The future is now


My first U.S. training experience with Leonardo Helicopters (AgustaWestland at the time) was back in 2004. I was hired by a large energy company to fly an AW109E helicopter and was sent to the training academy in Philadelphia to complete the AW109E initial training course. At the time, the course pretty much consisted of ground school and a couple hours of training in our company aircraft with an Agusta instructor pilot. My, how times have changed!


Fast forward to 2021. Despite the challenges of COVID-19, this past spring Leonardo opened its brand new state-of- the-art Helicopter Training Academy at its existing campus in northeast Philadelphia that also includes production, support, and administrative functions for the United States. The $80 million facility investment aims to provide training services to meet the growing demand for pilots, cabin crews, and maintenance technicians across North and South America.


This past August I visited the new facility to not only write about the new academy for Rotorcraft Pro, but also to attend the weeklong AW169 recurrent training course as a pilot.


58


Sept/Oct 2021


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