Another batch of engineers recently graduated from the Ogle Aeronautical Engineer-ing School when it hosted its 10th convocation exercise.
Eighteen students at the first, second and third levels were honoured for completing courses in aircraft regulations, basic instruments, advanced electrical systems, radio communication and navigation, piston engines and propellers, materials testing, aircraft structures and others, a Government Information Agency (GINA) press release said.
In his address Prime Minister Samuel Hinds commended the school for the possibilities training has and continues to open to students and the country. “I can recall in the early 1990s coming here for some flights, it would have been proper to call it the Ogle airstrip as it was used primarily by the sugar company GuySuCo to launch its agricultural works… today the ogle aerodrome is very much worthy of the name,” Hinds said.
According to GINA among the graduates were students from the Guyana Defence Force and countries including Suriname, Grenada, Jamaica, Antigua, St Vincent and the Grenadines and Barbados. The Surinamese were sponsored by their government while LIAT provided 6 scholarships to persons from Antigua, St Vincent and the Grenadines and Barbados.
GINA said too the school is the only one of its kind in the Caribbean. It was opened in 1993 by the Aircraft Owners Association of Guyana (AOAG) providing training to 9 students. Today over 100 fully licensed engineers have graduated. Currently, over 20 students are in Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) assisting Caribbean Airlines in major aircraft maintenance.
Additionally, Chief Execu-tive Officer of the School, Malcolm Chan-a-Sue said the school has allowed T&T to undertake maintenance works without having to travel to Atlanta, USA for such services. He said it has boosted the undergraduates and has allowed them to earn a salary while undergoing training.
Chan-a-Sue said aviation as one of mankind’s greatest achievements. He also said very soon an apprenticeship system will be launched in collaboration with Caribbean Airlines whereby local aviation instructors will benefit from a four-year programme with the aim of transforming the school into the school of Caricom.
Hinds, in his role as president, lauded this idea. He noted that it will allow Ogle to become a regional airport providing Guyana with links to other South American countries and the Caribbean. ““This airport and this school have been points of growth over the last 20 years that this administration has been in government and we would want to identify with the people and the success that they have brought here,” he said.
According to GINA the AOAG is now actively engaged in establishing a second training facility to train Guyanese pilots for the commercial pilots’ licence level and to expand the aerodrome’s areas of operation and influence into all neighbouring countries and beyond.
The release said too AOAG Chairman Anthony Mekdeci, members of the diplomatic corps and others attended the ceremony.
