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Aircraft maintenance academy has new training centre

13th February 2015

By: Keith Campbell

Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

  

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One of the country’s few training centres for aircraft maintenance technicians, the Safomar group’s Mega Aero Training Academy (MATA), can now provide practical as well as theoretical training for apprentices at its own facility, thanks to the opening at the start of this year of its dedicated practical training centre. (Hitherto, MATA apprentices had to be placed with selected aircraft maintenance organisations (AMOs) for their initial practical phase.) “Previously, students did six months with us, all theory,” explains MATA practical training centre manager Andrew Olivier. “Now they spend ten months with us, doing both theory and mandatory practical exposure training.”

Since it was registered some four years ago, MATA has trained about 300 aviation apprentices, with the academy involved in the follow-on practical phase at selected AMOs to ensure expedient accumulation of the prescribed 2 800 hours of on-aircraft training required by the Transport Education and Training Authority (Teta). The number of apprentices per intake varies from year to year, with MATA geared to handle up to 90 students full time for mechanical as well as avionics-related trades.

Once students have successfully concluded the prescribed first-year course, they are awarded an NQF 4 certificate as prescribed by Teta and by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) and recognised by the Department of Higher Education. The apprentices are then placed with recognised local aircraft maintenance organisations (MROs) and contracted by MATA to gain further mandatory practical experience before becoming eligible for a formal aviation trade test that is also facilitated by the academy with an on-site preparatory phase.

Once they have passed their trade tests, they are qualified as journeymen aircraft maintenance technicians and can apply for a job and start to build aircraft type experience to obtain specific type ratings through the CAA as part of life-long learning – aircraft technicians never cease studying throughout their careers. “Every single one of the apprentices who has graduated from our academy has been employed,” proudly highlights MATA sales and marketing manager Fiona Hall.

With the new mechanical training centre, the apprentices follow their six months of theoretical work with three to four months practical training on site. “We teach the apprentices the practical basics in aviation maintenance, for both airframes and engines,” reports Olivier. This includes the establishment of basic hand skills (filing, tapping and drilling of work pieces), basic components removal and replacement, how to utilise and read measuring equipment (both metric and imperial, because the latter system is still widely used in aviation), aircraft flight control surfaces (ailerons, elevators, rudders) rigging and control cable tensioning, the use of maintenance manuals and how they tie into the illustrated parts catalogue for an aircraft type to identify components and to facilitate the ordering of spares. In aviation, everything must be done strictly according to the book; failure to do so has led to fatal accidents as well as the very real risk of being exposed to personal liability. Similarly, our avionics students also have a fully equipped practical laboratory to hone their compulsory hand skills before being placed with registered avionics AMOs.

MATA also provides training courses for qualified technicians, such as type certification training, current training (required for the renewal of aircraft maintenance technician licences) and certain types of specialist training, such as fuel tank safety training, electrical wiring interface systems training (focused on the maintenance of electrical systems on old aircraft) and general training on piston, turboprop and turbofan engines. For this, the academy has negotiated access to Safair’s and Global Aviation’s MRO divisions for advanced type training opportunities and related practical experience. There are also courses to teach the basic principles of helicopter rotor systems, including rotor balancing and blade tracking. It can also teach aircraft painting (paint on an aircraft adds weight and increases drag, so it must be properly done, to minimise these effects).

Apart from South Africans, of all backgrounds and both genders, the academy has trained students from many sub-Saharan African countries, including Cameroon, Ghana, Namibia, Nigeria, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Currently, the academy has three classes running each with about 15 students.

In terms of equipment and resources, the practical training centre has the requisite work benches, aviation toolboxes, special tooling for heavy maintenance training and a fully equipped sheet metal shop. It also makes use of actual aircraft parts – such as actuators – components (including old wing tips, wheels, aircraft tyres, avionics components and the nose undercarriage gear of a Boeing 727), as well as engines and two complete aircraft, for the apprentices to work on.

The engines comprise two auxiliary power units, a piston engine, two 1900 diesel turbo aircraft engines and a Pratt & Whitney JT8D-9A turbojet engine. The aircraft are a North American T-6 Harvard piston-engined trainer and a light twin piston-engined Piper Aztec. “Both are no longer airworthy,” says Olivier. “The Harvard will, however, be restored to flying condition by our apprentices – it belongs to the Harvard Club.” The Aztec, damaged in a heavy landing, is now the property of MATA and is a permanent training aid.

On the theoretical side, the academy has four big classrooms and a couple of smaller ones, plus two smaller classrooms for advanced students studying for their trade tests. MATA has five permanent instructors and five part-timers (who normally work elsewhere in the Safomar group). Some of the instructors are approved trade test officers. MATA has the approvals necessary to be a trade test centre, but would have to set up a specialised facility for trade tests to be able to function in this role.

Edited by Martin Zhuwakinyu
Creamer Media Senior Deputy Editor

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