[Peetwo]

Ref: #SBG post-editorial dots & dashes?? & https://auntypru.com/sbg-29-03-20-if-you...today-etc/

TICK..TOCK goes the captured McDonaught's clock -    


Via the Oz...  : 

Soar Aviation placed in administration

Plus via the ABC: China Southern Airlines WA pilot college in liquidation as 62 local staff sacked 



Dear Miniscule McDonaught...Happy New Year from ALL of us on the AuntyPru network... 


Ref: https://auntypru.com/sbg-13-09-20-a-twiddle/

Social media comments in reply and Oz follow up to last - 

Sandy on FB in reply to ABC Merridin/China Southern article:

Sandy Reith

Councils don’t look at the cost of maintaining roads with the view of recouping the costs directly from the users, why is the view so myopic when it comes to airports? Partly the reason may be that the Commonwealth, through its out of control independent corporate agent CASA, has strangled much of General Aviation, but it will grow again when some MPs with backbone are found and come out with a rational aviation policy. Airports are extremely valuable (and difficult to replace) transport assets. One kilometre of runway joins the ubiquitous super highway to any other part of Australia with a runway or even an open paddock.

Next from Wellsy on Twitter - 

Ref: https://twitter.com/shannon_wells/status...8807245824

Shannon Wells
@shannon_wells

Company now in administration - good financial advice from ⁦
@TimWilsonMP

And:

Soar Aviation crashes to earth https://theaustralian.com.au/business/so...5fdd2e1362  “ Mr Richards noted Soar Aviation would make a good buy for any interested party seeking a Civil Aviation Safety Authority accredited business.” Lol

Finally via the Oz yesterday:

Training, planes all ‘below standard’, says Soar Aviation former student left with $77k debt



Seb Toro in Heidelberg, Melbourne. Photo: Daniel Pockett / The Australian

DAVID ROSS
JOURNALIST

7:13PM JANUARY 1, 2021
5 COMMENTS

Seb Toro came to Australia to make his dream of becoming a pilot come true, but after years of classes with Soar Aviation he has little to show for it other than a $77,000 debt.

His aim of getting his commercial pilot’s licence is nowhere nearer, in a similar story for many previous Soar Aviation students.

Students have been stranded with Soar Aviation, one of Australia’s biggest flight schools, placed in administration.

Mr Toro said he called it quits with the flight school after growing increasingly concerned about safety and teaching standards, after witnessing a dangerous crash that almost claimed the life of a fellow student in 2019.

“The crash happened right in front of the window where we were studying,” he said.

“It was a really bad situation. A poor pilot student who was in that horrible situation, it was lucky he survived.”

The student at the flight school was left trapped after being involved in a serious crash at Moorabbin Airport on December 12 2019, that saw his plane flip and crash.

A finding into the crash is yet to be handed down by the Australian Transport Safety Bureau, but it came after another serious crash of a student at Stawell in Victoria in October 2018.

The ATSB found the 2018 crash was caused after “contrary to the aircraft’s limitations and the pilot’s qualifications, aerobatic manoeuvres were conducted during the flight, and immediately prior to the loss of control”.

“Aerobatic flight should not be undertaken by pilots who have not been adequately trained, as it requires specialist techniques and methods to maintain control of the aircraft during significant manoeuvring,” investigators noted.

“This accident clearly demonstrates the catastrophic consequences when the hazards of aerobatic flight are not managed.”

More recently, a student and a trainer from the school died in a crash at Carcoar, south of Orange in the central west of NSW, in November in an attempt at a touch-and-go landing.

Mr Toro said he was concerned about the instructors at Soar Aviation who were “very new to the industry”.

“I still remember having one instructor from New Zealand, he got lost when we went for a flight,” he said. “I was a student and I ended up guiding the situation.”

Mr Toro said the issues at Soar Aviation extended to its planes. “Some students had technical issues, one had a door open mid-flight,” he said.

“They got planes that were for sporting. The planes were not designed for training purposes.

Soar Aviation has 56 planes, but put up seven for sale in 2020 seeking to cover $500,000 in losses.

Figures in the flight teaching industry said many of the planes used by Soar Aviation were considerably cheaper to operate than the Cessna 172 Mr Toro said the students saw advertised.

Soar Aviation’s business model was built around providing part-time pilot training to students through its education partners in Sydney and Melbourne.

Students were covered by VET-fee help for up to 200 hours of flight time, but anything extra was out of pocket for students.

Its deal with the Box Hill Institute at one stage saw it teaching hundreds of students, but by the time it shut near the end of 2020 it had been whittled down to just 126 students.

This is fewer than the almost 200 students currently members of a class action headed by Gordon Legal, alleging that the flight school did not meet CASA requirements, and delivered substandard teaching.

Mr Toro said he was concerned that Soar Aviation kept trying to keep students flying despite them failing to progress to licences.

“My problems started with getting massive overrunning hours without seeing a light to get my licence,” he said.

“Management was pushing its instructors to push people to fly no matter the weather.

“The extra repetitions that was the big concern for us, if you run out of your 200 hours the extra hours were out of pocket.”

Mr Toro said he signed up to Soar Aviation because the offer to study part-time meant he was able to continue working. He was quickly concerned about the “very poor student support” and how few people were able to progress to a commercial pilot licence.

“The internal exams were so easy to pass, but the ones that really mattered were the ones by the Civil Aviation Safety Authority,” he said.

“The majority of students failed to comply with CASA regulations because of the poor quality theory training.”

Mr Toro said he and fellow students had brought up issues with Soar’s former CEO, Neel Khokhani, and its education partner, the Box Hill Institute.

“I had a very stressful meeting with the Dean of aviation. He said you can drop the course and nothing more happens,” Mr Toro said.

Mr Toro said Mr Khokhani was mostly absent during his time at Soar Aviation, speaking to his class once.

Mr Khokhani declined to comment.

MTF...P2