Local aeronautical training school lauded for regional role
ART Williams and Harry Wendt Aeronautical Engineering School (AWHWAES) at Ogle Airport, East Coast Demerara was, last Friday, hailed as a tertiary institution that has been developing by leaps and bounds and of which all Guyanese can be proud.

Kudos were heaped on its staff and management when it turned out 22 more aircraft maintenance technicians for the local and regional aviation industry, at a graduation and prize-giving ceremony.

Among those in attendance were Prime Minister Samuel Hinds, performing the functions of the Office of President; Members of the Diplomatic Corps; Chief Executive Officer of LIAT, Mr. Brian Challenger and his senior managers; CARICOM officials; Chairman of the Civil Aviation Authority, Mr. Paul James and local senior aviation officials.

Sixteen of the graduates are Guyanese and six from other CARICOM States, all sponsored by LIAT.

Founder of AWHWAES, Guyanese Captain Malcolm Chan-a-Sue, LIAT’s Mr.  Brian Challenger, President of the Aircraft Owners Association of Guyana (AOAG) and Chairman of Ogle Airport Inc., Mr. Michael Correia (Jnr) and Mr. Hinds were the main speakers at the three-hour long function, chaired by Mr. Christopher ‘Kit’ Nascimento,  Public Relations Consultant of (AOAG), at which certificates and prizes were presented.

Delivering the feature address, Correia spoke of the rapid development of the school, which has, since its establishment at Ogle 12 years ago, developed a unique collaboration with Caribbean Airlines services and now has branches in other CARICOM countries.

He said the school’s achievements, in recent times, include a contract, in its second year and continuing, from Caribbean Airlines, to assist in the training of 19 apprentices from Trinidad and Tobago, up to ‘LWTR’ engineering standards, in Trinidad.
Additionally, through the school, approximately 60 students from Guyana have spent the last 30 months on work attachments, with Caribbean Airlines, at Piarco International Airport, Trinidad.

Correia said the school has also been approved by the Jamaican Aviation Authority to establish a branch in Jamaica and its staffers will begin to train nationals of that country early next year, while the local entity continues to provide ongoing modular training for LIAT.
He praised the staff and management for making AWHWAES a truly Caribbean institution.
“I am, immensely, proud of the role that the school is playing with respect to Caribbean integration and the support we are giving the major Caribbean aircraft owners in the Caribbean,” Correia stated.
He said: “If we are to succeed with our dream of creating a Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME) and be able to, truly, call ourselves a Caribbean Community, we first have to learn to work together and support each other. I believe this school has demonstrated that and has set an example for others to follow.”
Chan-a-Sue said his source of pride and joy in the institution is its International Standards Organisation (ISO) certification, ISO 9001, in 2008.

SIGNAL RECOGNITION

“This is the only tertiary training organisation in the whole of CARICOM and South America, which has achieved this signal recognition and honour,” he boasted.

Prime Minister Hinds, himself the owner of a Private Pilot’s Licence (PPL), emphasised the importance of the work of an aviation engineer.

“You have to be the most methodical people in the industry. For any errors you make can be fatal,” he cautioned, urging the graduates to keep improving themselves to reach their full human potential.

Challenger spoke of the global nature of demands in the work of the aviation engineer.

He said: “Over the past ten years, we have seen global aviation expand well beyond the traditional markets of Europe and North America and spread into the new emerging markets.
“With its strategic position linking Brazil and Latin America, Guyana stands at the doorway to one of the most vibrant of these new emerging markets. I have no doubt that, in the near future, it will realise its full potential and the school and its students will be at the forefront of advancing the aviation link so vital to holistic and sustainable development.”

The closing remarks were delivered by Vice-Chairman of AWHWAES and Second Vice-President of AOAG, Captain Ronald Reece.

Colonel Art Williams and Engineer Harry Wendt, for whom the school is named, were members of the United States Army Air Corps who came to Guyana and moved the aviation industry, from a position of no airstrips to at least 100.