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Aviation History
1963
1963 - 0341.PDF
FLIGHT International, 7 March 1963 325 The Guild Reports on Pilot Training IN a 14-page document just published, the Guild of Air Pilots and Air Navigators presents its considered opinions and recom mendations on the future recruitment and training of professional pilots. The Guild's views were called for by the Hamilton Commit tee—an independent advisory body set up to investigate all forms of pilot licensing by the Minister of Aviation as recommended in the White Paper on Aviation Safety. The major part of the report deals in very great detail with ab initio training for, as the Guild points out, it is the attitude of mind and instinctive reactions that a trainee pilot develops during these early stages that affect his entire career, and therefore have such a fundamental effect on the safety of flight. As the basis for its review the report considers ab initio training to be composed of five elements: (1) able pupils; (2) competent in structors; (3) the right syllabus; (4) the right training organization, equipment and environment; (5) graduation licences which em brace the syllabus. Essential to the success of the whole training programme is the right kind of student material. According to the report, experience so far has shown that there are barely sufficient applicants of the right quality applying for entry to the College of Air Training—only 1.5 per cent of all entrants are in the top 10 per cent of the population based on the Stanine Scale. First recommendation of the report is that the Government should contribute a greater share of the cost of training if the number and quality ot our future civil pilots are to be raised; and that the Government and sponsors of civil aviation should take more vigorous steps to attract entrants to the profession, for which it suggests there should be no arbitrary upper age limit for entry. This drive for more candidates, the Guild recommends, should be coupled with a Ministry-approved selection procedure that could well be based on that now used for choosing entrants to the College of Air Training at Hamble. The report also recognizes the serious consequences of unemployment on the ability of pilots to maintain proficiency. It therefore calls for national co-ordination of the number of pilots entering the profession. Standards Now Higher Turning to training, the report says that the operation of aircraft has long passed the stage when pilots who "drift" into the profes sion can hope to attain the required standard. During initial flight training, continuity of instruction is considered vitally important. The Guild understands that in recent years pilots who have quali fied for a Commercial Pilot's Licence by irregular part-time in struction have rarely achieved a proper standard. There has been a very high wastage-rate in army pilots trained in this manner who have in the past been recruited by the corporations, and the Guild strongly endorses the two Safety White Paper statements: "Good instruction and training . . . are essential if civil pilots are to cope safely with the increasingly complex business of flying modern aircraft. Examination and testing can ensure minimum standards of attainment but they are no substitute for sound basic training. The report therefore recommends that a Commercial Pilot's Licence shall be granted only to a pilot who has successfully com pleted a course at a Ministry-approved training establishment. The Ministry, it says, should publish standards for the approval of such schools, and in the report comments extensively on the dis parity in size and character between the existing establishments offering commercial pilot training. It is inevitable, the report says, "that the College of Air Training will be frequently referred to as a model for other training establishments, but it believes that this could be misleading. The College was established by the two cor porations, with Government assistance, to meet the special require ments of the corporations—requirements which are not necessarily those of all operators. A single illustration of this would be the two-year course at the College, which is a great deal longer than necessary for the commercial pilot's licence, instrument rating and an R/T licence—15 months would probably be adequate." However, the Guild supports the Ministry's intention, as ex pressed in the Safety White Paper, of granting approval only to those schools whose facilities and instruction reach an adequate standard. It doubts whether the many small training schools and organizations now in existence will have either the resources or the equipment to qualify as an "approved course of training" as envi saged in the White Paper, and in any case it feels that proper con trol of basic training standards can best be achieved by having only a minimum number of approved training establishments. Congenial Surroundings In its recommendations on the standards for approving training establishments, the report emphasizes the importance of environ ment, not only of congenial physical surroundings but the atmos phere and attitude of mind of the staff and teachers in which pupils give of their best—such as the kind found in colleges of medicine, law, and the armed Services. In the Guild s view, ab initio pilots destined to become airline pilots should perform pait of their training on synthetic-flight trainers with a corresponding reduction in flying time. Experience has shown that those so trained have a higher standard of competence than those trained solely on air craft. This is not advocated for pilots who, shortly after completing their training, are to be in command of aircraft—for example, in aerial work such as crop-spraying operations or employed as pilot of an executive aircraft. In these cases it is felt that full flying time should be covered, plus additional training on synthetic-flight trainers. Flight trainers are expensive; nevertheless, schools should be prepared to provide them if they wish to be granted approval. A synthetic-flight trainer with visual attachments could also be a valuable instructional vehicle—though little is yet known of the effectiveness of this equipment. The report says that opinions differ widely on the type of aircraft best suited to ab initio training. Ideally, training aircraft should be suited to the stage reached in the pilot's training whilst the aircraft used at some time during the training should reproduce the performance, handling characteristics and workload of types he will experience on operational flying. To be capable of dealing with emergencies later in his career the student should also be familiar with flying aircraft having the barest minimum of instrumentation. On the subject of the right syllabus the report says: "At the present time syllabi reflect the instruction needed to gain a pilot's licence. The existing licences do not reflect the requirements of modern commercial aviation; therefore the current syllabi are in adequate. Whatever the field of human activity, the teaching must be directed towards achieving the highest possible proficiency. It is necessary to decide first what this proficiency should be, secondly to write the appropriate syllabus, and finally to establish tests and examinations (for the licence) which will indicate that proficiency has been achieved." Chipmunk is a Meteor The report concludes its review of ab initio training by commenting on possible defects in the United Kingdom licence legislation (based entirely on Annex 1 of the ICAO Convention) and it recommends certain changes which it says should be pressed for international adoption if they are accepted as valid by the UK authorities. The report prefers to hold specific comment on present legislation to a special paper in which it would propose changes for the introduction of new licences and aim at raising piloting standards in other ways. It would recommend the elimination of wasteful flying, would propose more realistic privileges, eliminate repetitive examinations, introduce synthetic-flight training, suggest better ratios of solo and dual instruction, and advocate many other worthwhile improve ments. The report contains a single example to illustrate the neces sity for revision: "Requirements for a commercial pilot's licence are related, inter alia, to arbitrary numbers of flying hours, regard less of aircraft type. Thus, 250hr on a Meteor, a pure jet trainer (or even a supersonic jet) count for exactly the same as 250hr on a Chipmunk. The undesirable outcome has been that cost has driven civil trainees to Chipmunks and Moths: a complete contradiction of the modern policy (instituted by the RAF) that future jet pilots should train on jets."
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