Australian Helicopter Schools Directory April 2021 (draft)
The Rotorcraft Asia-Pacific Business Association (RAPBA) has sent a copy of their draft school directory for checking by the folks listed. RAPBA has reported, as a surprise to many, the list had grown from around 35 to more than around 45 active school over the past year or so, despite the COVID-19 crisis. Also, it appears most schools are facing a shortage of instructors as a larger than normal number of student are in training at present.
The age-old yardstick for measuring the industry’s health is the current CPL(H) enrolments at Advanced Flight Theory on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland. Apparently, their classroom which holds more than 20 is almost full according to an industry source. Upon graduation, the students will be heading to their preferred flying school to obtain their commercial licence.
These instructor shortages are confirmed after all job advertisements from various sources are gathered together. Fortunately, there is an increasing list of pilot jobs, driven in part by the drought recovery in rural areas and the marked increase in tourism due to the closure of our international borders.
So really, even the most pessimistic observers would agree this upward trend in the helicopter industry is most welcome.
But …. aeroplane training industry is all bad news.
Respected The Australian aviation writer, Robyn Ironside, stated “Flight schools in nosedive due to COVID.” Her recent report was very sobering, when compared to the RW situation.
Robyn wrote aeroplane flight training schools are struggling to stay open. With no international students and domestic demand for pilots nosediving, flight training schools are struggling to survive until borders reopen. Already three major flight training academies in the region have called in receivers, including Soar Aviation, China Southern West Australian Flying College and L3 Harris commercial aviation.
And the future for at least two other large schools is becoming more uncertain the longer international borders remain closed. Flight Training Adelaide CEO, Pine Pienaar, said he had already let 25 per cent of his staff go, and recently farewelled another 28 people. Of the school’s 72 aircraft, only 36 were in use. And although close to 200 international students wanted to enrol in the flight training school, they were unable to get to Australia because of the border closure. “I had 450 students in the college in March last year,” he said.“
#End Robyn's quotes..
On 10 Mar 2021, helicopter school numbers are 41. However, maybe half a dozen have remote bases, so the numbers of school locations are about 46.
Schools A-Z.
NSW – 13
NT – 1
QLD – 15
SA – 3
TAS – 2
VIC – 4
WA – 3
Total = 41
Draft school list effective 10 Mar 2021 to follow.