Seeking to resume flight training for Malagasy pilots

If you believe NSAM Director, Mr. Realy Flouty, the government has not fully appreciated the needs, and the influential scope of this establishment.
The funds which the leadership has allocated to the institution is not sufficient to run it, and to update the training fleet.
Mr. Flouty claims that the only reason the school is still in business today is the ingenuity of the maintenance team.
Of the 5 training planes available in 1975, when the Canadians were running the show, at Arivonimamo, the former International Airport, only two are fit to fly, a single engine trainer, and a twin engine one.

The government showed so little interest that training was suspended for ten years, from 1985 to 1995.
Yet, the need still exists, as evidenced by the proliferation of private flight schools where students pay around $2,000.
The students, from these establishments often rent NSAM or other institutions planes for their hands-on training.

NSAM reopened its doors in 1995, and was moved to Ivato International Airport in 1998.
It trains student pilots, flight controllers, and aviation administrators; communications and radar technicians, and navigators; as well as meteorological engineers, and technicians of all nationalities, from Madagascar, and the African continent.
Professional training takes two years, and it does not come free: about $25 per month for national student-pilots, and around $3,500 per year for foreigners.
The latter ones follow an internship program.
The last group of foreigners completed their airspace weather related curriculum in 2001, while 10 national student pilots will have to wait before they can graduate.

Because there are not enough training planes, these students could not complete their 300 hour hands-on flight training requirements.
The problem is not with the twin engine aircraft.
It is with the single engine trainer on which all hands-on flight training takes place.
The increasing frequency of technical check-ups, and verifications required by this overused single engine trainer reduces its availability.
This explains the delay in student pilot training schedule, and is shouldered by the parents who had to continue to pay tuition despite the political crisis.
The twin engine plane which is only used for pre-licensing check-rides, does not present this sort of problem.

A call to our partners

Mr. Realy Flouti emphasizes that to be able to conduct student pilot flight training within the requisite time-frame, they need one twin engine aircraft, and four single engine trainers.
For now, he suggests that the administration invest about $75,000, and purchase two single engine training planes.
He mentioned that the government, and the appropriate agency have been notified.

Unlike the former regime, the new leadership did not fall for, and give in to the NSAM director’s complaints.
For his part, Mr. Olivier Rakotovazaha, the Transportation, and Meteorology Minister, has been searching for ways and means to get the School out of its current difficulties, and to get it going again, without involving the government.
With this in mind, the administration has requested that the entities implicated in this training institution (Madagascar’s Civil Aviation – MCA, Air Madagascar Airlines, Meteorology, ADEMA, and ASECNA, among others) take on this responsibility.

Madagascar’s national airline company, Air Mad, has already given the go ahead for scheduling the requisite 3,000 hours of flight time so that the 10 student pilots could complete their training.
Mr. Olivier Rakotovazaha assures us, “They will be scheduled as soon as possible.
The government will not come up with the $75,000.
It, instead, charges MCA, ADEMA, Air Mad, and others to raise the money, so that NSAM could keep its good name, and would turn into a coveted jewel of the Indian Ocean.”
Mr. Olivier Rakotovazaha’s vision is clear: NSAM will be transformed into a regional vocational institution which will provide superior training.
The school will also provide elective, and improvement courses for the employees, and the management of the organizations involved.

Translated by J. F. Razanamiadana