Mazzei Flying Service - NATA

Mazzei Flying Service
Continued from page 29
Brannan is also a seaplane instructor, although he
said the company is no longer doing seaplane training.
Brannan stressed that Mazzei Flying Service has
always targeted those whose immediate career goal
is flight instructing. In that regard, the company
specializes in airplane and helicopter professional
pilot training, which takes students from beginning
private pilot through the flight instructor, instrument
flight instructor, and multi-engine airplane
instructor ratings.
A Different Approach to Training
“I think what sets Mazzei Flying Service apart is
that we’re dedicated to training students to become
good flight instructors so that they will be able to
teach flying effectively from the start and build the
flying experience needed to apply for an airline
job,” Brannan said. “The airlines are in the business
of training airline pilots; we are in the business of
training good flight instructors. And training good
fight instructors is really hard work, which begins
at the private pilot level. It takes a lot of time and
effort, but it is necessary if you expect to graduate
competent and effective flight instructors under
FAR 141.”
Creating good flight instructors, Brannan noted,
involves a radically different approach to flight
training, which is based on the principles of “attitude
flying” with an emphasis on “precision attitude
control.”
“What we have tried to do is capture what all
experienced professional pilots know about flying
an airplane and use that knowledge to create a
unique and highly effective training method,” he
said. “Conventional training methods have long
taught that airplanes fly like gliders with engines.
The problem is the method only works in small airplanes.
It is like teaching someone to ride a bicycle
with training wheels. It gives you the illusion you
are flying the airplane when the airplane is really
flying you. What we did was remove the training
wheels from our pilot training program and teach
our students to control the flight path of the aircraft
with precision.”
Brannan further explained it is a matter of setting
priorities. “In precision attitude flying, we stress
the importance of keeping attitude control primary
and airspeed control secondary,” he said. “In most
flight schools, it’s taught just the opposite. Our
philosophy is that attitude control is fundamental to
all piloting, and mastering it early enables pilots to
move up faster and more efficiently to turboprops
and jets.”
He added that you can fly a small airplane like a
large airplane, but you cannot fly a large airplane
like a small airplane. “The precision attitude control
technique essentially allows us to train large airplane
pilots in small airplanes,” he said. “Most flight
schools are still teaching small airplane flying. In
our school, the operative test for the right flight
training technique or procedure is always, will it
work in any airplane or helicopter, and will it work
well in all situations?”
As chief flight instructor, Brannan noted that he is
solely responsible for quality control because many
of the school’s graduates become its future flight
instructors.
Two years ago, the company’s reputation
and unique approach to flight training
came to the attention of Air India and
China Airlines, which sent 35 zero-time
pilot cadets to Mazzei Flying Service for ab
initio commercial pilot training. It was the
first time the school did ab initio training
under contract for a large commercial air
carrier.
“Our ab initio training program is designed
to take students with zero flight
hours through commercial pilot with
instrument multiengine ratings,” Brannan
explained. “After graduation the students
return home to receive the remainder of
their airline training. An FAA-approved
training syllabus is used in each training
course and incorporates each airline’s
minimum flight-hour requirements.”
30 Aviation Business Journal | 4 th Quarter 2010