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STUDENT SPRING CHARITY BALL 2007 - A HUGE SUCCESS Organised by course AP257, the Spring Charity Ball was a huge success, with entertainment continuing through the evening until the early hours of the morning. A live band and disco provided the music, but for those attendees who fancied their chances at Blackjack or Roulette, a play casino had been provided. However, the highlight of the evening proved to be the Charity raffle. In total, the raffle raised £1301.41 for the Oxford Children's Hospital Campaign. An amazing achievement I'm sure you'll agree. We are thankful to Penny Hambridge, who's son Ash had trained to be an airline pilot with OAA, for accepting the cheque on behalf of the Oxford Children's Hospital. A fitting conclusion to a wonderful evening of entertainment and fundraising. |
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AIRLINE PILOT TRAINING SEMINAR - ICELANDAIR HOTEL LOFTLEIĐIR - 14TH DECEMBER 2006
Oxford Aviation Academy recently held a special Airline Pilot Training Seminar at the Icelandair Hotel Loftleđir at Reykjavik Airport on the 14th December 2006. The seminar included presentations on both the integrated APP First Officer route and our modular training course - Waypoint Pilot Programme. Current OAA students Róbert Bjarni Bjarnason and Sigurberg Magnús Sigurđsson also helped to answer questions raised about commencing training at OAA.OAA would like to take this opportunity to thank all of those who attended and wish you the best of luck with acheiving your ambitions in becoming airline pilots.
NEW MULTI-PILOT JET SIMULATOR CENTRE OPENED BY SIR MICHAEL BISHOP CBE - CHAIRMAN bmi
After more than a year of hard work and preparation, our brand new Multi-Pilot Jet Simulator Centre at Oxford is now fully operational. Opened by Sir Michael Bishop CBE - Chairman bmi on 31st October 2006, the new centre is equipped with two six-axis, full-motion B737-400 simulators, used by Oxford students for the Multi-Crew Co-operation (MCC) and Jet Orientation Course (JOC) stages of training.Apart from two B737-400 simulators, the new centre boasts a large glass-fronted planning room with plentiful resources and easy access to all the required information, charts and data that students will need. Access to the simulators is provided on both floors, with an upper balcony for viewing the simulator room. Two large television screens provide live video feeds of the action in both simulators and individual briefing rooms are also equipped with large flatscreen TV’s and PC’s encompassing the latest in planning and debriefing tools.
Sir Michael also gave his time to address current staff and students in one of our large seminars held in the brand new 'Oxonian' hangar on the Oxford Airport site. Sir Michael talked not only about recruitment and future prospects for our student pilots, but also about the issues which will have to be faced upto - especially the environmental ones recently brought into the spotlight by the media. The audience were also given the chance to ask for Sir Michael's view on their own questions about the industry.We are thankful to Sir Michael for taking the time to visit OAA, open our new Multi-Pilot Jet Simulator Centre and for addressing our staff and students in our ever-growing and popular OAA seminars.
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OXFORD WINS BBA AVIATION AWARD FOR “MOST IMPROVED PERFORMANCE”
On the 18th September 2006, Anthony Petteford - Managing Director of OAA, was unexpectedly presented with an award for the “Most Improved Performance” for a company of the BBA Group plc.Anthony Petteford, when talking about the award, said:
“At the start of this week I attended a BBA Group conference involving all BBA Group Directors world-wide.During this conference, it was my unexpected pleasure to accept the above award from the Group Chairman for the “Most Improved Company” of the BBA Group plc - on behalf of us all at OAA Oxford and OAAC Goodyear.I am extremely proud to have been able to accept this award on behalf of us all - which reflects and recognises the enormous effort that we have all put into our Company together.”
OAA CUSTOMER SERVICES & SALES REACH THE FINALS OF THE NATIONAL CUSTOMER SERVICE AWARDS 2006
Established as the hallmark of Customer Service Excellence, the National Customer Service Awards promotes excellence, best practice and innovation in Customer Services and Consumer Affairs. The number of high quality entries and the rigour and openness of the judging process singles out the National Customer Service Awards as the benchmark by which many UK organizations will be measured in the future for standards of Customer Service.
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The event was hosted by Declan Curry, Business Presenter for “Breakfast” on BBC One and BBC News 24 and also Julia Bradbury, presenter and co-host of Watchdog. The event took place at the Grosvenor House Hotel, Park Lane, London with 1700 people in attendance for a lavish black tie event. There were 23 categories in total. OAA Customer Services & Sales were finalists for the “Front Line Customer Service Team of the Year”. The other finalists being:
Although we did not walk away as winners, to find ourselves selected as one of eight finalists in the most contested category is an amazing achievement for the company and testimony to the value OAA places on its customers today. |
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WILLIE WALSH – CEO – BRITISH AIRWAYS IS GUEST OF HONOUR FOR LATEST STUDENT AWARDS & GRADUATION CEREMONY
Friday, 28th July 2006 saw the Annual Student Awards / Graduation Ceremony and Evening Gala Ball take place at Oxford Airport. The Guest of Honour for the 2006 event was Mr Willie Walsh, Chief Executive Officer, British Airways. Willie originally trained as an Aer Lingus cadet at Oxford, aged 17,and we were delighted to welcome him back after all these years. The Annual Student Awards / Graduation Ceremony & Evening Gala Ball commenced at 6.00pm with the presentation of Graduation Certificates, Graduation Prizewinners and the Annual Student Awards. Mr Walsh addressed all of those present, followed by a Vote of Thanks by First Officer Michael Derry (British Airways) on behalf of the graduates.
A charity raffle was held on the night in aid of Dreamflight - a charity whose purpose is to send seriously ill children on their ‘holiday of a lifetime’ to Florida. You may find out more about Dreamflight and their aims by visiting http://www.dreamflight.org. We managed to raise a grand total of £3500 for Dreamflight - an amazing success I think you'll agree! Willie Walsh was presented with a cheque by Mike Griffith and Kelly Wensley - a fitting conclusion since Dreamflight is given considerable support from British Airways.
The night continued into the early hours, with live music and entertainment throughout the evening. A fantastic occasion for all our graduates and current students alike, we are grateful to Willie for giving up some of his time to come back to Oxford to present the awards and give our students a rare opportunity to both ask questions and receive answers from one of our major graduate employers.
OAA SEMINAR BY WILLIE WALSH – CEO – BRITISH AIRWAYS
The Guest of Honour for the 2006 Annual Student Awards / Graduation Ceremony & Gala Ball was Mr Willie Walsh, Chief Executive Officer, British Airways. The day long event began with a seminar given by Mr Walsh at 2.30pm in Hangar 5. The seminar was free to attend for all of those interested and the event had an amazing turnout of more than 350 people on the day. The seminar consisted of a short talk given by Mr Walsh about the airline industry, the future and a lengthy questions and answers session - giving OAA students a chance to ask none other than the CEO of British Airways!
OXFORD AIRLINE TRAINING CENTRE AT PHOENIX GOODYEAR OFFICIALLY OPENS
After more than US$8m of capital investment, our brand new, pilot training centre at Phoenix Goodyear Airport in the USA is now operational. Opened by the Mayor of Goodyear, James Cavanaugh, on 1 June 2006, the new centre is able to accommodate up to 300 student pilots per annum - enrolled upon European Joint Aviation Authorities (JAA) Integrated and Modular training courses as well as FAA pilot certificate courses.Through a staff of 70 employees and the use of a fleet of 32 aircraft comprising Piper Warrior (21), Arrow (6) and Seneca (5) aircraft and 2 new FRASCA Truflite Simulators with 220 degree high fidelity ‘dome’ visual systems, JAA students will complete 135 hours of Foundation flight training over a period of 20 weeks culminating in their Commercial Pilot Skills Test i
n the Piper Seneca. Students then return to Oxford to complete a further 90 hours of Advanced instrument training and multi-crew conversion training on the Piper Seneca and Boeing 737 simulator before joining a European airline as a First Officer.Approved by both the UK CAA and the US FAA as a flight training school, and also approved by the US Government to accept non-immigrant students on vocational M1 visas, the university ‘campus style’ centre is fully residential with 102 single-study bedrooms (planned to expand to 130 bedrooms in 2007) and a restaurant open from 5am to 8pm - 7 days per week. Students can avail themselves of extensive sports facilities in the form of 2 swimming pools, 6 tennis courts, 2 basketball courts, volleyball court and well equipped gymnasium. Goodyear airport has also been the home of the airline pilot training school for Lufthansa Airlines for the past 35 years – so a well proven track record for the environment. The respective flight training operations are entirely separate yet the students from the two schools mix together recreationally.
“Faced with considerable growth in demand for our well trained graduate pilots as the airline industry recovers; we needed a much larger and more capable facility from which to conduct the foundation stages of our pilot training courses. In particular, the move to a full campus facility was essential to mirror our campus training centre at Oxford Airport and to ensure that our customers receive the very best possible training, service and facilities – and of course to enjoy the experience of the location at the same time. The highly predictable Arizona climate, plentiful airspace, appealing location, lower direct operating costs associated with the USA coupled with the first class facilities at the underutilised Goodyear airport made it an absolutely ideal choice of location for our new training centre. If this same training were to be conducted in the UK – it would take twice as long and cost twice as much – which is not a winning formula for either our customers or our business.” says Anthony Petteford, Managing Director for Oxford Aviation Training.
May 2006
Second 737 Simulator arrives at OAA
Preparations for the installation of a second six-axis, full-motion Boeing 737-400 simulator has been ongoing at OAA since the start of 2006. But after many a month of building and resurfacing work, the second simulator has now arrived and is currently being installed alongside OAA's existing 737-400 in the Jet Simulator Centre.
As you can tell from the pictures, this is no mean feat, even with the side of the building removed and the terrible British weather against us!! Further updates will follow as progress is made in making the second simulator fully operational.
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UPDATE 25th May: Second 737 Simulator takes to the air!
Today, the new 737-400 simulator took to the sky (or as close as it could get!) as it was hoisted off the ground, ready to be fitted onto the six-axis hydraulic base. Placed carefully onto a tall and manoeuvrable framework of jacks, the new simulator is now ready to be fitted onto the motion base. As you can see from the latest pictures (below) the visual system has been fitted onto the simulator and not content with removing just the side of the building, we decided to take out roof panels for crane access too!
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OAAC - Goodyear News
The new Oxford Airline Training Center based at Goodyear Airport, AZ has seen the arrival of the first PA28 Warriors from the UK. Registrations G-BRXC and G-BRTM arrived at their new home packaged in sections, where they will be rebuilt and added to the existing fleet of Warriors that are currently in use by Oxford students at Scottsdale Airport, AZ.
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These two PA28 Warriors are the first of several that are to be transferred ‘across the pond’ to the Oxford Airline Training Center based at Goodyear, which will see the fleet increase dramatically in size. The wholly owned Oxford Airline Training Center plays a major part in providing quality training for those students enrolled on our flight training courses. The arrival of more aircraft will further give students access to a sizeable fleet that has been provided to benefit them in their initial flying training.
February 2006
First APP First Officer Graduation of 2006
The first APP FIRST OFFICER
graduation of 2006 is to be held on Friday 17th of February at the Oxford Holiday Inn. Six courses in total will be graduating on the day including AP235, AP236, AP237, AP238, AP239 & AP240.
The guest of honour at the graduation is to be Captain Ian Cheese, General Manager Turbo Prop Fleet Flybe.
The Managing Director of OAA - Anthony Petteford - will open up the proceedings whilst the graduation certificates and awards will be presented by the guest of honour, Captain Ian Cheese.
Graduates, along with their families and friends, will all gather to celebrate their achievements with special awards going those who demonstrated the Best Ground Training, Best Flying and Best Overall Performance.
