Xiamen Airlines Pilot Training Programme

Over the past 4 years, the Chinese aviation authorities have done much to improve the safe operation of their carriers. Many of these improvements have been achieved through partnerships with experienced carriers and flight schools outside that immense country.

Trevor Nash reports on one partnership between Xiamen Airlines and Air New Zealand.

Xiamen Airlines was founded in 1992 as China’s first regional airline. Operating a fleet of five Boeing 737-500’s and five Boeing 757-200 aircraft, 60% of the airline is owned by China Southern with the remaining shares equally split between Fujian province and local Xiamen authorities.

The carrier flies to around 35 destinations including Beijing, Wuhan, Guangzhou, Chengdu, Shanghai and Kunming.

Even prior to the formation of the airline, Xiamen began to send its pilots to New Zealand for their ab inito training. This link has been established through the country’s flag carrier, Air New Zealand and assisted by both government and trade links between the two countries.

The carrier and bodies such as TRADENZ and ATENZ, have all helped to build a strong bond between the two countries to assist in the furtherance of aviation training.

Jim Boys is the Executive Director of Aviation Training and Education New Zealand (ATENZ). “With a population of 3.6 million, New Zealand is a small country but one with a number of benefits which we can offer outsiders when they want to come here to undertake aviation training,” Jim Boys states.

He continues that, “no one company can provide all the training required but as in the case of Xiamen, a number of organizations have come together under the leadership of Air New Zealand to provide our Chinese colleagues with the answer to their training requirements.”

Xiamen sends its students to New Zealand in small groups with no previous flying experience. The most recent class to graduate did so in early March and comprised six students. In October, a group of two students will arrive.

With the Xiamen ab initio course being co-ordinatied by Max Paulin the ANZ Contract Training Manager, the airline is obviously keen to ensure that the modular training programme that the students undergo is as seamless as possible and that students are made to feel welcome and part of the community.

At Air New Zealand, this feeling of belonging and welcoming has been taken to some extraordinary lengths. As well as Xiamen Airlines, the airline also undertakes initial and recurrent training for a number of other Chinese carriers including Air China, Air Great Wall, Wuhan Airlines and Shanghai Airlines as well as qualified pilots from Ziamen.

With crews from these airlines regularly passing through the Air New Zealand training centre in Auckland, accommodation is normally found in self-catering apartments a few kilometres from the training centre.

Across the road from these apartments is a Chinese market garden run by Brenda and Tim Tsun Kaw. They tell the author that it is not uncommom for crews from one airline to plant vegetables, crews from another to hoe and tend for them whilst a third airline crew will harvest and eat the produce!

To assist Max Paulin in his task of running the Xiamen ab initio courses, he is supported by former-Cathay Pacific flight engineer, Bob Sutherland. With his time in Hong Kong, Bob Sutherland is well used to Chinese customs and culture and the interface through such a Sino-expert has paid dividends for the airline.

Course Structure

After arriving in Auckland, students are met and settled in to their accomodation before being briefed on the course and what the country has to offer.

They meet the key players from the organisations involved in the course before beginning the first phase of their training at Ardmore Flying School which is located at Papakura, some 35 minutes driving time from the ANZ training centre.

Ardmore Flying School is a privately owned flight training school which was formed in 1961. With a core of 12 PA-38 Tomahawks, Ardmore's training fleet also boasts a handful of Cessna 172s and Beechcraft Duchesses. As far as synthetic flight trainers are concerned, an AST-300 is configured to represent the twin-engine Duchess.

Ardmore Flying School is located at Papakura and, according to the company's General Manager, Craig Hunter, flies around 17,000 hours per year. "We achieve this figure with 33 instructors, 16 of which are full-time".

As to the courses on offer at Ardmore Flying School, Craig Hunter tells CAT that the student population is found from New Zealanders and foreign nationals, with the latter accounting for 20% of the company's business. "We run courses from PPL all the way through to the frozen ATPL," he tells CAT.

"As far as our students from Xiamen are concerned, their course is a basic CPL with IR which is followed by a multi-engine conversion onto the Duchess. By the time they leave us, they will have flown around 250 hours."

To assist in the English language training of the students, Ardmore Flying School carries out all of the technical groundschool training before undertaking flying training. "Although the students are chaffing to get into the air, we find that this approach works extremely well," adds Craig Hunter.

With 250 hours in their log books, the students are now ready to move on to gain further flight experience and this is undertaken with Airwork (NZ) Ltd.

With its main operating base at Auckland International Airport, Airwork has a subsidiary, Air Post, which is jointly owned by Airwork and the country's postal authorities, NZ Post.

Needless to say, the vast majority of the company's work is directed to mail distribution although some charter and medical service operations are also flown.

On arrival at Airwork, students enter the classroom to complete a two-day ground school on the Piper Chieftain before undergoing a short flight training period.

Compared to the students' previous twin-engine experience on the Beechcraft Duchess, the Piper PA-31 Chieftain is a much slicker aircraft with over a 20% increase in top speed and almost twice the range.

According to Airwork's Chief Pilot and Training Captain, Barry Gordon, the students like the challenge of flying the Chieftain. "Once qualified on the aircraft, the students will fly around 10 hours with another pilot to give them a solid grounding in two-pilot Multi Crew Co-operation operations."

After logging the PA-31 time, students are back in the classroom learning about the Fairchild Metroliner. A week of technical groundschool proceeds 10 hours of flight training, and Type Rating including Proficiency and IR checks.

"So far," comments Barry Gordon, "the students have gradually progressed through a range of aircraft types, each getting progressively more complex and demanding of the student. Now, once on the Metroliner, the students will have to consider operational matters as well because they will be operating on revenue earning mail flights."

Once on the line with the Metro fleet, the Xiamen students will fly with a Training Captain as a Co-Pilot under training. During this three to four week period they will amass a further 30 hours on type and fly to a number of different destinations, each with their own operational nuances to test and provide added experience for the student.

After four weeks, the Xiamen student will have likely flown to Hamilton, Palmerston North, Woodbourne, Christchurch and Dunedin. The student is now ready to take this experience into the world of jet transport operations.

The introduction into jet operations is conducted by Airworks's Chief Pilot using the Air New Zealand Boeing 737-200 full flight simulator. "This introduction is a very intense three hour course in which we cover general handling and familiarisation," states Barry Gordon.

"The aim is to give them an introduction to jet operations before we hand them through their standard Boeing 737-200 Type Training course."

Once in the Air New Zealand Training Centre, the Xiamen students undergo an expanded Boeing 737-200 groundschool. Max Paulin tells CAT that the reason the airline does this is that, "English is not their first language and so it takes us slightly longer to impart the required knowledge."

With the flight simulator details and base flying phases complete, the students then make their way back to Xiamen before joining the Xiamen Airlines' line operations.

The departure from New Zealand would not be complete without the mandatory banquet and this provides everyone with a chance to say their farewells and present the students with gifts and certificates to mark their stay in New Zealand and their graduation from the course.

The Xiamen experience has provided Air New Zealand with an opportunity of bringing together key centres of expertise within the New Zealand aviation environment and melding them together into a single training team.

"We are very proud of what we have done on the Xiamen courses and our experiences have allowed us to put together bids for other airlines who also might want to place their new pilots on seamless ab initio through type rating courses."

Through the hard work of Max Paulin, Bob Sutherland and the programmes participating organisations, the chances are that Xiamen Airlines will continue to work with Air New Zealand in the long-term providing a growing relationship well into the future.