airbusbatics

For those that have seen the ad here on this site regarding the Multicrew Pilot Licence program with Alpha Aviation Academy (UAE) and might be thinking of joining - a little word of caution:

That same company has been running the same program in the Philippines (Clark) for the past 2 years now... Not one single cadet has graduated yet!

The initial promise was that the course would be done in one year. It's been double that now for the initial batches (think about living expenses, food, lost revenue if you gave up your job for this) and still no light at the end of the tunnel.

This MPL licence thing is still very much in it's beginnings and Alpha have jumped the gun and started offering it to anyone who is willing to part with some cash.

Please understand this: The MPL licence programme can only be done under the auspices of an airline. You MUST be a cadet and sponsored by an airline from day 1 to be able to complete this programme. It will have to be the airline to accept you and channel you through Alpha, you cannot be self sponsored. Do not believe any promises from the school that if you get on board now they will eventually find an airline to accept you later. It cannot be done.

ICAO representatives have been in the Philippines at the Clark Institute of Aviation the past month assessing the program as offered by Alpha and were not too pleased. They have informed the students there that whoever was not sponsored by the patronizing airline (Cebu Pacific in this case) would not be issued an MPL licence. It was not how ICAO had devised the MPL programme but rather just an interpretation from the school. So most of the cadets there (self-sponsored) will be left with absolutely no licence. Some of them have been there for 2years now and they will have nothing to show for it except 70 hours of flying on their logbooks. They paid 75,000 USD so those were very expensive flight hours...


For more information on how this program has been conducted so far please refer to the Clark Institute of Aviation thread on the South Asia forum. Post questions to the cadets there to get an idea on what you will be getting into. Try to avoid the same traps and pitfalls that these guys are going through. I will ask some of the cadets to post on this thread so as to share their experiences with you.

The MPL programme has not, so far, been conducted in the most appropriate way by Alpha. There has been a lot of trial and error.
So please make sure you get answers to any and every question you might have regarding this programme from Alpha, from the Sponsoring Airline and from the licence issuing Civil Aviation Authority before you commit your money.

For those of you who do decide to join the programme - Good Luck.

By starting this thread it is only my intent to help you to ensure that luck will not be a required factor in completing the programme.
I have no ill will whatsoever towards Alpha Aviation Academy and I believe that the MPL, if properly conducted as devised by the airlines and ICAO, is/will be a very valid path.

Salesman are salesman, pilots are pilots. I am a pilot.

Just trying to give you a heads up on some hurdles you might encounter as others have encountered with the same organisation.


Airbusbatics

malirm

Hi, Thank You for the information, I have some more info to add, AAA UAE is 51% owned by Air Arabia...& as I hear from some sources...Air Arabia will be recruiting from this school Plus providing their cadet pilot program in that school...but nothing is confirmed yet, so we're back to square 1.

I will be starting my flight training at a different place that is DAE Flight Academy & would like to know more about your impression/advice of that Academy!!!

PHAROH

& never will be.

Left Wing

Alpha Aviation Academy .. in Philippines has tie up Cebu Pacific but no one graduated...

SilveR5

I'm amazed to hear that all those cadets, or most of them, are after a non-sponsored/self-sponsored MPL training! That school must have exerted all the efforts to market its failing product. I'm not against MPL, but it shouldn't go this way though.

Greedy schools took advantage of the heedless enthusiasm of wannabes, while ICAO officials didn't do much to raise the awareness of the airline-specific/tailored new type of licence. I think this is where the problem lies.

Che Guevara

I am not sure ICAO is to blame for anything here....

SilveR5

As far as I know some ICAO Officials have visited that academy and were not so happy with the way things are going over there. May be it's not their legal responsibility, but they still carry some ethical responsibility, since ICAO is the "authority" endorsing and encouraging the MPL concept at first place. I think they are only partially blamed as they could have dealt better with what they've witnessed. Don't you think they should have made themselves very clear about where do they stand from this tryout rats academy?!
Sorry to cadets! no offense.

Ayla

As previously stated, ICAO do not do audits of Training Academies. If what you say is true they would have been doing an Audit of the Phillipines CAA (CAAP I think) and it's supervision of training.

Any points that they raise will be findings that apply to the CAAP.

axialflow

Anyone notice the Alpha Aviation Acad. banner in the ME forum??

Its advertising the MPL and 40 sectors on the 320. I assume this initial operating experience (40 sectors) is with an agreement with an airline...air arabia?

not a bad deal...

Ax

LomSeeWak

ax,
are clark offering time on the a320 as well or its just alfa in sharja?

axialflow

Clark has some sort of an agreement with Cebu Pacific...I ASSUME its a conditional hiring agreement, if so the new hire will get line training anyway but how many sectors will depend on the Philippines CAA BUT as mentioned before on this thread, no cadets have graduated yet from Clark.

Ax

google

heard all cadets at Alpha UAE will get 40 sectors with partner airline....can someone confirm if its Air Arabia?

SilveR5

Ayla..you are talking about legal responsibility, and I agree with you..but that wasn't my point buddy!

netfreak

Guys,

I've met the guys at Alpha Aviation and the setup is pretty good. I spoke the students as well and they've been guaranteed 40 sectors on the A320. It's no one's guess that its going to be Air Arabia for these sectors.

malirm

Thanks for the info...I wanted to join their training program in Sharjah...but, I was really afraid to get into the problems that the Phillipino guys went through at Clark Aviation!!!, so I went to the Ab-Intio training to get the F-ATPL...lets see if they graduate on-time & get a JOB after graduation.

I just heard that MPL carriers would last longer as FOs than that of the F ATPL holders, is that right!

Wizofoz

Great- you get 40 sectors in an A320- but do you get a License that will be acceptable to get a JOB????

SilveR5

It seems that there are some people who still don't get it. MPL is an Airline-specific training course. The training provider should formulate the training needs of a certain employer into the course offered to the SPONSORED cadets under the general outline of MPL concept. So if some1 gets the MPL in a self-sponsored manner, then he is putting himself in a serious risk as his training was based on the needs of NOBODY!

This type of licence is still far away from being an alternative to the fATPL course. And even those few airline companies who have showed the interest in MPL, still didn't take any serious steps forward implementing it as such in the near future. MPL carries lots of critics which make employers up until now suspecious about it. Only few systematic Beta-versions, with limited number of cadets, of the MPL have been tried in few countries (Australia and Denmark I guess).

So unless it is 100% guaranteed that a valid recruitment agreement between Alpha and Air Arabia or any other specific employer is there, then going for that course must be a practice of gambling hobby no more.

malirm, you've done the right thing anyway.

Cheers

mountaintop2007

If what Malirm says is true that AAA is 51% owned by Air Arabia (pls confirm anyone because this means this academy is therefore majority owned by Air Arabia, and not the other way around), isn't it logical to assume that Air Arabia is the partner airline for this MPL, which in turn fulfills Airbusbatics' main apprehension for the MPL (must have sponsor from day1)?

as for Clark, i guess no one should take anyone's word in this anonymous forum at face value. that ICAO report should be damning, if it is true, but since CAAP is the one who should be enforcing the CAR, everything has to be cross checked with them guys. last i heard, they are very close to doing Base training and licensing, but this is another rumor that needs to be checked.

malirm

I am 100% sure of my info...I spoke with them on the phone + my Avionics Teacher (who worked for Emirates Aviation College) works there after all, he was the one to invite me to that Academy!!!, but no one (even some employees) can say that MPL is the best choice at the moment! (but it will in the near future, say in 2011).

mountaintop2007

Has Sharjah CAA (sorry not sure what its name is) included the MPL in its CAR?