Aust, flying school to open at Palmerston North

Press, 22 October 1986, Page 27

Aust, flying school to open at Palmerston North

PA Wellington Young New Zealanders are being offered the chance to train as commercial pilots by an Australian company which plans to base its course in Palmerston North.

The managing director of the New South Wales company, Civil Air Training Academy (CATA), Mr Jim Spark, is in New Zealand holding selection seminars in Wellington, Auckland and Christchurch.

He says his company is seeking 12 people, male or female, aged between 17 and 22 for a 15-month full-time course with a base cost of $lB,OOO. Mr Spark said his com-

pany would also train 12 Australians at the same time with the course being held in Palmerston North and at the Company’s Australian base, Cessnock Aerodrome in New South Wales. Palmerston North had been chosen because of educational facilities available there which could not be provided elsewhere, he said.

Mr Spark said he had been working for the last two years to establish the New Zealand course, the first in this country for his company, which had operated on a non-profit basis in Australia for the last 20 years. During that time it had trained more than

1500 pilots. The course aimed to produce professionals who could go on to work for large commercial airlines like Air New Zealand. Mr Spark said the course would be an improvement on present training methods in New Zealand and Australia which he described as “ridiculous”. “We need better pilot training. I think the system we’ve got is ridiculous. I can’t believe people who are allowed to resit exams until they pass them can go on to earn tens of thousands of dollars a year.”