Tedd Pinkney, Head of Ground Training at the Airline Academy, shares his take at the end of a dramatic year.
2020 has been an unprecedented year with the pandemic throwing up challenges for everyone across the globe. I don’t think there’s a corner of the planet that hasn’t been affected by COVID-19 and the changes it’s bought to our everyday lives.
Here at the L3Harris Airline Academy we faced our own challenges of how to keep our cadets safe during a time of strict social distancing rules and full-blown lockdowns. This was particularly challenging for ground school - the classroom based theoretical knowledge portion of pilot training – but I’m proud to say our cadets and Theoretical Knowledge Instructors showed admirable adaptability as we quickly transitioned to a remote learning model for our integrated cadets.
Systems were put in place that enabled our TKIs to deliver classes digitally over online platforms, that meant cadets still had the opportunity to interact with each other and their instructors. The flexibility shown by everyone involved was reflected in the fact we maintained our first-time pass rate!
Another positive to come out of a difficult year was moving ground school training into our new state-of-the-art London Training Centre (LTC) near London Gatwick Airport. At the LTC cadets train alongside qualified pilots completing recurrency or type rating training. We look forward to welcoming more cadets to our world-class facility in 2021 and beyond.
Although 2020 has been a tough year, we’ve continued to deliver world class training and look forward to a brighter 2021.