Flight Training Services

FTS operates out of Grand Central Airport, based in Midrand, Gauteng. We have an impressive fleet of over 20 aircraft which include Cessna 172's, Piper P28A's, 172RG and Piper Twin Comanche. These aircrafts are all used for basic and advanced instruction.

Flight Training Services (FTS) is a flight crew training establishment based at Grand Central Airport, Midrand and Vereeniging Airport. The partners involved are Craig Pearce and Kevern Brown.

Craig and Kevern are both South African Airways (SAA) pilots, flying the A340 series of aircraft for the national carrier. Craig did his initial Airbus conversion at the factory in Toulouse, and now currently instructs on the Airbus level D full flight simulator at SAA. It is from this experience at Airbus that the concept and value of Computer Based Training (CBT) was experienced first hand, and now forms the central core of the training programs established at FTS.

Craig holds a Grade One Flight Instructors rating and has been appointed by the South African Civil Aviation Authority (SACAA) as a Designated Flight Examiner. Craig is also a SAQA registered assessor. This gives Flight Training Services the ability to structure our training and standards to be inline with Outcomes Based Education Standards.

Kevern holds an Aviation Maintenance Engineer’s licence in addition to his Airline Transport Pilots Licence and Instructor’s rating. Kevern has extensive experience on PT6 engines, Caravans and King Airs. He completed these courses at Flight Safety in the USA (both as engineer and pilot), and from this basis will replicate the same training at Flight Training Services for turbine conversions. This background will allow meaningful quality assurance with respect to our aircraft maintenance.

In addition to the above, Kevern is also a qualified English Language Proficiency Rater and is certified to conduct English Proficiency assessments, as required by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO).

Craig and Kevern have a combined experience of over twenty thousand hours of flight time. It is without any doubt that they receive the best instructor development in South African (and even the world) at South African Airways, and they are proud to diffuse some of this knowledge back into the aviation community in South Africa. This experience gained at South African Airways filters down into the General Aviation sectors thereby bridging the gap between general aviation (GA) and the airline environments.