FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1992
1992 - 0070.PDF
A FlightSafety Academy instructor pre-flight briefs a student ment the sponsor will require in return must be assessed. Basic fitness for the job is also an important consideration. All prospective employers agree that it is pointless to waste time and money on professional pilot train ing unless the candidate is medically fit and possesses the physical and mental aptitude not only to handle an aircraft but to cope with the increasingly technological world in which he/she will have to operate. Few people are totally unsuited to flying: a person does not have to be "Superman" to be a thoroughly safe and competent commercial pilot. Indeed, that sort of indi vidual would be unsuited to the modern airline cockpit, with its requirement for teamwork and shared responsibility. The days when the captain was God and the first officer did all the work are gone. The large airline wants people who will fit in smoothly: discipline and teamwork are the hairline target. General aviation demands somewhat different talents and skills, more diverse and less focused than in airline or military operations. The sponsored airline cadet (now a virtu ally extinct breed, although in time it will return with the market) must pass an initial selection process. Voluntary aptitude testing is available in many countries. In the UK, for instance, self-funded students can be tested at Oxford Air Training School for £25, or Speedwing Consultants will put an aspirant through the British Airways selec tion centre at Meadowbank for around £300. That could be money well-spent: if it is hard to face disappointment at the outset, it would be harder still once a great deal of money and effort have been invested. It is also sensible to undertake an initial Class 1 medical, a prerequisite for a profes sional licence. By taking this (in the UK, for instance, at the Civil Aviation Authority's (CAA's) Gatwick medical centre), a pilot can avoid discovering a problem later. With all the initial hurdles crossed, the aspirant pilot can start on the training road. At the outset, the student has to choose between taking an integrated commercial pilot's licence/instrument rating (CPL/IR) training course, or the more complicated and longer, but potentially far cheaper, "self-improver" route. The training route decision is a personal one determined by the student's financial situation, career goals and, above all, the state of the employment market: for example, if airlines are not recruiting even experienced pilots, time to qualification is not the priority. Detailed licensing requirements are available from national licensing authorities such as the UK CAA or US Federal Aviation Authority (FAA), and this article does not attempt to reproduce the definitive informa tion in the official publications. For general background for the UK-based student, books such as To Be A Pilot by Mike Jerram can help. Pre-preparation and research, coupled with an honest self-appraisal of motives, personality, educational achieve ments and medical fitness, are essential. In the UK, a CAA-approved integrated course goes straight through to licence issue in about 13 months. If the neat, quick, airline-respected but expensive integrated course is rejected, there are many possible routes consisting of combinations of self- improvement and training courses. The opinion of airline chief pilots and training captains as to the merits of differ ent types of training and experience is crucial to employment — the ultimate training yardstick. Clive Hughes, commercial manager of the London Flight Centre, which offers the "self-improver" route to CAA CPL/IR qualification, says: "I do not think that any long-term full-time course is a good idea at the moment, as the pilot market changes rapidly, and one must have the flexibility to speed up or slow down the programme." An advantage of the self-improvement route is that the student is not having to pay large sums of money up front to one school, points out Hughes. This enables him or her to maintain pressure on the school for individual instructional needs, while mini mising the amount of money at risk should the school go out of business. Capt "Roly" Beaumont, chief pilot of British regional Loganair, is happy to hire "self-improvers": "Some are very good, and 20 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 15 - 21 January, 1992
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
