Bin Ao stands for Binzhou city and Austria which is where Diamond aircraft was originally located. The DA42 is produced here and we were able to tour the entire plant with the plant director. It's the current Diamond DA40 with garmin glass cockpit. Almost all the 150 aircraft produced per year are for Asia flight schools and clubs with just 4 or 5 being crated up for international shipping. The director gave all of us diamond pins and went out of his way to pin mine to my collar when he was informed I was a pilot and had flown the DA aircraft before.
After Bin Ao we moved just a few blocks away to the Daigou Aviation Training Center. Currently China is experiencing rapid growth in commercial aviation and we were informed over the next 5 to 10 years China will need another 10,000 pilots in order to keep up with demand. They have formed aviation training programs in 4 high schools and during the summer the cadets in the program come to the school for summer camp and learn about flying, flight theory, aircraft and military style physical training.
It was fun to watch all the cadets interact, teach each other drill styles, experience the basic pilot training (a big hamster wheel), watch a full drill performance and finally tour the entire facility (check out the bunk beds). Most of the classes are taught by active duty air force officers who spend time teaching cadets in 2 vey large theater style classrooms. When the cadets graduate from high school they will be slotted based on academic, physical and leadership skills starting with the best in the PLA officer corp, PLAF (peoples liberation air force) as pilots then commercial aviation and then aircraft support including maintenance training.
When we got to Daigou we met up with the first bunch of aviation cadets we met in Tsingtao and it was a very warm reunion. We didn't get much time to socialize but after all the drill and ceremony they announced "personal time" and it was great to see all the cadets giving hugs and catching up with what's happened in the last week since we saw them. It truly has been a cultural exchange in the highest sense and I know it is laying a strong foundation for future visits and cultural exchange between China and all the IACE delegate states. Watching all the cadets play, talk and then start teaching each other drill and physical skills reminds you that all teenagers think a like it's the adults that complicate things. See pics.
After lunch it was back to Binzhou City for a short break and then Ping Pong where the teams were foreigners against Chinese. . .yes ping pong is China's national sport and it showed in how bad we got beat today but no matter what everyone cheered a good play regardless of who it was. . .I did beat my selected opponent though! Volleyball on the other hand was mixed teams and finally ended up the kids against the old folks. Once again regardless of culture the standard of kids challenging adults occurred . . .we old folks did pretty well as the high schools 2 sports teachers were playing with us and both are very good. . thanks to those two oldies beat the youngsters.
After getting cleaned up we were bussed to a very nice place for dinner and I will write a separate entry for that and explain what the dinners we've experienced have been like.
I'll post up pics in the morning as it's time to call it for today. We check out of our wonderful (not) hotel in the morning and head for Jinan City which is the capitol of Shandong province and home to Confucius.
Kelly
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