Philippines: Mayor flies high

“Everyone can fly: plane and simple,” claims WCC Aeronautical and Technological College, the aeronautical school that sits at the heart of Binalonan, Pangasinan.

Fielded as one of Asia’s best aviation schools, WCC’s Aeronautical and Technological College is the brainchild of 36-year-old licensed pilot and instructor Ramon Guico III, who is incidentally the town’s mayor.

“It all started with a hobby. Even when I was young, I was already interested in planes, jets, all kinds of aircrafts. I turned that hobby into a profession right after I graduated from the University of the Philippines,” says Guico, who flew his first aircraft when he was only 23 years old.

In 2005, Guico at the age of 29, made Binalonan one of Pangasinan’s tourist drawers with the establishment of an airstrip that served as headquarters to the WCC Aviation Company. The WCC Aeronautical School was inaugurated in 2008.

With only two hobby aircrafts and two students seven years ago, a batch of 60 trainees from various Southeast Asian countries followed right after. Now, WCC operates a fleet of 30 aircrafts of varying capacities.

An aviation school

“Every day, the aviation industry needs highly-trained aircraft maintenance specialists, flight attendants, and professional pilots to serve thousands of domestic and international flights. There is a serious need for competent personnel worldwide,” says Guico, whose goal of training highly skilled pilots is addressed by having a school with a functioning airport facility and an 850-meter airstrip, which he says is almost as long as the one in Caticlan, the gateway to Boracay.

“In more than five years of educating aviation professionals, we have produced 500 commercial pilots. It also goes for our flight attendants and aircraft mechanics who are now actively working in airlines.” But more than that, Guico is proud that “we now have a big influx of students from all over Asia who come to the Philippines to learn about aviation.”

Today, aside from the flagship Pilot Academy of the College of Aviation, WCC has diversified by putting up the College of Engineering and Aviation Technology, College of Arts and Sciences, College of Tourism, and Flight Attendant Course.  These offerings complete the training institute in service of the aviation industry’s staffing and professional needs.

The school has also expanded its offerings to include services for charter flights, airport operations, aircraft and parts sales, and more. “In fact, our graduates in aircraft maintenance technology are now hired in countries in Southeast Asia, the Middle East and even in Africa,” says Guico.

A new airline

“We have a number of trainer aircrafts and have dedicated all our talents, skills, and knowledge in aviation that we even created our own airline—the Sky Pasada,” he says.  It also offers an Aircraft Maintenance Certification at its own repair stations at its Pasay Hangar as well as the Binalonan airport.

Not only does WCC offer the most complete and state-of-the-art aviation hands-on curriculum, it also assures students of the safest facilities and best instructors that trainers can get to advance in a world-class career in the aviation industry.

“They don’t [even] have to look for another place to stay in Binalonan,” Guico says, adding that the school recently opened a two-level 60-room resort-type hotel for students and transients.

By the end of the year, WCC will unveil its Airbus A320 full flight simulator.  Since it is the only one housed near the Ninoy Aquino International Airport complex, the simulator is more accessible to other airlines with regional and domestic operations.

The recently acquired multi-million-peso simulation training system developed by SIM Industries is proof of WCC’s world-class training facilities for pilots.

WCC is the first aviation school in the country to offer The Flight Navigator Trainers Procedure II in its curricular offering.

More than that, it is one of only three schools that operate its own airport, airline, and MRO facilities—and the first and only school in the Philippines to operate its own airfield, says Guico.

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