Middle East flight school...

[franky17]

So this is not helicopter related at all, but it is deffenitly possible, I would like your input...

 

I pull into the airport today and there is 10 ICE homeland security agents "raiding" the fixed wing school, blocking off the road into the airport questioning every single person, right next to my helo office at the field.

 

Recently the fixed wing school was bought out from a couple from India, so naturally, every 9 out of 10 students from the school are from India and it arises alot of "suspicion"

 

Allthough I will say I have talked to many of the students just briefly and they are as nice as can be.

 

My question, whats your honest opnion seeing a "breeding ground" around your flight school or airport? Is this ok? What is it to the average joe pulling into the airport today seeing agents in bullet proof vest with his little boy wanting to join the aviation community?

[gmsemel]

Well get use to it, most of the Fixed wing Students these days come from India and the PRC, That is the People's Republic of China for those of you in Rio Linda. Its a fact of life for fixed wing schools, the demand for pilots in both nations are very high at present. They are full time, and there is a lot of demand for fixed wing instructors. I fly both, and I took a job teaching Chinese Students to fly from the PRC. I have also taught Indian's how to fly or tired, I don't like the indians much, and I had some real reservations about the Chinese, till I got my students, and I got to chat with one for a couple of hours this evening, over all a fine polite and decent young man. Its going to be a pleasure to teach him to fly. And I do think the other three will be just fine as well.

 

There are a lot of scumbag flight schools out there, and most all of them are owned or partly owned by Indians. If TSA raided the place they had a reason to or they would not have. And it takes a lot to get TSA interested.

 

Kemper Aviation a flight school in Florida, had its American co-owner kill himself and all aboard a few days ago, when he crashed an over grossed 172. Kemper caters to Indian Student trade and well nothing more needs to be said about it. The Feds will be all over them too.

[permison]

So this is not helicopter related at all, but it is deffenitly possible, I would like your input...

 

I pull into the airport today and there is 10 ICE homeland security agents "raiding" the fixed wing school, blocking off the road into the airport questioning every single person, right next to my helo office at the field.

 

Recently the fixed wing school was bought out from a couple from India, so naturally, every 9 out of 10 students from the school are from India and it arises alot of "suspicion"

 

Allthough I will say I have talked to many of the students just briefly and they are as nice as can be.

 

My question, whats your honest opnion seeing a "breeding ground" around your flight school or airport? Is this ok? What is it to the average joe pulling into the airport today seeing agents in bullet proof vest with his little boy wanting to join the aviation community?

 

This wouldn't have been Kemper Aviation would it? I see this a lot in IT. Companies that will only work with a certain nationality or race and cutting corners on safety, security, or falsifying experience. It shouldn't happen but it does all too often in a lot of industries.

 

There have been a number of consulting companies that have tried to submit consultants to my company who during the interview it became clearly obvious that their experience was not the same as what was on their resume. Guys with Masters or Doctorates who couldn't spell PHP never mind code in it. The worst part is the company clearly helped obviously unqualified people try to get jobs by outright falsification merely because the individual was from similar backgrounds. It happens far too often to be a coincidence.

 

It is especially concerning in Aviation, where safety is everything. Not so big a deal when one is coding a web page but when it is someone behind the yoke of a multi-ton aircraft it becomes all too different of an issue.

[Darkhorse]

for those of you in Rio Linda.

 

[permison]

Wasn't there a big news story last year about an India airline whose pilots were not appropriately qualified, something about the level of certification or experiance?

[FLHooker]

I also work for a flight school who has in the past year received a large contract to teach Chinese students to fly FW. I will say that it's not our only student base though. The students that are here are highly motivated (few bad apples), have a great sense of humor, and truly good people to be around. That being said, we do NOT cut corners on safety, etc. We still have our name and standard to uphold. If they don't understand something or do an unsafe maneuver, it's unsat. We are certainly not just looking to 'pump' them through our school and send them on their way, we want them to succeed.

[propwasher]

Wasn't there a big news story last year about an India airline whose pilots were not appropriately qualified, something about the level of certification or experiance?

 

I agree with gmsemel - India is really hurting for pilots right now, both fixed wing and rotary. Commercial aviation is expanding very rapidly. When that happens sometimes the infrastructure and the watchdog agencies find it hard to keep up. Case in point - a few years ago an Airbus 320 crashed short of the runway in Mumbai. The Indian equivalent of our NTSB determined the cause to be double turban failure.