ucked between the ocean and the mountains on the southernmost point of Jordan is the city of Aqaba, home to Ayla Aviation Academy. Founded in 2006, Ayla Aviation Academy has, in its ten years, already graduated hundreds of pilots who now fly aircraft for commercial airlines throughout the region, including Qatar Airways, Emirates, Etihad and, of course, Royal Jordanian. With nearly 100 aspiring pilots enrolled at any given time, Ammar Yousef, President and CTO, Ayla Aviation Academy is dedicated to leveraging technology to keep his fleet, cadets and flight instructors in line and safe. In early 2014, Yousef and the team at Ayla began to develop a plan to create a unique, streamlined and wellrounded experience for their cadets through the use of technology. “We began in the cockpit,” says Yousef. “The cockpit is our training ground – you could say the most important classroom for a cadet.” Ayla’s fleet includes the modern all-glass cockpit Diamond DA40, Diamond DA42, Cessna 172 aircraft that seat two – the cadet and the flight instructor. Yousef went searching for a way to enhance the learning experience, knowing that technology would be the key. “It was at an aviation expo in the United
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States that I found inspiration,” recalls Yousef. “There was a display of mounted cameras for recreational pilots. These cameras were used to capture the in-flight experience of aviation hobbyists.” Though his cadets are far from recreational flyers out on a weekend jaunt, Yousef saw the potential to use the same infrastructure as a teaching tool. “We took the idea back to Ayla, and created compact camera mounts for each aeroplane in our fleet,” explains Yousef. “We installed a video filter that removes the aeroplane propellers from the video stream, giving us a clean feed.” In addition, Yousef’s team routed the audio feed through the pilot’s mouth piece, to pick up uninterrupted dialogue between the cadet and the flight instructor. Those outside the field of aviation may not realise that cameras in the cockpits can be controversial these days. “Installing cameras in the cockpits of commercial airplanes is one subject that generates heated debate between proponents and opponents. Having knowledge of what has transpired inside a cockpit seconds or minutes before a catastrophic malfunction or mysterious crash is crucial in determining the root cause and any contributing factors,” explains Yousef. The controversy arises, he explains, in
“If there is an incident, we need to know how and why it occurred. This is both to correct and protect the cadet as well as the flight instructor.”
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the case of commercial airlines as liability for incidents is a factor. “At Ayla, however, we put safety and excellence in training first,” he says. “If there is an incident, we need to know how and why it occurred. This is both to correct and protect the cadet as well as the flight instructor.” Ayla’s goals were met almost immediately with the inclusion of the cameras. The videos are used as a debriefing tool, to provide evidence of instructional progress. In addition, cadets are able to watch their flight immediately after landing as a selfassessment. There have been unintended benefits of the programme as well. “Even though cameras were not intended to police students and instructors, the presence of a third set of eyes in a training cockpit played a significant part in elevating the instructional atmosphere and established a new bar for the instructor-student relationship,” says Yousef. Unexpectedly, the cameras have created an auditing system for the administration at Ayla. “In addition to the regular standardisation sessions conducted for instructors, the chief flight instructor now has the opportunity to conduct "unannounced” spot checks or audits of video-recorded missions with the aim to provide feedback to the instructor as part of continuous improvement. The same thing works during a solo flight where a flight instructor is able to monitor the student progress and provide feedback.” However, as with all new technology, the cameras have put additional pressure on the IT department at the academy. “With so many hours of video, we ran into may 2016
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