalla is like a father-figure, or a favourite uncle, to the students and there is a strong sense of togetherness. “I like to get the groups away from the training school and into the desert,” he said. “We do team-building exercises and learn to work together. On the flight deck you need to work together and respect each other. I want to develop leaders as well as good pilots.”

Before launching Ayla, Atalla hired global consulting firm SH&E to study the flight academy needs and existing market. Jordan , with its liberal and progressive attitude to business and aviation in particular, was seen as an ideal location from which to operate. Any training should be based on the JAA syllabus and any training aircraft should have the glass cockpit – now essential for any modern airliner.

Atalla visited training schools in Europe and worked closely with Oxford , Cabair and Atlantic Flight Training (AFT) before creating the Near East Group, which became the owner of Ayla and then AFT in Coventry .

“I was very impressed by what I saw at Atlantic ,” Atalla said. “By working together we were able to provide a world class facility and capability.”

The hard work for the JAA syllabus paid off earlier this year when Ayla became the first in the Middle East to receive JAA approval to conduct APTL theoretical knowledge training.

Ayla was already offering an ICAO Jordanian CPL/IR, issued by the Civil Aviation Regulatory Commission (CARC) with a Frozen ATPL, an ICAO CPL/IR with fully-approved JAA ATPL theoretical knowledge with Frozen ATPL, and a joint program with AFT in which cadets can obtain a fully-approved JAA license by completing a majority of their training at Ayla in Aqaba, Jordan and the remainder at AFT in Coventry, UK.

Atalla said: “ Using both schools, Ayla and AFT, we are able to provide cadets with a fully-approved JAA license, making them more marketable and competitive in the global market.”

The long-term vision is for the multi crew pilot licence (MPL). “That is the way ahead,” said Atalla. “I really believe in that programme.”

The MPL training programme uses a competency-based approach in lieu of the “required hours” utilised in traditional training methodologies. In addition to training a candidate in basic flying skills, MPL maximises the use of two-pilot airplanes, simulators, and flight training devices to train candidates for airline entry proficiency on turbine-powered aircraft, and establish a foundation in crew concepts such as Crew Resource Management (CRM) and Threat and Error Management (TEM).

The minimum experience that an MPL holder will be required to have is 240 hours total time, which may be obtained in either an aircraft or a simulator.

Ayla has the aircraft that would be ideal for the basic skills. The Academy offers new Cessna 172 Skyhawks with the Garmin 1000 glass cockpits for the basic PPL stage of its current training. Students then progress to the Diamond DA40 TDI twin engines for their multi-engine ratings. The school also uses Alsim AL200-DA42 simulators that give a true representation of the DA42, which allows the students to get familiar with the complexity and the systems of the aircraft before taking to the air.

The instructors reflect the diversity of the aviation community with a mix of experienced ground school training captains and young enthusiastic flying instructors.

The academy is also progressive in its approach with a number of women instructors and female cadets.

Capt Natasha Sultan is one of the female instructors. Born in Pakistan and trained at a flying school in Lahore , she is finding the experience at Ayla priceless. “It is a fantastic place, with everybody committed to learning and doing it properly,” she said. 

Sultan admitted that there had been some cultural issues, with some students having reservations about taking instruction from a woman, but these were quickly resolved.

Ayla is so committed to the issue that, in 2010, it will be hosting the first ever conference on the role of women in aviation in the Middle East .

Students are helped with accommodation and at the ground school there are modern classrooms with the latest teaching aids. There are also areas for relaxation and gyms.

The flying conditions are ideal. The airport has a 10,000 foot runway and operates 24/7 with full Air Traffic Control and facilities for full instrument training. Although the immediate airspace is tightly controlled due to close proximity to Egypt , Saudi Arabia and Israel , there is a large nearby training area with multiple visual references.

For Atalla the job doesn’t stop on graduation. “We keep in touch with our former cadets. We have an alumni and we are there to help. We are not building pilots, we are building careers. As a training academy we are what we produce.”