Benyamin Rastgar

Benyamin Rastgar

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It is respectfully stated that I am a cadet pilot and writing this letter to the authorities to help me with an issue regarding training in ANAC and ATPL license. For each cadet to qualify for the license it is customary for him/her to undertake 900 ground classes to pass 14 subjects with 75% marks. I had started my course with government institute ANAC and passed 9 out of 14 subjects in 18 months. A student is required to complete the whole course (14 subjects) in 18 months in order to qualify for the license. I completed 9 subjects in around 18 months in total of 5 ANAC sittings. The root cause of the problem is the time wasted during my first and second ANAC sitting due to many personal and domestic issues.

My family is basically from Iran and I was busy regarding the residency issues in Dubai since we had some problems with our partner. During the above stated time duration, my father passed away and I had to go back to Iran and do the necessary arrangements. In the meanwhile, I had to sell one of my properties in order to deal with the financial strain as the Iranian economy is in crisis. My studies in Portugal were consequently badly disturbed by the succession of events, provided my school was changed from air to L3. During my first ANAC sitting, they provided hotel booking in Setbul rather than in Lisbon. I had to take considerably a long distance to the school along with managing other issues. My mother got a marriage proposal from a Canadian family and transferred to Canada and later I was rejected by the Canadian Embassy as they refused to give me a visa and I could not meet my mother.

After settling these issues and my problem with the residency, I traveled back to Portugal to resume my studies. The time for most of the exams was already passed and I had to retake the majority of the exams which took me almost a year resulting in a bi lag as compared to other students. Due to heavy educational and financial strain, I got sick and decided to go back to Iran but had to wait a long time to get a Portuguese residency card which made the situation worse. Due to financial issues, I was pushed by the circumstances to sell another property in Dubai as the economy back in Iran was bringing a lot of challenging prospectuses. After returning back, I again had to start all the courses from scratch because I was not able to catch up with the current course at that time.

Apart from these educational and financial strains and tensions, I also faced social and cultural side-effects of these events. I grew up in Dubai and was studying at school situated in Ponte de sor in Portugal. The food was not good and the school authorities did not allow us to cook food in the vicinity of the campus. The boredom and depression that followed afterward impacted my studies to the extent that I almost lost the will to pursue my education. Above all, I have not met my mother since January of 2018 which added salt to the injury. Despite of all the problems I managed to complete most of my subjects in the dedicated time duration. These are the series of events that happened to me during my course and were responsible for issues regarding completion of whole course well in time. I am sincere in narrating the whole scenario and willing to provide all sort of adequate proofs to justify my stance.

The ANAC authorities are not ready to resume the courses and suggesting me to repeat the whole course all over again. I feel this will be an unfair condition for a student who is passing more than half of the subjects despite of some serious emergencies. In addition, a student from a different ethnic perspective must be given leverage for scarifying a lot of things and pursuing the education in the field of interest. Now when I have settled my issues and I am fully available solely for studies and to complete remaining 5 courses. L3 is not commencing any new courses in near future and they are telling me to start the course from scratch from any other school. I strongly feel that this is quite unfair for such a student to be told such a thing which is equal to destroying two years of life completely.          I do wish that the licensing authorities will find this letter and will cater to the concerns presented to make considerable concession as an exception. It is my earnest desire to be allowed to completed the remaining five subjects to complete my course and to become eligible for ATPL license. I hope the authorities will let me to pusue my passion and I will be very obliged for this favor.With best Regards