Adding to its portfolio of OEM maintenance training partnerships, FlightSafety International announced it will be teaming with Cessna and Pratt & Whitney Canada to provide maintenance instruction programs.

This fall the training provider will break ground on a new maintenance training center adjacent to Cessna's Wichita manufacturing facility that will be home to the newly created, jointly administered MX Advantage program. Scheduled to begin operations by the end of next year, the 65,000-sq-ft maintenance training center will feature a hangar (with direct access to Cessna's ramp) large enough to accommodate four aircraft and advanced technology-equipped classrooms with hands-on component training areas. The airframer will provide green aircraft for use in training not only to FAA standards but also to those of EASA, the Civil Aviation Administration of China and most other international requirements as well.

“We already have a strong relationship with FlightSafety both for Citation flight training and maintenance training, so we are excited now about this new enhanced maintenance program targeting our major international markets,” said Cessna chief Jack Pelton. “MX Advantage combines the expertise of both companies for a high-quality training program using FlightSafety's classroom expertise and Cessna's factory maintenance trainers to provide hands-on, type-specific training for our customers.”

Each of the month-long type-specific training sessions will feature equal amounts of classroom coursework and supervised hands-on maintenance instruction on aircraft and factory training devices.

The OEM maintenance training partnership is not a new concept for FSI. The training provider has run its Total Technical Training program with Gulfstream in Savannah since 1992, and its relationship with Sikorsky dates back even further. Last September, FSI opened a new 33,000-sq-ft center at Hawker Beechcraft's Wichita manufacturing facility to house the joint MX Pro program between FSI and the airframer.

Starting this September, FSI will also assume the role of global maintenance training provider for Pratt & Whitney Canada (P&WC), both for its customers and employees. For the length of the agreement, FlightSafety will manage daily training operations, develop and produce courseware material and provide learning management system capabilities, while P&WC will oversee the global customer-training program. According to FSI, the new engine maintenance training curriculum will be led by FSI's Montreal facility and will be incorporated into the curricula at both the Wichita MX Pro and MX Advantage training centers.

The engine maintenance programs will eventually be available at the company's Le Bourget facility, as well as through satellite training in China, Singapore, Australia, South Africa and Brazil.