Even as the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) readies itself to conduct a third party audit of flying schools, the latter are of the view that institutes indulging in fraudulent practices should be exposed after six cases of fake licences were exposed recently. A student has to spend over R25 lakh at an aviation institute to qualify for a commercial pilot?s licence. YN Sharma, chief operating officer, Bhopal-based Chimes Aviation Academy, says, ?Every flying school maintains a flight training progress report (FTPR), with daily entries of a student?s flying hours. Second, 25 litres of fuel is consumed every hour of flying by a student, supplied by the Indian Oil Corporation (IOC).? He adds if at all the audit committee finds any disparity in flying hours of a particular student and the fuel consumption, the audit committee can always check with IOC, the amount of fuel purchased by the flying school under scrutiny.
Meanwhile, the DGCA is considering to look into 10,000 commercial pilot licences to verify their authenticity to douse fears regarding traveller?s safety. Rajeev Bhalla, ex-IAF pilot, currently working as the chief flight instructor at Aligarh-based Ambitions Aviation Academy, says, ?The faulty system has to be corrected.? There are over 200 pilot training institutes in the country that provide training to aspiring pilots.
