•The Cessna aircraft used for training pilots at Zambia Air Services Training Institute.

By HUMPHREY NKONDE –

President Edgar Lungu emphasised the revitalisation of the Zambia Air Services Training Institute (ZASTI) when he addressed the National Assembly on September 18, 2015.
His Government’s resolve to make ZASTI more effective is in line with the provision of manpower for the transport master plan and the envisaged revival of the national airline in 2016.
ZASTI has entered into a joint venture with Aerotech Zimbabwe to do aircraft maintenance in Lusaka.
Aerotech Zimbabwe, with more than 50 years of aircraft maintenance experience, has been recognised in that category by the South Africa Civil Aviation Authority, Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe as well
as similar authorities in Malawi and Zambia.
At the moment, there is no established company in Zambia that can do advanced maintenance works such as aircraft overhauls or modifications.
ZASTI, located at Lusaka’s Kenneth Kaunda International Airport, has a hangar from where aircraft maintenance would be done.
“The public private partnership ZASTI has with Aerotech Zimbabwe is welcome because there is no company in Zambia that can do aircraft overhauls,” said ZASTI principal Billieard Shingalili.
“Works will include overhauls on small and medium-sized aircraft.”
According to Aerotech Zimbabwe’s website, the company has reached a stage of rebuilding aircraft with a maximum weight of 5,700kg and can do radio installations, instrument calibration, adjustment and
compensation of magnetic compasses and piston engine component overhauls, among other works.
It has specialised in maintaining Bell 206 helicopters, not mentioning its ability to do exterior works on aircraft such as spray painting and corrosion protection on top of interior refurbishment.
INSTITUTIONAL BACKGROUND
ZASTI was established during the reign of first President Kenneth Kaunda’s government in 1968/9 shortly after Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia) gained independence from Britain on October 24, 1964.
It was set up to produce human resource required by the aviation industry at the time when Europeans handed over most of the management positions to Zambian administrators.
ZASTI’s vision is to be a centre of excellence in aviation training in the sub-region and beyond by the year 2030 while its mission is to effectively provide training and support services in order to contribute to safety and growth of the aviation industry.
The aviation training institute has three departments namely Flying, Ground Services and Aircraft Maintenance Engineering from which a combination of 400 to 500 students graduate every year.
The flying school trains pilots, the ground services department offers courses in air traffic management, aviation security, meteorology and fire and rescue services.
From the engineering section, students are trained in aircraft maintenance, aeronautical electronics, systems engineering “R” and “X”, computer systems engineering, hardware maintenance and repair as
well as local network administration.
The Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) in 1988 conferred ZASTI with a status of training aviation professionals for member States.
Some of the international students trained by ZASTI are sponsored by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) while trainers are at times hired to do on-site training in aviation courses in other
African countries.
“We have conducted on-site training for aviation staff in Rwanda,” said Shingalili, a former ZASTI student in air traffic management from 1974 to 1975 and who advanced to a radar instructors’ course in the United Kingdom in 1976.
FLYING SCHOOL
Training of pilots is expensive due to the cost of aviation fuel, acquisition of appropriate aircraft plus expenses that go into maintaining airplanes as well as hangars in which they are kept or serviced.
Loss of power by Dr Kenneth  Kaunda to the former ruling party, the Movement for Multi-party Democracy (MMD) in 1991, dovetailed the collapse the aviation industry in Zambia, culminating in the liquidation of the Zambia Airways, the national carrier, in 1994.
Collapse of the Zambia Airways also meant reduced investment in the training of pilots so that lack of appropriate aircraft means that ZASTI can no longer train pilots at commercial licence level.
“We are only training at the private licence level,” Shingalili explained, adding that those who wish to take advanced courses at commercial pilot licence level have to go to other countries including South Africa.
As a result of shortage of civilian pilots in Zambia, coupled with low salaries by government institutions including ZASTI, the aviation institution has lost some full-time instructors.
“We are using part-time instructors to train pilots,” explained Shingalili.  “We have not trained commercial pilots for over 20 years because we do not have appropriate aircraft.”
ZASTI has a single engine Cessna 152 that is used to train pilots at private licence level while a twin engine Piper Aztec (PA-23) that was used to train flyers at the commercial level was in repair disposition at the time of writing.
The flying department does also not have a simulator required for training of pilots and the current annual budget can only accommodate 15 trainee pilots at private licence level.
ZASTI has entered into another agreement with Chimes Aviation Academy India so that pilots who are trained at private licence level can do further courses in the Asian country.
Chimes, a multi-venture organisation, has international footprints with key interests in aviation, technology, business services and education in aviation that includes pilot training.
FIRE AND RESCUE SERVICES
Another important course in aviation offered at ZASTI is fire and rescue in the sense that airplanes are prone to fires because of the highly flammable aviation fuel they use and rescues on aircraft are done because they are at times involved in crashes.
Fire and rescue is an equally an expensive course, requiring an advanced fire (foam) tender, preferably one in use by the industry.
This author recently flew in a Proflight Zambia British Aerospace jetstream to Mfuwe International Airport near the Luangwa Game Park on the border with Malawi.
He found an E-One Titan 4×4 fire (foam) tender in use at the small airport whose fire station is under the management of former ZASTI students.
Although the fire (foam) tender at Mfuwe serves small planes, with expertise offered by ZASTI graduates, it is capable of rendering fire and rescue services to larger aircraft such as the DC 8 or Boeing
727s.
Bush fires are common in Mfuwe because the local people have a tradition of hunting mice for relish by first burning bushes.
Whilst in Mfuwe, the author witnessed an incident in which fire fighters put out a bushfire that was ignited by mice hunters.
Reacting to the incident, a ZASTI-trained fire fighter said: “We extinguish those fires in order to safeguard airport installations.”
Other fire and rescue officers from ZASTI have been employed abroad and locally at Kenneth Kaunda International Airport, Ndola’s Simon Mwansa Kapwepwe International Airport and Harry Mwaanga International
Airport in Livingstone, the seat of the Victoria Falls.
TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER
The partnership between ZASTI and Aerotech Zimbabwe is a good example of intra-Africa aviation technology transfer, sharing and co-operation within the SADC region.
Such a partnership is good for Zambia whose aviation industry suffered the liquidation of Zambia Airways in 1994, the collapse of Aero Zambia in 1999, grounding of the Zambian Airways in 1999 and demise of Zambezi Airlines in 2011.
However, Zambia’s turbulent years have seen the persistence of the privately-owned Proflight Zambia since 1991 while the Zambia Police Service and the Zambia Flying Doctor Service will for the first time acquire helicopters.
Government is also contemplating reviving the state-run national airline while more charter companies have emerged mainly in Lusaka and Livingstone.
Current and future prospects in the aviation industry would require highly trained professionals from ZASTI coupled with some aircraft maintenance works by the learning institution and Aerotech Zimbabwe.
Operating costs would go down for both commercial and non-commercial aircraft operators once some of the maintenance works are done within Zambia, with the twin benefit of exposing ZASTI students to a more advanced maintenance environment.
However, for ZASTI to achieve its vision of being a centre of excellence in aviation training in the region and beyond by 2030, there is need for adequate funding from government for the institution to acquire more training needs and a fleet of aircraft appropriate for training pilots at advanced levels.
(The author is the first African correspondent for UK’s Airports of the World, writes for UK’s African Aerospace, South Africa’s World Airnews and South Africa Flyer)