Why is Philippines a better place for your flight training? The Philippines take pride in producing some of the best pilots in the world. In fact, local airlines are now having a hard time keeping their Filipino captains and first officers because they have become the prime targets of head hunters for international airline companies. But what makes Filipino pilots so special? It has a lot to do with the country’s colorful history with aviation.Of all the countries in Asia, the Philippines takes pride in having the longest timeline as far as aviation history is concerned. When other countries in Asia, especially those in Southeast Asia, were still fighting for their independence, the Philippines was already busy laying the groundwork for local commercial aviation. It started when Laurie Nielson, native of New Zealand, decided to invest in the Philippines in the 1930s and one of his business forays was to build an aviation school and an airport in Manila. He succeeded in convincing other investors to construct the Philippines’ first airport in the then sparsely populated 42-hectare Hacienda San Pedro de Makati owned by the Spanish-Filipino Zobel de Ayala family. In 1937, the Nielson Airport was inaugurated, which was then regarded as the biggest and best-equipped in Asia. The Nielson Airport became the base of the American Far Eastern School of Aviation – the first aviation school in Asia. The students there supplied the need for pilots for the Philippine Aerial Taxi Company (PATCO), the first airline company in the Philippines, and the Iloilo-Negros Air Express Company, the first Filipino-owned air service. Later on, the school also provided pilots for the Philippine Airlines, which took its maiden flight from the Nielson airfield in Makati to Baguio in March 15, 1941. Much has happened since then. Mr. Nielson eventually left the country after being incarcerated during the Japanese occupation. The airport he built was closed. The old runway, however, is still filled with activity these days. It’s now known as Ayala Avenue, the busiest road in the Philippines’ premier commercial business district. The 70-year love affair of Filipinos for flying gave rise to a local tradition for aviation – a rarity in many countries that also offer flight trainings – and this tradition is marked by excellence passed on by one Filipino pilot to another in a very long line of succession. Filipinos take flight training seriously. They invest in it long before they actually step in an aviation school. This translates to commitment to the profession – the very thing that gives Filipinos the so-called ‘x-factor’ when being hired by airline companies. :-)
Posted on: Thu, 28 Aug 2014 04:05:36 +0000
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