Sierra Academy of Aeronautics

The Sierra Academy of Aeronautics is an aviation flight school headquartered in Livermore, California. It operates two training facilities. The largest is at the Livermore Municipal Airport. The other facility is located at the former Castle Air Force Base in Merced, California. Sierra Academy is also contracted by several foreign air carriers to perform pilot training, including Shanghai Airlines.

History

The Sierra Academy formerly was based at the Oakland International Airport, where it had hangars, offices, and classrooms. It was owned by the Everett family of Atherton, California.

It operated a fleet of commercial jetliners, to provide instruction leading to "ratings" on each class of plane. Tuition fees were considerable (and remain so), because they included the cost of jet fuel. (IRS auditors were surprised that Sierra had entire file cabinets filled with paid fuel bills, one drawer per month. They were stored in an empty hanger for the convenience of auditors.)

By the mid-1960s, Sierra was training pilots from many countries, some for national airlines, like Saudi Arabian Airlines.

In the 1990s, Sierra developed a new campus in Livermore for Korean students.

Near 2003, the company filed bankruptcy and many students lost their accounts and $. Two Korean business men (Dan and John Yoon) bought out the debt and re-opened Sierra Academy. The company is now opened under KSA Aviation.

The new owners moved it's Oakland program to a new facility in Livermore, CA (KLVK) in 2004. The company took advantage of the growing Indian market and began accepting students from all over India. This was mostly a result of the declining U.S. based students who could no longer find funding for flight training.

While the Livermore campus was running, they also opened up a large campus at Castle AFB (KMER) in 2005. Here, Sierra focuses on contractual training for Shanghai, China, and Mongolian Airlines. It has a fleet of over 60 aircraft, 4 sims, 1 full motion sim, Dorm style living, and approximately 50 instructors. Sierra began hiring instructors from around the country to fill the demand. Before the Castle Campus, Sierra was known for hiring only former students who had finished their program.

In January of 2007, the company moved all remaining students and employees to its existing facilities at the former Castle AFB (KMER). This consolidation was necessary, as the Chief Pilot was not available to oversee daily operations and all resources and $ were being spent towards the Castle campus.

Currently, all of Sierra's operations are out of Castle AFB in Atwater, CA.

Sierra continues to train foreign pilots, whom it watches carefully. No student is allowed to miss essential lessons. (Mohammed Atta was not a Sierra student. Unconfirmed rumors state that Mohammed Atta and his cohorts sought training at Sierra, but none confirm that they actually completed their training. What training they did receive was at other schools than Sierra; namely, FlightSafety International and Huffman Aviation).

Awards

The National Air Transportation Association (NATA) has honored Sierra Academy of Aeronautics with the Excellence in Pilot Training Award. This prestigious national award, sponsored by Jeppesen Sanderson, provides recognition for “outstanding contributions in safety, professionalism, leadership, and excellence in the field of pilot training.”

External links

* [http://www.sierraacademy.com Sierra Academy of Aeronautics website]