SFC celebrates over 60 award recipients at biggest-ever gala

Addressing the crowd, SFC CEO Joseph Pilo congratulated the recipients on their hard work in achieving their goals.

“You have achieved some milestones somewhere along the way. Some of you have achieved everything that you need, from RPL, CPL, instrument rating through to the instructor ratings, they bear a great significance in your long life journey as a pilot,” he said.

“Whether you’re flying for fun, or a chosen career, you are all pilots and you belong to the same family.”

Speaking to Australian Aviation after the event, SFC head of marketing Raymond Toutounji hailed the night as “very special”.

“From the emotions, from the feedback and from seeing people from the stage, I think it was a great success, just seeing all the recipients get up for awards,” he said.

“You personalise it. And you know, the effort they’ve gone through, for them, that moment is the night of nights.”

SFC also showed off its plans for a new pilot training academy at Tamworth in regional NSW. Angela Toutounji, head of sales and admissions, told attendees of the 12-month program on offer.

“Our students will now attain their commercial pilot licence, multi engine instrument rating, multi crew cooperation, upset prevention recovery training, and online ATPL theory. All qualifications delivered in an environment purpose designed for optimum results,” she said.

The new site is 400km north of the SFC’s original at Bankstown and will house 32 students and 10 instructors along with a fleet of training aircraft. New cohorts of students will start every month and will be able to study its 12-month Diploma of Aviation package.