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Aviation History
1988
1988 - 1801.PDF
Natco and the University of North Dakota have established a training centre at Grand Forks (top left). Since acquiring Republic, Northwest operates a diverse fleet (757 centre left, Saab 340 bottom left). Natco is a major customer for Rediffusion's latest SP-X 500 daylight visual (above) during the construction of their own course. The course is to be condensed to 18 months of five-day course weeks. Where necessary, Saturdays will be reserved for flight training only. Course content is to be strictly oriented to the flightdeck and associ ated tasks, but the academic environment and involvement will be highlighted in enforcing learning discipline. The philos ophy is based on "need to know", but with a difference. "Task-centring" is the focus for the curric ulum. It will keep the course compact, yet yield a graduate more directly attuned to the needs of the airlines—certainly at regional airline level. Training as crews will be emphasised soon after first solo. Other minimum FAA-approved programmes have stressed single-pilot operations; the Natco/ CAS course will specifically address the airline mission, in compatibility with future Loft training. The curriculum was created by a devel opment team of three Northwest training captains, CAS operations personnel, and line pilots from regional code-sharing partner Express Air One. Flightdeck task identi fication was distilled from a document of several hundred pages prepared by the team. Advice from Nasa and the industry shaped effective human factors and judgement train ing, and instruction on cockpit resource management. The team worked with computer-based-training specialist Wicat on the form and content of the 150hr of computer-based instruction that will accom pany the l,000hr of classroom reaching. The professional status of the course should be like that of Harvard, to convince loan institutions that its graduates will be on a par with those in medicine or law, and certainly as readily marketable. The backers' financial returns could be safer; tailored selection will also mean a much reduced attrition rate. The CAS and Natco would like the FAA to endorse a special certificate of graduation from the academy, and to recognise the instruction as being to full ATP standard. The target is identical to the "frozen ATPL" licence standard which is awarded in the UK after such a course. In that case the CPL endorsement is automatically upgraded as soon as the pilot achieves the required hours during his career. What of the market? Will Northwest take direct-entry pilots from the academy? The climate is not yet seen to be right. Northwest is not ready to go the way of BA and Cathay at BAe's Prestwick school, or of Lufthansa at Bremen, but neither is it about to throw away high grade ab initio pilots amid the present recruitment climate. The airline is promoting a route for them through its AirLink partners (code-sharing regionals that feed into the enlarged North west network). Agreement has been reached with Express Air One to create a pilot-hiring partnership and interactive pilot throughput, from graduate to regional pilot, and then on to Northwest. Students who are accepted to the academy as independent pupils may then apply for the Northwest Pilot Participation Programme. If they are accepted, they will be screened at the end of ab initio training, and again at the completion of the period with an AirLink partner before their final acceptance into the major airline. Such a scheme would stabilise pilot entries and departures within the regional, with pilots looking to greater prospects, and Northwest would be assured of mature entrants to the right-hand seats of what will rapidly became a mostly two-crew, and largely high-technology, fleet. To facilitate transfers, Northwest cockpit procedures will be used throughout. Indeed, it was the needs to meet the future pilot requirement and to cater for the lack of a third "introductory" cockpit seat that motivated the airline to seek an AirLink arrangement. Express Air operates the Jetstream, on which graduates will have finalised their training. Advanced training can be continued in Cessna Citation jets and in the Phase I DC-9 and 727 simulators, to be installed at the academy by Natco. Additional new-type turboprop simulators are proposed for the future. Customers' checklist formats can be specified for training. The highly integrated and tailored air line/university package stands alone at present. The concurrent restructuring of Northwest's own training facilities and the creation of an ab initio academy seem to have put the airline in a strong position not only to meet its own needs, but also for contract work. One outstanding problem is perhaps symptomatic of North American society and the value it places on lone achievers and self-starters: that of paying for a course that could cost the student or his/her family $60,000 and nearly $1,000 per month in living costs. Up to now the attitude had been that father would pay. The CAS maintains that there is no imme diate shortage of those willing to pay. The glamour and potential earning power of the piloting profession (where many can top the magic $100,000 per year) is still very attrac tive, even after ten years of career disturbance in the wake of deregulation. Indeed, as the ready flow of pilots is stemmed there are, no doubt, better career prospects in the long run. Is it wise, though, to have an implicit preliminary filtering of candidates by their ability to pay, when refined preselection routines are being used to maximise the choice of men and women with natural attri butes most fitted to the flightdeck? An anomaly is created when a fostering airline such as Northwest cannot yet commit itself to financial sponsorship. In contrast, it has readily financially underpinned its repu tation in training when it comes to facilities. One fear of all airlines is that, upon gradu ation, sponsored pilots will flit off to a competitor. The stability engendered when the pilot identifies himself at an early stage with a good prospect in a solid major airline has yet to be tested at the ab initio level. Sponsorship could support that identity. Perhaps the time has come—not only for Northwest, but for all US airlines—to quantify their attraction to the recruit, assess the potential benefit of sponsorship, and set it against any risk of loss of investment. • FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL, 9 July 1988 39
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