Bae-Ansett Flying College Launched

The Tamworth Development Corporation (TDC) first registered an interest with BAe as early as May 1988, prior to BAe and Ansett joining forces. Tamworth Airport already supports several aviation organisations – including Eastwest’s maintenance base – and a TDC strategy (into which the Flying College neatly fits) aims to establish a regional aerospace park to make the locally operated airport not only self sufficient, but even profitable. The TDC drew on a number of organisational and natural resources to clinch the college, proving that its facilities, geography, climate and local support made Tamworth the best possible location.

Tamworth for tunately is ideally situated for pilot training. It has some of the world’s best flying weather, with an average of 273 finedays peryear. The airpor t has been closed only 13 times during the past ten years, the longest closure being just two hours. Most surrounding land is rural, cleared farm land on rolling slopes and plains. A direct contrast to this excellent training area is the Great Dividing Range 30-50km east of the city, presenting more challenging flying for the advanced students. T he airport itself is equipped with CAA control tower and fire service, lighting, T-VASIS, VOA, NOB, DME and soon ILS.

Two relatively quiet satellite airports at Gunnedah (32nm west with a 1,648m runway) and Quirindi (29nm south-west with a 1,768m runway) are ideal for circuit training to take pressure off Tamworth. For this purpose the Quirindi strip will receive a $700,000 upgrade with a grant from the NSW Government, which has provided $6. 5m in financial support for the project. At Tamworth a new 1,100m airstrip will be constructed parallel to the main 2,200m runway for student pilots to use during initial flight instruction and circuit training. The main strip can be used by more advanced cadets to mix with commercial traffic.

Land for the College and its airstrip was readily available, aided by a land swap with Eastwest. Such was the local council’s support for the project that a 40 year lease with a further 50 years’ option was arranged, as was substantial financial support. Thus Tamworth was able to offer excellent flying areas and airstrips for all training needs, and the necessary ground area for a working college with full facilities, in circumstances favourable to BAe-Ansett.

The College will operate along Prestwick lines, though being purpose built it is expected to be more efficient and with better weather courses will be completed in 14 months, as against 16 months at Prestwick. All students will be cadets of customer airlines (or even air forces) and will under take courses designed to suit individual customer requirements. There will be 16 cadets in each course, the first being expected to commence in September 1991; 224 students in 14 courses can be accommodated at any one time. A drop-out rate of no more than Prestwick’s 3% is expected. Chief flying instructors have been sent to Prestwick to familiarise themselves with BAe training methods, which will then be passed on to those in Australia.

For flight training the College’s fleet will be 12 Pacific Aerospace (formally NZAI) CT-4B Airtrainers, 30 Piper Warriors and nine Piper Seneca twins. According to Mr John McBride, College Marketing Executive, the CT-4B was chosen to provide ab initio training because it is a challenging training aircraft and, with the use of the CT-4A by the Australian and New Zealand air forces, could prove useful in attracting military customers. Students will fly about 200 hours, plus 100 hours in flight simulators, 60 being in the BAe 125-800 simulator used to learn two-crew procedures.

The College is expected to generate $36m a year in fees, 70% of revenue coming from overseas. It will create 170 permanent jobs in the Tamworth community plus additional short-term employment during construction. The local economy will benefit by at least $14m per year once the college is fully operational, and it is hoped that its establishment will be the catalyst for attracting other enterprises to what could become an important regional aerospace centre, incorporating maintenance, parts manufacturing, storage and personnel training facilities.

The BAe-Ansett Flying College is therefore a significant venture for the local aerospace industry. It firms Tamworth’s position as a regional, decentralised aerospace centre and it cements Australia’s place in the important aircrew training industry.