Ragaat to admit students from other flying schools

Thiruvananthapuram: After Rajiv Gandhi Academy for Aviation Technology (Ragaat) has resumed its training after a three-year break, the academy has decided to induct students from other flying schools for flying training.
The admission process for both flying training course and 3-year commercial pilot licence (CPL) course is in progress. The academy plans to admit 10 students from other flying schools.
The academy has received a couple of enquires on admission process and flying training after it restarted the training programme. The aspirants to CPL course this year need to complete a three-month long ground classes before their aircraft-flying training could be started. During the time gap, the academy will provide training for students from other flying schools.
“The fee at the academy is comparatively less than other flying schools and academies in the country and this may be a reason for the demand for institute’s training programme. We can accommodate around 30 students for the training, including 10 from other schools,” said Gopakumar R L, secretary of Ragaat.
Four students from other flying schools , including one from Karnataka, have registered at the academy for flying training. The training programme at the academy had ceased in March 2016 after the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) terminated the services of chief flying instructor (CFI). In August 2016, the academy appointed a new CFI captain, A K Mohan. But, the approval from flying training organisation (FTO) had expired by then.
After FTO gave approval on March 23, 2017, training was restarted. Then, the privileges of captain Mohan as CFI were withdrawn by civil aviation secretary on June 16, 2017.
The procedure of starting training under the guidance of new CFI Mallikarjun, who was appointed in October 2017, got delayed further. After all the mandatory approvals were received from DGCA, the academy resumed the training in October 2018.
“The academy now has eight students from 2015-16 batch and three students from 2018 batch who are completing their flying training. One student from previous batch was awarded commercial pilot licence (CPL) and CPL training for another student is nearing completion,” Gopakumar added.