SHAH ALAM: Two Nuri helicopters – M23-02 and M23-07 – stored at the Kuching airbase following their retirement in 2019 will be used a training aid for students of Centre for Technology Excellence Sarawak Sdn Bhd or CENTEX.
The technical and vocational training institute is under Yayasan Sarawak. The hand-over ceremony for the two helicopters was conducted at the airbase on September 27. NADI Sdn Bhd which is the holding company for Airod which has been the MRO provider for the helicopters for the last 30 years accepted the delivery of the helicopters on behalf of CENTEX. See the Instagram post below:
It is likely other Nuri helicopters stored at the Subang airbase will also be donated to other learning institutions as training aids for students. Donating retired airframes to learning institutions are pretty common, both RSAF and Indonesian Air Force (TNI-AU), also recently donated their retired Super Puma helicopters to TVET colleges in their respective countries.
— Malaysian Defence
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View Comments (23)
Good. Malaysia as the 2nd best aerospace industry in ASEAN after Singapore (even this both country dont build/manufacture aircraft) need to keep their skilled workers available so our aerospace industry can soaring high.
The problem with SG is that they continue to hunt/attract our experienced workers in the aerospace industry with higher wages.
To be fair brain drain rates in SG is slightly higher then us.
Interestingly its from TUDM stock. What about PUTD ones?
I wonder what can students actually learn from ancient & obsoleted nonflying birds. How can they apply anything to current highly connected modern choppers full of electronics. Its like comparing a 1st Saga to current S70.
No one trained on the latest aircraft apart from people at the OEM. Even people at Proton do not train on the latest vehicles ie S70 or X90 apart from those building or maintaining them.
Rock,
Pray tell. How can the aerospace industry “soar high”? It’s afflicted with the same problems other industries have.
hopefully strengthing MYR and FA-50M assembly plant able to mitigate the supposed brain drain
And then do what with the plant, pray tell. Such scheme is just to transfer money from the defence budget to someone's pocket.
Plans like assembly lines for fighters and regional MROs excite fanboys and make the politicians look good but are a colossal waste of time and taxpayers cash. We simply lackthe numbers and resources
We’ve been trying to make the aerospace sector “soar” since the 1990’s but look where we are now.
From the Hawk offset enablling SME to produce pylons, the he Hornet offset with McDonell Douglas and other he A400M offset enabling CTRM to produce ladders; decades later what tangible benefits have we gained?
Offers, MRO centres and assembly lines are fully paid for my thr taxpayer. Thank her benefit a selected few but not sure he comes but not the thecountry as a whole.
"apart from those building or maintaining them"
Exactly! Do we want students to come out armed with knowledge to build/fix modern cars or do we want them to go work at bengkel bawah pokok because they have no clue when dealing with electronics?
What kind of aviation grads do we want these students to be, ready drop into the aeronautics industry as either mechanics, technicians, engineers, since they were trained on modern platforms, they know how to use computers & diagnostic software? Or do we just want them to work on simple light planes as they werent trained on jumbos?
They will be trained properly when they are gainfully employed. No training institution will spend millions on things to be dissected by their students.
Alex
"hopefully strengthing MYR"
Its only temporary the last couple of weeks. What about the last months or years before GE15? Without the right strategy to truly strenghten RM it will continue to be at the mercy of stronger economics. As it stands it is only a matter of when not if, that RM will fall back again soon. Just enjoy while it last but its nothing tangible to be attractive long term.
@joe.. even in SG they donate only used and retired airframes, in recent case they just donated a 30+ Puma helicopter to a polytechnic. As for fixed wing , the only a/c donated to the polys are an ancient Skyhawk. Basically the students only learn fundamental principles and techniques which can be built on with the in house training in the aerospace companies or military specialists schools. As for the brain drain question which was mentioned earlier, the issue is mainly economic ( better pay/ bonuses due to company being profitable)and job prospects/ promotions etc. the pay is dollar to dollar is I believe almost the same but the strength of the S$ is probably the main pull. This is something that has been gradually been happening over last 30 years.. due to the weakening of the ringgit because of our economic policies ( perhaps due to Soros as Dr. M claims :)). Having said that current cost of living in Singapore is so high , that newcomers will face a tougher time to adjust. This is a disincentive which can be used to explain to the Malaysian staff by HR departments using easily available data with some research of they have any initiative. In companies like MAS there is malaise and rot happening over the years and they lose money for many years. As such pay and bonuses will stagnate , how can this be incentive to stay?