Emirates Flight Training Academy receives delivery of first training aircraft
Emirates Flight Training Academy, a state-of-the-art flight training facility being developed by Emirates to respond to the global aviation industry’s need for pilots, has taken delivery of its first two Cirrus SR22 G6 training aircraft in Dubai. These are the first of the 22 single-piston engine Cirrus aircraft that have been ordered by the academy to train ab initio pilots.
The two Cirrus SR22 G6 aircraft, A6-CTA and A6-CTB, landed in Dubai following a transatlantic journey spanning over 13,000 km. Given the size of the aircraft and other restrictions including the size of the fuel tanks and range, the journey from Cirrus’ manufacturing facilities in the US to Dubai had to be split into multiple segments.
Upon completion of manufacture, the two aircraft were flown from Duluth, Minnesota to Knoxville, Tennessee — the location of Cirrus’ aircraft delivery center. Once at the delivery center, the aircraft were inspected and teams from Cirrus and Emirates Flight Training Academy went through a series of pre-flight appearance, functionality checks and test flights. The two Cirrus planes then embarked on an 11-stop transatlantic journey transiting through 10 countries flying an average of over 5 hours a day.
Flying out from Knoxville, A6-CTA and A6-CTB stopped at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, USA followed by Sept Iles and Iqaluit in Canada. From Iqaluit the two aircraft set out to cross the Atlantic Ocean in two stretches, stopping first at Nuuk in Greenland, then at Reykjavik in Iceland and completing the transatlantic sector at Wick in Scotland. These flights were also the longest segments in the aircraft’s journey from the US to Dubai.
Once in Europe, the two aircraft made their way from Scotland to Sywell in Northamptonshire, England and from thereon to Venice, Crete, Aqaba, Bahrain and finally to Dubai. All the flights were done in daylight and the two aircraft flew in loose formation throughout the entire journey allowing for easier air traffic clearances. The Cirrus SR22 G6 aircraft will form the backbone of the training fleet of the Emirates Flight Training Academy.