Flying high – Leongatha company wins $500,000 Chinese contract

A LEONGATHA company signed a contract worth more than $500,000 with a Chinese firm to train pilots on Saturday.

Taking flight: aerial contractor from Woorayl Air Services Barry Foster and Cr Nigel Hutchinson-Brooks in front of a plane that will be used to teach Chinese pilots to fly crop dusters.

Woorayl Air Services, based at Leongatha Aerodrome, sealed the venture with Chinese company BeiDaHuang General Aviation Company (BDH) of Jiamusi City, Heilongjiang Province in north east China.
BDH operate in an area of China where farms are enormous, requiring major aerial agricultural support, particularly for fertiliser spraying, as well as firebombing activities during summer.
Having recently bought state of the art turbine powered crop spraying aircraft, BDH has contracted with Woorayl Air Services to provide pilots for fire bombing and spraying during the coming northern summer, from April through to October, while Chinese pilots are trained on the aircraft.
Woorayl Air Services is one of the pre-eminent agricultural aviation training and service companies in Australia.
Managing director Barry Foster and son Tim Foster have been training pilots and providing aerial agricultural services in China periodically since 1982.
This new contract requires Woorayl Air Services to manage the deployment of 20 Australian pilots of both fixed wing and helicopter aircraft, and will be managed from Leongatha Aerodrome.
The contract was finally negotiated and signed at Leongatha Aerodrome. Four representatives from each of BDH and Woorayl Air Services celebrated the signing at a lunch at the Rainbow Palace Chinese Restaurant in Korumburra.
South Gippsland Shire Councillor Nigel Hutchinson-Brooks, who is an aviation consultant, drafted the contract, and council staff member Victor Ng provided assistance with the Chinese translation of the contract.
“This new contract demonstrates that agriculture companies in South Gippsland, including specialist activities like crop spraying and fire bombing, are developing significant relationships with Australia’s largest trading partner,” Cr Hutchinson-Brooks said.

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Posted by Jacob De Kunder on Jan 14 2014. Filed under Business, Featured. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry