Gloucestershire, UK – 27 October, 2021: Skyborne Airline Academy is announcing the launch of its in-house and third party maintenance facility, after being awarded UK CAA Part-CAO approval.
The in-house Fleet Support team is located at Skyborne’s headquarters at Gloucestershire Airport in the UK, enabling Skyborne to have an immediate resolution of maintenance needs for its Diamond aircraft, allowing for minimal aircraft downtime. The experienced team is responsible for a variety of maintenance tasks such as all defects, scheduled inspections, and major structural checks. On-site maintenance allows Skyborne to keep its aircraft in the very best condition at all times, so its trainees can focus on finessing their flying skills.
Vicky Gould, head of maintenance, Skyborne, said: “The UK CAA Part-CAO approval took around nine months for us to obtain. We began recruiting for our team in September 2020 and quickly started setting up the maintenance facility within our hangar from the ground up. With the expertise of Joseph Harriss who has more than 25 years in the aviation industry, and my knowledge of maintenance and operations, we have successfully created a fully-inclusive maintenance service for Skyborne and third parties.”
Ian Cooper, COO, Skyborne, said: “At Skyborne we want to redefine every aspect of airline pilot training and the next obvious step was to bring our maintenance in house. With the launch of our new maintenance department it helps us to keep our Diamond aircraft in the sky, avoiding disruption to our flight training. We can also offer our expertise to other flight training schools and private owners with a competitive pricing structure.
“Not only does our in-house Fleet Support team enable us to keep our Diamond aircraft flying it also provides our trainees with an advantage in their ATPL theoretical knowledge, particularly the Aircraft General Knowledge module; they can walk down to the hanger and see first-hand how certain parts and systems of the aircraft function, enriching their studies.”
The team is currently made up of seven people, from the Continuing Airworthiness Manager, licensed engineers, technicians, stock controller and a team assistant. Skyborne currently has three Diamond DA42 aircraft in its fleet, the optimum aircraft for flight training due to its superior performance, stability, handling characteristics and advanced flight instrumentation and FADEC.
