‘Future Skies’ UA Pilot Training Programme in Australia

Australia’s V-TOL Aerospace (V-TOL), a relative new comer to the aviation industry, and the Royal Queensland Aero Club (RQAC), with roots stemming back to 1910, are developing and preparing to teach the first certified Australian unmanned aircraft (UA) training courses through their specialist training organisations. The courses will be delivered via eLearning and at Archerfield, in Queensland, the site of the first CASA Level 1 UA Pilot training test programme successfully completed in June this year.

V-TOL launched the Australian Unmanned Systems Academy (AUSA) during 2009 to develop and deliver unmanned systems technology education and training programmes. The RQAC’s Airline Academy of Australia (AAA) is a QANTAS approved and internationally recognised manned aircraft training organisation. Together, the Academies provide a strong natural “fit” to offer the first recognised “ab initio” UA pilot courses.

Known as the Future Skies programmes, they will include a mix of residential and eLearning pilot and technical maintenance training courses. The courses will focus on qualifying individuals in both manned and unmanned aircraft systems to ensure that the emerging and future commercial UA opportunities can be serviced at a sustainable rate while not limiting a student’s careers to a single outcome.

In support of this theme, Future Skies programmes are being developed to broadly target the core human resource of the future UA industry, our youth. It is clear that the emerging UA industry will require a new generation of highly trained pilots and engineers focused on the safety of all airspace users while supporting UA commercial operations ranging from general aviation to mining, agriculture, emergency services, policing, space and undersea exploration, to name just a few.

Future Skies youth programmes have been designed to be delivered through existing education organisations and in conjunction with the University of Queensland students will also have the opportunity to progress to graduate and postgraduate degrees in unmanned systems.

With the appropriate level of support some of the first graduates in the operation, maintenance and piloting of unmanned aircraft systems will come from Australian youth organisations via the Future Skies UA programmes.

In addition to providing export services revenue, this joint innovation of V-TOL and RQAC has the potential to place Australia at the forefront of global unmanned systems development, and as a supplier of highly trained human capital to industry. The programme is already attracting interest from Australasia to the Middle East.

Source: Press Release