Gulf Air Trainee Engineers find Australia Training a Rewarding Experience

Eighteen of Gulf Air’s brightest trainee engineers, 11 Bahrainis and seven Omanis, who are undergoing intensive training in Australia, are well on their way to becoming full fledged aircraft engineers.

Recruited under the Gulf nationals engineering programme, the trainees who left Bahrain last November for their 18-month training stint with Australia Aviation, Brisbane, have successfully completed two phases of their modular training i.e. Module-6 on Aircraft Material & Hardware and M-7 on Aircraft maintenance Practices and appeared for an EASA Part 66 modular exam.

"We find the training a rewarding and enriching experience," said Eman Mandeel, a Bahraini and the only lady candidate in the programme.

"We are exposed to basic workshop training from an aviation perspective. For example, our training included practicing fabrication of a formed wing box section, secured with rivets starting off with a plain aluminium sheet."

The trainees are exceptionally good and promising, said Gulf Air Technical Training and Development Manager Tim De Alwis. All have passed their exams with the majority scoring over 90%.

"These exams, coupled with practical experience on aircraft maintenance, leads them to obtain their Aircraft Maintenance Engineers Licence," Mr Alwis added.

The students are supervised by experienced instructors, who closely monitor their academic and practical performance.

The current batch is scheduled to complete their training in May 2007 after which they will return to Bahrain to begin their two years hands-on training on aircraft maintenance and repairs on GF aircraft.

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