Sierra Academy of Aeronautics
The Sierra Academy of Aeronautics is an aviation flight school headquartered in Livermore, California. It operates two training facilities. The largest is at the Livermore Municipal Airport. The other facility is located at the former Castle Air Force Base in Merced, California. Sierra Academy is also contracted by several foreign air carriers to perform pilot training, including Shanghai Airlines.
History
The Sierra Academy formerly was based at the Oakland International Airport, where it had hangars, offices, and classrooms. It was owned by the Everett family of Atherton, California.
It operated a fleet of commercial jetliners, to provide instruction leading to "ratings" on each class of plane. Tuition fees were considerable (and remain so), because they included the cost of jet fuel. (IRS auditors were surprised that Sierra had entire file cabinets filled with paid fuel bills, one drawer per month. They were stored in an empty hanger for the convenience of auditors.)
By the mid-1960s, Sierra was training pilots from many countries, mostly for national airlines, like Saudi Arabian Airlines.
In the 1990s, Sierra developed a new campus in Stockton.Eventually, the company closed the original Oakland campus in 2004, relocating to the former Korean Air training center at Livermore.
Sierra continues to train foreign pilots, whom it watches carefully. No student is allowed to miss essential lessons. (Mohammed Atta was not a Sierra student. Unconfirmed rumors state that Mohammed Atta and his cohorts sought training at Sierra, but none confirm that they actually completed their training. What training they did receive was at other schools than Sierra; namely, FlightSafety International and Huffman Aviation).
Awards
The National Air Transportation Association (NATA) has honored Sierra Academy of Aeronautics with the Excellence in Pilot Training Award. This prestigious national award, sponsored by Jeppesen Sanderson, provides recognition for “outstanding contributions in safety, professionalism, leadership, and excellence in the field of pilot training.”