Joaquín Ibarra

Joaquín Ibarra leads the Heavy Freight Type Rating course from Shackleton Base. He spent 14 years flying the Atlas Heavy Freighter for a Mars freight union, the last six as captain, and he still holds a current line rating so that his teaching reflects today's routes.

Students know him for his whiteboard mass-and-balance sessions and for an unshakeable rule: no crew leaves the simulator until every member has said one thing they would do differently. He also co-teaches the crew resource management workshop for ore hauler trainees at Ceres.

Joaquín is also the academy's specialist on cargo-shift emergencies and has written the scenario set used for Atlas recurrent training by several freight operators. Outside work he coaches a youth flying club at Shackleton Base that has sent eleven members to First Solo.