Grand
Cayman’s airspace was busy for a change on Friday May 22, 2020, as
a series of take-offs and landings were conducted by the Flight
Training Department for Cayman Airways Limited (CAL) in order
for some of its pilots to maintain their “Pilot
Recency of Experience” certification - a regulatory
requirement in the Cayman Islands.

The
operational training flight was part of the mitigation strategy by
the airline to ensure that its pilots maintain their proficiency with
flying CAL’s Boeing 737-300 aircraft during the
government’s airport closure due to the threat of the Coronavirus
(COVID-19). 

The training fights
were conducted from Owen Roberts International Airport (ORIA)
between approximately 9:30am and 12 Noon.

“Due
to the situation with the Coronavirus (COVID-19) and Cayman’s borders
being closed, the pilots have been unable to
attend their regularly scheduled simulator recurrent
training at Boeing’s Miami campus,” explained Captain Stephen
Coe, CAL Manager Of Flight Training. “This is not taken
lightly, and through our partnership with the Civil Aviation
Authority of the Cayman Islands (CAACI), regulatory extensions
were granted to the Cayman Airways crews to conduct these
training flights to help meet our training requirements.”

Captain
Coe said airlines around the globe are carrying out similar
strategies to ensure that crews remain proficient with their core
skills while borders are closed. 

“There
were 15 take-offs and landings over a relatively short period of
time, which was necessary for all of the participating pilots to
each achieve the required number of take-offs and landings to
maintain their currency and competency, and over the next few weeks
we will be accomplishing more such flights in order to keep all of
our pilots current,” added Cayman Airways President and CEO,
Fabian Whorms. “We thank the CAACI and the Cayman Islands
Airport Authority (CIAA) for working with us during these
unprecedented times, to ensure that our pilots are able to meet their
regulatory requirement for completing at least three take-offs
and landings every 90 days to maintain
their ‘Recency of Experience’ certification.”

Participating
in the training flights were the following Cayman
Airways pilots: Captain Perry Panton (CAL Chief Pilot), Captain
Steven Coe, Captain Olson Anderson; First Officer Leroy
McLaughlin; First Officer William McTaggart; and First
Officer Garrett Conolly.