Profile - Quality Learning

Of the two major civil flying training institutes in the country, NFTI has risen to the top in an incredibly short span of three years. It is now the preferred institute not only for aspiring pilots but for private airlines as well.

In 2005, the boom in the airline industry led to the proliferation of flight training schools all over the country. Some of these institutions lacked the basic infrastructure, aircraft and qualified staff, and others bypassed norms due to poor regulatory oversight, leading to a large variation in training quality and standards. Consequently, there was alarming dilution in the overall professional competence and proficiency levels of freshly trained commercial pilots. With demand outstripping supply in the wake of rapid expansion, airlines were not in a position to exercise discretion while hiring pilots and they employed whoever came along provided he or she could produce a Commercial Pilot Licence (CPL). With the discovery of several pilots having obtained civil flying licence by unfair means, it emerged that the licensing system in the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) had also been successfully subverted.

Undoubtedly, there was and continues to be the need for quality training institutes that can deliver to the standards demanded by the Indian civil aviation industry, especially the airlines. It was with this vision that CAE Global Academy, better known as the National Flying Training Institute (NFTI) was founded at Gondia in Maharashtra.

Origins of the school

NFTI, which is a joint venture of CAE and Airports Authority of India with CAE holding 51 per cent, received its no objection certificate (NOC) in December 2008. Flying training commenced in February 2009 and the first CPL was issued on June 30, 2010. NFTI is one of the 11 flight schools under the CAE Global Academy, the largest global ab initio flight school network. The other institute under this organisation is the Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Uran Akademi (IGRUA). The parent company CAE, founded in 1947 and headquartered in Canada, is the world leader in civil aviation training, simulation and services.

According to Suzanne Roy, CAE Global Academy leader, India’s population is huge with a significant need for well-qualified pilots to meet fleet growth in the region. The challenge before the flight schools is to be well positioned to support this growth.

NFTI Today

In just three years since its establishment, NFTI has witnessed phenomenal growth. For training, it has nine aircraft including one multi-engine Diamond DA42 ‘Twinstar’ and eight single-engine Diamond DA40 ‘Diamond Star’. The chief flying instructor (CFI) is assisted by six flight instructors and four assistant flight instructors. The maintenance staff is headed by the chief engineer, who is supported by four aircraft maintenance engineers, six technicians, ten apprentices and six helpers. The maintenance staff has strong focus on sound maintenance practices under the watchful eyes of the airworthiness manager ensuring high levels of serviceability of the fleet and air safety. The Ground School located in the administrative building, is manned by the Chief Ground Instructor and four Ground Instructors with instructor-student ratio at a comfortable 1:30 conforming to the DGCA norms. The Ground School has excellent infrastructure including a well-equipped library.

Flying training is carried out at Gondia’s Birsi Airport which has a 7,500-foot runway and a variety of radio-navigational aids including Doppler VOR, an NDB and an ILS. Offices of Flight Operations and the Maintenance Wing are located in a single hangar, on opposite sides.

The administrative building also houses fixed-base DGCA approved flight simulators, one of the DA40 and the other of the DA42. With a 180-degree horizontal field of view and an instructor station that can simulate virtually any environment, the simulators serve as excellent training aid to practise flying procedures and instrument flying. The campus has decent residential accommodation for trainees and staff as also recreational and medical facilities.

Quality and Transparent Training

The present capacity at NFTI is for 120 cadets and the duration of the CPL course is 17 months though many cadets complete it in 12 months. In the newly implemented system, cadets initially undergo six weeks of ground training followed by alternate days of flying and ground training thus progressing simultaneously on both fronts.

The tests on ground subjects are based on DGCA examination patterns and provide cadets with sufficient practice to clear the written papers in the very first attempt. Dedicated cadets have secured all India ranks between first and fourth in CPL theory examinations. Statistically, around 70 per cent of the trainees at NFTI clear papers in the first attempt.

Flying training consists of 185 hours of flying on the singleengine DA40 and 15 hours on the DA42, a multi-engine aircraft. In addition, 30 hours of training is conducted on the DA40 simulator and 20 hours on the DA42 simulator.

With its airframe made out of composites, the Diamond aircraft offers a favourable power to weight ratio. Compared to the other basic training aircraft of the same class, the DA40 has a higher speed, better rate of climb and higher cruising altitude providing for greater safety margins. Diamond aircraft have an exemplary safety record which makes them eminently suitable for flying training. The DA40 and the DA42 feature a common engine and Garmin G1000 glass cockpit avionics suite, facilitating both ease of handling and maintenance. The glass cockpit facilitates smooth transition for cadets when they move onto advanced aircraft such as the Airbus A320 or Boeing 737 NG.

The average aircraft availability for flying is 93.7 per cent. With two months of monsoons, a six-day working week and interruption due to other reasons such as inordinately high temperatures or fog, annually around 230 days are available for flying. Flying training is usually conducted between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. and as required for night flying beyond these hours.

Cadets slotted to fly for the day attend morning mass briefings followed by a pre-flight briefing by the concerned flight instructor. Post-flight debriefing is meticulously conducted with analysis of errors and suggested corrective measures. Certain weaknesses are ironed out on the simulator. According to Captain J. Sandhu, Flight Instructor and Head, Flight Safety at NFTI, most students get to fly solo at 15 hours after proper grounding in basic flying skills.

Other than the CFI, who is a retired officer from the Indian Air Force, all other instructors are from a civilian background. Entry requirements are a minimum of 300 hours of flight instruction and a demonstrated high standard of briefing. Among the instructors currently with NFTI, two underwent flying training in the US, one in Canada and the rest in India.

Cadets get to land at the airports of Jabalpur, Raipur and Nagpur. The high traffic density at Raipur and Nagpur provides the needed exposure to a busy radar controlled airspace dominated by faster and heavier aircraft.

A very high degree of discipline defines the atmosphere at NFTI, both in the air and on the ground. This is evident from the fact that in the 13,000 hours of flying in the last three years, there have been only two minor incidents, both without significant damage to man or machine.

To monitor and track a student’s training, NFTI employs an Education and Training Administration system, a web-based training management system from TALON designed for the management of flight training, curriculum, records, resources, flight scheduling and operations. The system can be accessed by the regulatory body or any agency authorised to do so.