Flight Training Adelaide (FTA) / Qantas Group Pilot Academy Diamond DA-40 Star VH-PQS Pops into Rockhampton Airport

An interesting visitor to call into Rockhampton Airport on Monday 20 April was Flight Training Adelaide (FTA) / Qantas Group Pilot Academy Diamond DA-40 Star VH-PQS.  It arrived from the Toowoomba-Wellcamp Airport via Bundaberg Airport.

https://www.qantas.com/

VH-PQS later returned to Wellcamp direct from Rocky.

VH-PQS is one of several Diamond DA-40 Star training aircraft that operate out of Wellcamp with the Qantas Group’s new pilot academy which was officially launched in late January.  Some of the aircraft and have been noted completing airwork and calling into Central Queensland Airports in recent weeks.

The Pilot Academy has the capacity to train up to 250 pilots each year with Qantas reportedly hoping to build a long-term talent pipeline for the airline and its subsidiaries Jetstar and QantasLink plus the wider industry.

The first 34 students commenced training at the new facilities in early January on the single-engine Diamond DA40 and multi-engine DA42 aircraft.  100 students are expected to be in training by the end of 2020.

According to Qantas, the academy has the potential to train as many as 500 pilots each year across two locations including Toowoomba and Mackay – the preferred location for the second academy site.