• Home
• Flight Service Providers
• News
• How New Technologies Make Studying A Breeze

How New Technologies Make Studying A Breeze

14/07/2015 by Aviation Times

If you’re reading this you’ve probably been through school, and maybe even a university. For a long long time every school, be it aviation academy or any other, were using (and some of them still are, until this day) such “pre-historic” materials as books, papers, pens, and at best, excel sheets. Well, it’s a new dawn, it’s a new day, it’s a new life as the song goes.

We have seen a lot of improvements in the past few years, especially in aviation, which has always been one of the leading forces in technology innovation. In 2013 American Airlines became the first commercial carrier to receive the FAA approval with regard to using Apple iPads throughout all the phases of the flight. iPads replaced the standard flight cases carried by pilots. These contained a large number of paper-based aircraft manuals and operational documents and could weigh up to 50 pounds each when fully loaded. The introduction of the Electronic Flight Bag (EFB) instead of a standard one lifted the weight off the shoulders of pilots.

With advancements like this now adopted by a lot of airlines it does not seem far-fetched that companies will begin telling flight academies that they will expect their new hires to be experienced in the use of mobile devices as well (a lot of academies are already using iPads in their training).

How does this help you if you are dreaming of being a pilot? Well, all of the newest technologies are there to make people’s lives easier and that’s why training centers are beginning to implement more and more of those technologies to make the studies as comfortable as possible for the students, and for the instructors. The improvements are not only coming via the use of smart gadgets (tablets, smart phones), but also the training management systems.

There are a lot of aviation training management systems, one of them is MOMook, whose Head of Business Development Dainius Meilunas had this to say, “No one can say that learning to fly will ever be easy, but training centers are trying to make the process as smooth as possible. There are a lot of great tools around these days, from tablets to smart phones and a smart training center will try to implement them into the process of learning. New technologies allow having a product which reliefs students and instructors from a lot of responsibilities, and lets them concentrate on tasks at hand, rather than worrying if they printed some document of theirs.”

Not all of the academies are following the suit. In of them you will still have to work with the aforementioned “pre-historic” tools. But the more advanced training centers will have management systems that will help you to learn. Here’s what a good training management system means to you:

• Most of your training is computer based (CBT), which is easy to use, and access. If the training centre has adopted a training management software, you would be able to access your learning material online easily, and 24/7. You will still need some books, but definitely not the amount you would have needed 10 years ago.
• You will be able to see your schedules, see the feedback your instructors are leaving for you, and even leave feedback on your instructors.
• A good aviation management system will help you make sure that you are ready. You will always know what’s coming ahead, and be able to prepare.
• If you love aviation you know a pilot or two who told you stories of keeping track of their time in the air on some sheet of paper. In an advanced training centre, you have your log book online to make the tracking of your hours easy.
• With everything functioning smoothly, the system will remind you if you have any expiring documents coming up, or if you need to renew anything (things such as visas, medical).
• It will be easy for you to see how your instructors are evaluating you, and what kind of feedback they have.

Advancements in technology, and making the best use of them is in the interest of every party involved in aviation training.

For students it gives an easy to understand approach towards learning, makes it a cakewalk to access all the necessary information, and removes some of the responsibilities of their shoulders, as mentioned above.

For instructors, it helps to reach the students, to have all the documentation, and information in one place.

For training centers the main benefit is the ability to monitor everything that’s happening at their training facility, the ability to evaluate your students online, pull out various reports on your students. It is also way cheaper to upgrade the training material if you have it in a digital format, rather than paper.

If you are a person who is picking a flight academy, you should look more closely at those, which have a friendship with innovative technologies. After all, this is where the world is heading, and you don’t want to be left behind.

Source: BAA