 On 5th March 2010, The Pilot Training College flew to the idyllic destination of Nassau in The Bahamas. This was the college’s first international fly-out and the third time it has arranged this type of training event for their students. The Pilot Training College fly-out was completed with 13 aircraft and 31 people taking off from Melbourne International Airport, Florida and flying to Nassau in the Bahamas via Ft Lauderdale. Included as one of the guests on the fly-out; was Jo Soper from Flybe. On Friday evening, the Chief Aviation Specialist from Bahamas Ministry of Tourism hosted a reception at the British Colonial Hilton hotel in Nassau especially for The Pilot Training College team and its students. On Saturday 6th March, all participants flew from Nassau to Staniel Cay (an island about the size of Waterford airport) where they took a boat trip to see the islands (including Staniel Cay’s resident swimming pigs). The Pilot Training College fly-out participants flew back to the USA via customs/immigration in Ft Lauderdale and all 13 aircraft made it home safely on Sunday 7th March!
The students were accompanied by five Instructors including Capt. Nick Clarke, Head of Training for The Pilot Training College in Florida.
Capt. Nick Clarke said “The trip allowed our students to gain international experience and to further their flight training while being exposed to the challenges presented by new airspace and operations. The aim is to create a very structured and challenging weekend while also providing an amazing hours building experience”.
The key objectives of the trip were:
- To provide students with exposure to different airspace.
- To give students the opportunity to plan longer flight sectors that are not scheduled same-day returns to the airport which they have departed from.
- To provide students with an opportunity to fly internationally.
- To reward students for their hard work during ATPL preparation and exams.
The Pilot Training College is now planning two more fly-outs for the year, with anywhere from 30 to 50 students scheduled for each trip. If the demand continues, the flight training school hopes to conduct three trips annually. If student pilot Alan Murphy's reaction is anything to go by, it will be a future trip well worth taking.
"Flying into The Bahamas, I've never done anything like that before," the pilot-in-training told Guardian Business. "It gives me a good confident boost now to say I have landed at an international airport."
"It was my first international cross country ever," he said, it was like flying into any major airport, except my breath was taken away by all the scenery down at the water."
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