ATR Receives EASA Approval for Blended ATR 600 Initial Type Rating

France – Regional aircraft manufacturer ATR has received EASA approval for a new blended initial ATR 600 Type Rating following validation by France's Direction générale de l'aviation civile (DGAC), according to the manufacturer, incorporating distance learning into the qualification programme.

• The revised programme consists of one week of online self-preparation followed by four weeks of on-site ATR training, compared with five weeks previously spent at the training centre, according to ATR.
• ATR said the new initial ATR 600 Blended Type Rating has received EASA approval following validation by the French DGAC. ATR's Toulouse Training Centre currently holds French ATO approval FR.ATO.0001, with ATR's official certification register listing the approval as unlimited in duration.
• The manufacturer's current flight-crew training portfolio includes EASA and FAA ATR 42/72 type ratings, recurrent and differences training, instructor and examiner courses, Entry Level Training/MCC, UPRT and other aircraft-specific programmes.
• Blended learning is already used elsewhere in ATR's training syllabus. Its published ATR 42/72 -500-to--600 differences course for experienced pilots combines approximately 10–12 hours of remote e-learning with a subsequent one-week training phase at the ATR Training Centre.
• ATR currently operates three training centres, located in Toulouse, Miami and Singapore, and states that its wider training operation delivers more than 100,000 training hours to over 3,500 trainees annually across more than 250 courses.
• ATR's current dry-training portfolio lists ATR 42-300/500, ATR 72-200/500 and ATR 72-600 full-flight simulator capability in Toulouse, together with ATR 72-500 and ATR 72-600 Flight Procedure Trainers. Miami and Singapore each provide ATR 72-600 FFS and FPT capability.

Source: ATR (Dimitri Boursy)