Steve Maharey

Vice-Chancellor Steve Maharey will next week host a function to mark the arrival of the first of the 14 new training aircraft to be used by the School of Aviation at Palmerston North.

The $8 million purchase, announced earlier this year, is a major commitment to the school, which employs 45 staff in the Manawatu.

Massey is New Zealand's only university with an aviation school and one of just a few worldwide to offer degrees in aviation with professional pilot training incorporated. The purchase of two high-performance twin-engine Diamond Aircraft 42 (DA42) and 12 single-engine DA40 planes will keep the school at the forefront of pilot training.

The planes were manufactured by Diamond Aircraft Industries at its factory in Ontario, Canada, and are being shipped to New Zealand for assembly by Hawker Pacific, the regional distributor.

They will replace the current fleet of Piper Warrior single-engine and Piper Seneca twin-engine aircraft.

The School of Aviation was established in 1990. It is a certified flight training organisation, has ISO 9001-2000 accreditation, and holds an Equivalence Approval from the New Zealand Civil Aviation Authority, under which students' examination results are accepted in lieu of CAA examinations. Flight examiners from the school are approved for conducting flight tests for the issue of licences.

The school is part of the College of Business and also offers Bachelor of Aviation Management, Master of Aviation and doctoral programmes in aviation. Currently 200 students are taking the Bachelor of Aviation Management programme and 90 are studying the Bachelor of Aviation - Air Transport Pilot degree. There are 28 postgraduate students.