VISITORS FROM MANALI: TASK SPECIALIST TEAM RECEIVES COMPETENT SUPPORT
For just over three years, Air Zermatt has held a 25-percent stake in a helicopter company in India. As part of this partnership, we have been providing flight operations training for several years now.
Indian task specialists visit us regularly thanks to this cooperation with the helicopter company from Manali. They come not only to exchange knowledge with our employees, but also to learn about new technologies and methods to improve helicopter operations back in India.
We welcomed Sunny Thakur and Kamal Thakur to the heliport in early March, Nishan and Amit Thakur visited us for the last two months and we already welcomed three new boys on the Heliport this week; Shubham Suryavanshi, Omprakash and Naman Thakur. They’ve all visited us at Air Zermatt before, so they’re already familiar with our staff and helicopters. For two months the task specialists will support our crew on site, participate in our missions, and get ready to tackle new challenges in the mountains. They’ll be living at the base in Zermatt during their stay.
After their stay at the Heliport, they fly back to their home country to share their new knowledge with the other tasks specialists at their company. We met with them for one last chat just before their departure.
HOW DID YOU ENJOY YOUR TIME AT THE HELIPORT?
We’re quite familiar with Air Zermatt now and have come to see it as our second family. As always, it was a great, very intense time.
We really enjoyed our stay and appreciate how everyone here looks out for us and each other. This is a unique chance to learn from the other employees, and we’re very grateful.
WHAT NEW THINGS HAVE YOU LEARNED? WHAT NEW KNOWLEDGE WILL YOU BE TAKING BACK TO INDIA?
We learn something new every time since Air Zermatt has very high standards and the technology and methods are always being refined here. Our colleagues here also give us valuable tips that make our work easier. Once we’re back in Manali, we’ll share this new information with our colleagues at the heliport there so that everyone learns from each other.
WHAT DO YOU LIKE BEST ABOUT YOUR JOB AS A TASK SPECIALIST?
Everything, really. The days are long and exhausting, but the work is fun. We most enjoy getting to work with the helicopters themselves, since we’re both passionate about them.
WILL YOU COME BACK TO ZERMATT?
Definitely. We’ll be excited to come back again.
Sunny and Kamal Thakur have already supported the team of Air Zermatt several times
We welcome Omprakash und Naman Thakur at the heliport.
Sandro Imboden, Ground Operation Manager at AIr Zermatt, suppports our indian colleagues in planning their trip and taking care of the administrative work associated with their stay. He takes stock now that their training is complete.
WHAT GOALS DID THE INDIAN TASK SPECIALISTS HAVE FOR THEIR TIME AT AIR ZERMATT?
The goal of the exchange is to train the visitors in our flight operations for a certain amount of time. This is always done according to a task specialist syllabus. Our Indian colleagues chiefly learn how to work with the helicopter, prepare the loads, and board and deboard passengers as well as all the safety aspects relevant for seamless operations.
WHICH TASKS DID THEY TAKE ON AT THE HELIPORT? WHAT NEW SKILLS DID THEY ACQUIRE?
Our highly motivated and helpful guests from India took on practically every kind of work at the heliport. They were ready to pitch in everywhere and helped out wherever we happened to need extra hands.
We were very happy to have such flexible and motivated people on board. But this was also about ensuring that they go home as task specialists with new experiences in as many areas as possible. They actually joined our task specialist team every day and learned how to handle the machines, be it on various material transports and/or on “normal” staff transports.
WHAT IS YOUR CONCLUSION OF THE VISITATIONS SO FAR?
Along with the previous training visits, we can look back on a very successful time. I see it as a very exciting exchange program, and not only for our guests. Here in our team, too, we get to have fun moments every day and develop our skills further.
We’re grateful to take part in this exchange and welcome every opportunity to share our expertise. I’d like to say a big “thank you” to our task specialist team, who not only supported our visitors on the job, but also spent some of their free time together. We’ve made real friendships here, and we can’t wait to welcome them back!