Etihad Airways to use iPads for aircraft training
Last year, the iPad landed in cockpits as a replacement for flight bags. Now it's being used to supplement training courses for aircraft engineers. According to a report by Gulf News, Etihad Airways is using the iPad to train 200 licensed aircraft engineers. Eleven engineers already went through the Airbus A340 course which was developed by airline technical service provider SR Technics.
Both the airline and SR Technics intend to further develop the iPad aircraft training course and hope to eventually replace traditional, spiral-bound manuals. Werner Rothenbaecher, Etihad Airways Senior Vice President Technical, has nothing but good things to say about the company's iPad initiative.
We have found that using such technology allows for more efficient and effective training, and one of the major benefits of the iPad is that additional supporting materials may now be included in the interactive manuals such as images, videos, cockpit voice recordings and incidents reports.
Etihad Airways is one of the main airlines for the United Arab Emirates. I'm sure many smaller carriers will be watching this pilot program to see how well it works on a larger scale.
