Project: REX Australia Airline Pilot Academy (AAPA)
Client: Regional Express
Completed: May 2010
Regional Express Holdings Pty Ltd (REX), appointed Zauner Construction as the successful tenderer to undertake the design and construction of a new state-of-the-art airline Pilot Training Academy in Wagga Wagga NSW.
Regional NSW 2011, Best Commercial Project over $10M
This was a landmark project for REX and is the first Pilot Training Academy in the Asia Pacific region and is home to 3 ELITE iGATE flight simulators completely fitted out for pilot training.
The Academy is a fully contained campus that gives the Trainee Pilot state of the art classrooms that comply with EASA standards; individual bedrooms for all students, and complete recreational facilities including a swimming pool, gymnasium, soccer field and multi-purpose hard court. It is also fully able to cater for foreign Students with fully equipped language laboratories.
It is in close proximity (in fact right next door) to the Flight Training Centre with its own hangar where all the aircraft are parked and ready for flight training.
To accelerate construction all external window assemblies were fabricated off site. This included windows /aluminium frames /internal finished panelling /insulation and computer and electrical wiring.
Rex Airlines needed to relocate the SAAB 300 plane which is used for training for Flight Attendants and plane emergency evacuation procedures. The existing plane had to be towed to the airfield perimeter fence, lifted over the fence using a 200 tonne crane equipped with specialised lifting rig then towed to the airport access road, lifted over the road and Rex training school fences and placed in its permanent position.
As the engines and fuel tanks had been removed the planes centre of gravity had been affected and it required drums full of water to be strategically placed to ensure the plane stayed level during the lifting process.