Aeroservice
HISTORY OF
AEROSERVICE AVIATION CENTER
Aeroservice Aviation Center began offering professional pilot training in 1976. The company was acquired, in 1987, by its current President and Chief Executive Officer, Captain Vito M. La Forgia who has over thirty years experience in airline operations, maintenance and training. At that time, Aeroservice primarily offered ground training to individual commercial pilots for B-707 and DC-8. Flight training was accomplished in the aircraft or in leased simulators.
The first full flight simulator, a DC-8, was purchased in 1988 from Dalfort Aviation and installed at AeroserviceÌs first training facility, near the West perimeter of Miami International Airport. By 1990 the DC-8 had gained FAA level ÏAÓ qualification and the training center included a cabin trainer and a DC-8 CPT.
Continued growth and training equipment availability allowed Aeroservice, in 1992, to add a B-737-200 (Advanced) level ÏAÓ acquired from Midway Airlines. By 1995, Aeroservice expanded into a second training center located on the North side of the Miami Airport. This provided space for additional classrooms and administrative offices plus two more simulators. So the third simulator, a B-727-100 level ÏBÓ was purchased from NATCO and added to the fleet giving Aeroservice the ability to grow its individual pilot training business plus better meet the fleet training needs for small to mid-sized airline customers.
AeroserviceÌs Dayton, Ohio facility emerged as an example of a commitment to meeting customer training need and the desire to jointly invest with our customers for long-term success. Emery Worldwide and ATI provided the training facility and Aeroservice, in 1995, installed and now operates and maintains a level ÏAÓ DC-8 simulator and CPT in the training center. 1996 brought the addition of a B-727-200 level ÏBÓ simulator in Dayton. This success story has continued with the addition of a level ÏCÓ DC-8 simulator (AeroserviceÌs 3rd DC-8) in early 2000 which was purchased from United Airlines and a DC-10-10 simulator purchased from American Airlines. This simulator will be installed and re-qualified by the FAA to level ÏCÓ standards by mid-2000.
With the vision to become a major player in the aviation training and aircraft services industry, Captain La Forgia developed and opened a new 65,000 sq. ft. headquarters facility on the North of Miami Airport in 1998. The functional design, customer focused comfort and beauty describes AeroserviceÌs new home.
Since opening the new building explosive growth was triggered for Aeroservice. The FAA awarded Aeroservice Aviation Center one of the first FAR part 142 Training Center Certificates, a B-727-200 level ÏCÓ was acquired from Air Canada, a B-737-300 level ÏCÓ, BAC 1-11 level ÏAÓ and a FH227 level ÏAÓ simulators were purchased from U S Airways, TWA sold Aeroservice their B-747-200 level ÏCÓ and B-747-100 level 6, Malaysia sold their B-737-200 and DC-10-30 6-DOF simulators, Aeroservice bought an A-300-B4 level ÏCÓ from Qantas and in the United Airlines DC-8 package Aeroservice added its fourth DC-8 simulator, a level ÏBÓ. With consolidation out of the older two Miami buildings, the relocation of the B-727-200 from Dayton and the acquisition of American Airlines DC10-10 from the Dayton training center, Aeroservice now has 12 simulators in Miami and 3 in Dayton offering ground training, flight training, maintenance, emergency and specialty courses, and delivers FAR part 121 and 142 courses for B-727, B-737, B-747, BAC 1-11, DC-8, DC-10 and FH227.
In January of 2004, Aeroservice acquired and installed an MD80 Simulator in Miami and plan to offer 142 courses upon full FAA qualification. Aeroservice continued to expand on it simulator fleet by adding an MD-88, B-767 as well as another DC-10 and B-747 simulator.
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