Civil Aviation
28 July 2025 CAT Guest Author Experts explore XR integration in aviation training, focusing on safety, usability, fidelity, and learning outcomes.
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Airlines around the world are beginning to ramp up operations again. CAT Editor Rick Adams, FRAeS, outlines some of the considerations for pilots, cabin crew and maintenance technicians and the retraining required for restarting the engines.
Airlines will use this crisis to accelerate deployment of more efficient aircraft, sending some widebodies into early retirement. Maintenance technicians who have been parking thousands of aircraft on airport ramps will need to return them to flying condition, possibly in short order. Cabin crew, taught for years to engage with passengers, will now be limiting such interaction.
There’s been plenty of bad news, of course. Flight schedules reduced by 90% or more. Airline bankruptcies. Furloughs and layoffs. But there’s some encouraging news as well. Some airlines are beginning to add back routes, even open some new ones. New airlines are being launched. Flight training schools are resuming courses.
Nearly everyone has an opinion on how long it will take the airline industry to return to 2019 passenger levels and the growth levels of the past decade.
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Varjo shares its best practices for hygienic use of VR/XR devices so that headsets are safe to use in multi-user settings. 7 July 2020
Gran Canaria-based flight school Canavia, has completed the implementation of FlightLogger’s flight school management platform, becoming the fourth academy located in Spain to use the solution. 7 July 2020
CAT Editor-in-Chief Rick Adams, FRAeS, describes how Halldale Group is adapting to the new normal to serve the training community across multiple digital platforms. 7 July 2020
Airlines around the world are beginning to ramp up operations again. CAT Editor Rick Adams, FRAeS, outlines some of the considerations for pilots, cabin crew and maintenance technicians and the retraining required for restarting the engines. 7 July 2020
Safe and efficient flight operations rely on pilots’ management of their mental resources. Watch Captain Owen Sims discuss the importance of pilots using reason, planning and logic rather than raw emotion during his talk at EATS 2019. 6 July 2020
A key part of the FAA’s aircraft re-certification is a simulator training evaluation by a Joint Operational Evaluation Board (JOEB) in which pilots from around the world will be asked to validate training requirements. The JOEB is said to be primarily looking at the order and priority of checklists and memory items.
Travel restrictions related to the pandemic add uncertainty to how JOEB sessions can be conducted. The select group may perform its work remotely in flight simulators around the world, rather than transiting to Boeing’s main training center in Miami, Florida, where COVID-19 is raging anew.
Following the sim sessions, the FAA's Flight Standardization Board will propose minimum training requirements, then a public comment period, before final approval of training.
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L3Harris Airline Academy has launched its new ATPL Modular training programme, which offers future pilots the opportunity to train at their own pace and pay as they train. 2 July 2020
LVL320 Crew Training is a new subsidiary of Skywings Flight Training, a flight school located at Antwerp airport, Belgium. 2 July 2020
FlightSafety International now offers maintenance technician training at a new Learning Center located at the Sunshine Coast Airport in Queensland, Australia. 2 July 2020
The National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) has announced the cancellation of its 2020 Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition (NBAA-BACE), which was scheduled to take place in Orlando, Florida, 6-8 October. 2 July 2020
Due to COVID-19, Nicholas Robinson, the Director General of Civil Aviation for Transport Canada, has allowed candidates to attempt a flight test prior to completing a written exam for the issuance of an Instrument Rating or any of the Initial Instructor Ratings. 1 July 2020
A survey from a recent Aviation Technician Education Council (AETC) webinar suggests a decline in new Airframe and Powerplant (A&P) enrollments but also shows increases in innovation as schools transition to distance learning as a result of COVID-19. 1 July 2020
Portuguese investigators Gabinete de Prevençäo e Investigaçäo de Acidentes com Aeronaves e de Acidentes Ferroviärios released the final report of the harrowing Air Astana ERJ190LR flight KC1388 accident of 11 November 2018. 1 July 2020
Editor’s Note: Last week, Portuguese investigators GPIAAF (Gabinete de Prevençäo e Investigaçäo de Acidentes com Aeronaves e de Acidentes Ferroviärios) released the final report of the harrowing Air Astana ERJ190LR flight KC1388 accident of 11 November 2018. The plane was on a post-maintenance flight, carrying three Air Astana pilots and three technicians from the operator.
Shortly after takeoff from Alverca do Ribatejo airbase, Portugal, the regional jet became uncontrollable. The pilots not only issued a distress signal, fighter aircraft were scrambled to escort them to the sea, where the Air Astana crew anticipated ditching their plane.
This exclusive narrative is from a detailed conversation CAT Europe Editor Chris Long had with the Air Astana flight crew, presenting their in-the-cockpit perspective.
The first that Captain Vyacheslav Aushev learnt of the task was whilst he was in another aircraft, having arrived in Almaty, Kazakhstan, where he was instructed to call crew control during checkout. He was then advised that he was planned to collect an Embraer 190 from the military airport at Alverca, near Lisbon, and return it via a refuelling stop at Minsk, Belarus, to the home base at Nur Sultan, Kazakhstan’s capital. This with no fare-paying passengers, but with three maintenance engineers returning to base. The aircraft was due out of a “C” maintenance check but, because of repeated delays totalling 11 days, the original aircraft captain was no longer able to take the flight, hence the short notice. 1 July 2020
RGB Spectrum announced the addition of CrossPoint KVM-over-IP to its product portfolio. 30 June 2020
Registration is now open for BbWorld 2020, a free, virtual event for training and development professionals. 30 June 2020
Turboprop manufacturer ATR and Australia’s biggest independent airline Regional Express (REX) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to cooperate in studying optimised solutions for the replacement and modernisation of its fleet. 30 June 2020
In January 2020 SIMAERO was selected by Chongqing Yuxiang Aviation Flight Training to relocate its Boeing 737NG FFS simulator from Urumqi to Zhengzhou. 30 June 2020
To get a better understanding of how South Africa’s flight training providers are faring, Alsim Simulators’ export manager, Mr. Nicolas de Lassus, spoke to Attie Niemann, CEO of 43 Air School. 30 June 2020