To be exact I've attended two schools. The school in Norway made sure I got all the European certificates, while the American school taught me how to fly. NAIA (North American Institute of Aviation) is owned by Benjamin Creel who also own a large part of NEAR (North European Aviation Resources). NEAR is functioning as a recruiting organ for NAIA in Northern Europe. The whole idea of sending students from Norway to the States is basically that is cheaper to fly there, thus making the total cost for the student smaller. The weather is also somewhat better in the States.

The alternative in Norway is NAC in Bardufoss, but they have huge amounts of snow large parts of the year as well as very short days during the winter. On the other hand, you'll get a more relevant education when flying under Norwegian weather conditions. After I started the education another alternative has emerged in Norway, Luftfartsskolen, which has a program similar to NEAR, althoug it's not an integrated program.

The education gave me certification as a commercial pilot in both Europe and the States. Because of the tough work market today, I chose a school that would give me the opportunity to get as many hours as possible. Through this system you get between 1000 and 1500 hours in total, which will be valuable later. At the moment I started flight school, NAC will have their students an interview with Scandinavian Airlines (SAS). Should you not get in however you'll be left with no job and 200 hours to compete for other jobs in the open market. The solution for many of these has been type ratings and programmes like CTC.

 

NORTH AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF AVIATION

The school is located in Conway near Myrtle Beach in South Carolina. The programme takes 9-12 months before you move on to another school as a flightinstructor to gather as many hours as possible till the two year visa expires. During my stay at NAIA I got the following certificates:

• PPL-A (Private Pilot Licence - Airplane)
• IR (Instrument Rating)
• CPL-A (Commercial Pilot Licence- Airplane)
• ME (Multi Engine rating)
• CFI (Certified Flight Instructor)
• CFII (Certified Flight Instructor Instrument)

I've posted some pictures of the school in the GALLERY.

 

NORTH EUROPEAN AVIATION RESOURCES

NEAR is located at Vigra Airport in Aalesund (Western Norway). They moved here during the Spring of 2003. Ironically they do not have any airplanes, though they are planning on doing something about that. For the moment they are using Rørosfly as a partner school in Norway to complete the European licences.

After the two year stay in the States, you move back to Aalesund where you go through a repetition course before you complete the 14 final ATPL exams to meet the theoretical requirements. After that there is training in the simulator as well as some flying at Røros on a multi engine before the final checkride. After completeing all of this I got the following:

• CPL(A) (Commercial Pilot Licence - Airplane)
• IR(A) (Instrument Rating - Airplane)
• MEP/SEP (Multi Engine Piston / Single Engine Piston)
• ATPL(A) - Theory

In addition to this there is the MCC-course (Multi Crew Cooperation Course) where you learn about cockpit cooperation. When you're done the NCAA will issue a frozen ATPL (Air Transport Pilot Licence) which you have 7 years to unfreeze (1500 hours total time with 500 hours multi crew is the most important criterias).