Flying Operations Unit (FOU)

The Flying Operations Unit is based at Bankstown Airport and is responsible for the delivery of flying training, the theory directly associated with flying training and support for airborne research.

All aspects of training and operations are approved by the Civil Aviation Safety Authority under Parts 141 and 142 of the Civil Aviation Safety Regulations.

The FOU is managed by Director of Flight Operations Mr Malcolm Good, and Head of Operations Mr Rodney Hyde, and staff include flight and ground instructors.

The FOU is housed in two main buildings at Bankstown Airport, located at Building 570, 32 Airport Avenue and Hangar 135, Aviation Place.

Facilities include office space for FOU staff, 3 classrooms, a research laboratory and hangar space for housing aeroplanes when not in use.

The fleet comprises Diamond DA40 and Piper PA44 aeroplanes fitted with Garman G1000 flight navigation and display systems. A FRASCA flight training device (FTD), also fitted with the G1000 systems, is used for procedural and instrument training.

In addition to the FRASCA, the FOU also operates a Pacific Simulators 4.5 FTD, and an Aerosim DASH 8 Q400 systems trainer. These latter devices are used for advanced training.

An older arborne research platform, a Piper PA44, is outfitted with a scientific Novatel GPS-IMU system, a RIEGL VQ480i scanning Lidar and a Brandywine Compact Hyperspectral Airborne Imager.