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A local company has taken over flight operations at the Jersey Aero Club – including handling visiting aircraft and training the next generation of pilots.
Ortac – a private jet company founded in Jersey – has moved into the Aero Club building along the Airport Road and opened Skywalker Training School.
The company now provides all ‘front of house’ services for the club, including ground handling for visiting private aircraft, flying operations, offering experience flights and training islanders who want to become qualified pilots.
Ortac took over the role in April from Synergy, a UK-based firm which had stepped in after the flight school part of the Aero Club entered administration in May 2020, in the depths of the pandemic.
Pictured: Captain Lee McConnell is a director of Ortac, which is now running flight operations at the Jersey Aero Club.
However, being headquartered in Fairoaks in Surrey, Synergy’s continued involvement in Jersey became more challenging and after an amiable withdrawal and transition, Ortac was offered the contract.
Ortac director, Captain Lee McConnell, said that the business was delighted to be supporting the Aero Club.
“This is a good move from our perspective, which I believe benefits all parties,” he said.
“We’re very proud to be a Jersey company which is passionate about aviation. Our aim is to develop the aviation scene in Jersey and bring it back to the wider community.
“That might be through giving islanders the opportunity to fly – perhaps an experience flight around Jersey or over to the Normandy Landing Beaches – or training someone to qualify as a professional pilot.
“Or it might be recreating that buzz around the Aero Club which was definitely here in the 1980s, when Jersey was definitely on the map for visiting aircraft, and the club was a centre of social activity.
“We’ve already redesigned the gardens and the balcony is being extended to provide fabulous views over the runway and towards the west. We hope to have more community events here in the future.”
Ortac operates a PA28 Cherokee single-engine aircraft, which is its Aero Club-based trainer, and seven private jets, which are mostly based in Farnborough, where the company is the airport’s fourth-biggest operator.
Ortac employs around 40 people, most of those living in the island. There are six Jersey-based flying instructors on its books.
Pictured: Kobi Le Cornu is now a First Officer with Ortac, flying an Embraer private jet.
One of those members of staff is 23-year-old Kobi Le Cornu, who flies an Embraer Phenom 300, with Ortac funding his type-rating training for the aircraft.
Mr Le Cornu said: “I’ve wanted to fly from a very young age and had my first trial lesson with the Jersey Aero Club when I was 13.
“I began flying lessons a year later, maybe once every two months as it was a very young age to start. I was saving all of my pocket money, birthday and Christmas money for flying.
“On my 16th birthday I flew solo, which was really the point when I knew it was definitely going to be my career, and my determination to accomplish that would be unwavering.”
Gaining his private pilots’ licence aged 18, Mr Le Cornu began working for Swissport as a ramp agent at the Airport but then the pandemic arrived, Flybe collapsed and so too did his employment prospects.
He said: “At this point, my motivation was low; I saw no future in the industry and I didn’t have the funds to begin flying. I turned to begging Lee [McConnell] for a job! Eventually it worked and he offered me a chance to work at Ortac in operations. It really swung my career back in place and I can’t under-state my gratitude for that.
“After about 14 months, I was in a position financially to begin my commercial flight training. I had built up about 180 hours by this point, flying dogs and cats on a cost-share basis to and from the UK, which helped me save enough money.”
Mr Le Cornu completed his commercial flight training in the UK and returned to the Ortac operations desk. Six months later, the chance to train on the Embraer private jet came up.
He continued: “Lee and the Ortac team supported me throughout and helped me build up to where I am today and I cannot thank them enough for that. I hope to continue my career with them wherever it takes me.
“This first year flying has taken me to 17 counties and 57 different airports, often staying overnight and having the opportunity to explore.
“Now, with the addition of Skywalker Flight Training, it’s opened up great opportunities for us as a company to improve and revitalise the flight training prospects for up-and-coming local pilots, something that had been severely lacking in the past.”
The distinctive name of Ortac’s flying school will be music to the ears to any Star Wars fan and Capt McConnell is very proud of the association.
It is also Ortac’s official callsign, meaning that its pilots all use that prefix when communicating with air traffic control around the world.
Pictured: Skywalker Flight Training has a PA28 Cherokee single-engine aircraft, in which islanders can take an experience flight or learn to fly.
Explaining why it is ‘Skywalker’, Capt McConnell said: “When I was a young customer services agent at Servisair, I used to frequently check-in the late Jack Walker, who owned Jersey European Airways [later Flybe].
“He knew I wanted to be a pilot so would often stop for a quick chat. I remember him telling me: ‘Lee, I’ve got to choose our callsign and we’ve got two options: Jersey and Skywalker. Which would you go for?’
“Well, I was a huge Star Wars fan so I suggested ‘Skywalker’. A few weeks later, Jack came through the Airport again and told me that he’d chosen ‘Jersey’ but had asked the Civil Aviation Authority to put ‘Skywalker’ on hold in case he changed his mind.
“Fast-forward 30 or so years, when we’re setting up Ortac, and I contacted the CAA to see if ‘Skywalker’ was available. They initially told me that it wasn’t but shortly afterwards, someone rang me back to say they’d done some research, and ‘Skywalker’ was still on hold from those Jack Walker days.
“So I jumped at the chance to bring it back. I see ‘Skywalker’ used in Jersey – and now at our flight training school – as a sort of homecoming for the name.”
Commenting on the new relationship between Ortac and the JAC, chairman Nigel Hall said the club was "absolutely delighted" to have Ortac as its partner. He also thanked Synergy for providing training to islanders over the last few years.
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