NCAT takes delivery of new Diamond aircraft to boost training

The Nigerian College of Aviation Technology, Zaria on Monday took delivery of a new DA42 Diamond aircraft to aid its training programmes.
Inaugurating the aircraft in Zaria, the Minister of State for Aviation, Senator Hadi Sirika, said the Federal Government was committed to transforming the college into a world-class aviation training institution.
Sirika commended NCAT management for the initiative in acquiring the aircraft essentially to boost the training capacity of the college.
Sirika said: “The plan by NCAT to acquire new aircraft had become necessary considering the fact that the current trainer aircraft used for training has become too old to give them the kind of training they need.
“The fuelling and the cost of maintaining the aircraft is extremely very important.
“I want to assure you that the Ministry of Transportation is in full support of this exercise.
“It is in concert with the statutory responsibility of the college and I must commend the effort of the management and staff of this college.”
Sirika, however, advised the college to do more in acquiring more training and expertise in order to transform the country into a knowledge-base economy.
He also assured that the provision of more aircrafts for NCAT’s fleet would continue until the college attained international standard.
The Rector of the college, Abdulsalam Muhammed, said that the current 29-trainer aircrafts in the college were old as the newest was purchased 15 years ago and had become expensive to maintain.
Muhammed disclosed that NCAT would acquire 20 of the Diamond Aircraft comprising five multi-engine DA42 and 15 single-engine DA-40 trainers.
He said: “Today, the college is taking delivery of the first DA-42 multi-engine aircraft.
“This new trainer-aircraft will significantly improve our flight training experience and from the angle of cost efficiency, our analysis shows they will significantly reduce our operating cost, especially in the area of maintenance and fuelling.
“They are also equipped with glass cockpit and germin 1000, which will make it easier for our graduating pilots to transit to new generation commercial aircraft.”
The NCAT boss also disclosed that the college was awarded the Global Aviation Training Achievement Award in South Korea in 2016.
He said NCAT also received the two awards in the categories of highest number of training instructor course conducted and highest number of ICAO courses conducted in Addis Ababa recently.