Flight Safety Begins With Flying Training

In 1965, Qantas had decided in their wisdom to train their own pilots, as there was obviously a lack of formality in professional pilot training in the industry. Barney was extremely impressed with the scheme, which involved the airline selecting the best material available in this country from all the schools and colleges, and putting them through a fifteen-month professional course of training at the Ground Training College at Rosebery. Flying training was contracted to two selected flying schools at Bankstown, and was supervised by Qantas Standards Officers.

In 1972, Qantas suddenly retrenched about 700 personnel and closed down the Cadet Pilot Training Scheme. Barney was one of the casualties of those retrenchments. Because of his age at the time, about forty-five, he could not secure a suitable position elsewhere in the aviation industry, or for that matter, outside the industry.

After giving it some consideration, he decided to continue to do what he did best: to teach, and soon after opened a Ground Training School at Bankstown Airport, which he called the Bankstown Aviation College. At the time of the Qantas retrenchments, about eighteen Malaysian cadets who had been training with the airline were also displaced. Barney Fernandes took over their ground training, which was successfully completed to SCPL/ATPL level, while the Royal Aero Club handled the flying involved. The Bankstown Aviation College was underway, and in a sense, a ‘cadet pilot scheme’ had made its debut in Australian general aviation.

Barney’s first years in general aviation were a bit traumatic. He began to appreciate how protected his working life had been to date, after twenty-three years in the Air Force, and over six years with Australia’s national airline. Twenty-nine years in aviation, and he did not really know much about the harsh realities of general aviation.

At this time, Barney was deeply concerned with the ad-hoc system of professional pilot training in Australia, and he wanted to take a part in upgrading it, to the benefit of the industry. He genuinely missed the professional atmosphere that had been synonymous with the Qantas Cadet Scheme and went to great lengths to set up his school using the concept and modus operandi of the defunct Qantas scheme.

‘The Qantas scheme was fabulous,’ he told me. ‘I couldn’t have come into the aviation industry in Australia through a better doorway. It certainly set my course in the right direction. ‘

Now that Bankstown Aviation College was established, some people in Sydney also wanted Barney to take over and organise their flying training. Flying Schools were OK, but young Australians seeking to become professional aviators wanted more . . . prepared syllabus, an organised programme of training, and most of all, they wanted better standards. It wasn’t too hard for Barney, himself partly trained by the RAAF in 1950.

He had decided to do something for the kids that would make them suitable to become the aircraft Captains of tomorrow. He initially sub-contracted the flying-training content of the course to Jack Brabham Aviation, and NavAir.

A benevolent student of his, businessman John Priddle, bought the Bankstown Aviation College its first aeroplane . . . and Barney didn’t even ask for it! Then another student, builder Ray Grimson, bought the second aircraft to be owned by the school. Then Barney bought an Arrow 200. All new aircraft!

Barney believed then, as he does now, that he had to set high standards, so he has not at any stage purchased a second-hand aeroplane for the school. Always, brand new equipment has been acquired. ‘This is to match the professionalism I demand of my students,’ he says.

Regarding the cost of learning to fly at his School, discounting was considered a ‘no-no’ from the very beginning. Discounting, according to Barney, is just one of the reasons some airlines worldwide are in trouble today. He believes that a ‘cut-price’ operation offering a ‘deal’ of some kind doesn’t do anything for quality.

In 1974, when Barney got his own Flying School Licence, his students did feel, however, that they were getting the equivalent of forty dollars per hour of instruction, when in fact their hourly instruction rate was thirty dollars per hour. Barney’s quest for quality in learning meant the students were given unlimited time for pre-flight and post-flight briefings, as well as theory courses. There was no compromising of standards, no matter what the cost to the school. And the CPL students were graduating on twin-engine Aztec aircraft, something unheard of in GA, except in the earlier Qantas scheme.

1976-77 saw the school exposed to Indonesia. A letter was received at Bankstown from Garuda, requesting Barney to train 60 pilots! An AFTS brochure had landed on the desk of a senior executive of Garuda Indonesian Airways in Jakarta.

Even though the Indonesians wanted 60 cadets trained, the school couldn’t cope with that. As Barney said at the time, ‘There was no point in being greedy, as I would have taken the risk of giving Australian aviation a bad name. ‘

So it was agreed to train 12 cadets at a time only. Barney trained two courses of Indonesians in 1977-78, a total of 24 students. The rest were sent to NASA at Cessnock, the ‘opposition’.

At that time, DOT, now DofA, was trying to do its bit to improve training, and the concept of Integrated Commercial Pilot Schools was chewed over, and finally tested with NASA. The Indonesian students training there enjoying NASA’s Integrated Commercial Pilot School system were able to pass out much earlier than the students in Barney’s care, who had to pass the scheduled DOT examinations. Consequently, the NASA-trained cadet pilots returned home and received higher seniority numbers in their airline than Barney’s students at Bankstown. It was an intolerable situation that could not be allowed to continue. So Bankstown Aviation College, which was to become the Australian Flying Training School, pursued its Integrated Commercial School Rating. It took three years of hard work, a lot of heartaches and frustrations, and considerable investment. In October 1980, AFTS finally received the much sought-after Integrated Rating.

Ironically, only a month or so earlier, AFTS was given official recognition by the Malaysian Government when it became a ‘Malaysian DCA Approved Flying School’. This award didn’t come easy either. Barney had to make many trips to Kuala Lumpur, and AFTS went through at least three formal inspections by Senior Examiners of Airmen from the Malaysian Department of Civil Aviation.

Barney says, ‘They checked everything, but most gratifying of all, they checked our product. At the time, we had under training 16 African cadet pilots from Zambia Airways. The Malaysian Examiners flew with these lads, as well as our own Australian cadets. I was very pleased with the results. ‘

The cadet training from Zambia Airways was organised for Barney by Sir Lennox Hewitt, who was at that time Chairman of Qantas Airways. It was the very first-time young men from Africa were being trained as professional pilots here in Australia. AFTS went all out to keep the faith and meet this important commitment by graduating 13 out of 16 Zambia Airways cadet pilots to a very high standard, in their CPL and Class 2 Instrument Rating tests.

Presently there are 208 Flying Schools in Australia licensed to train student pilots to Commercial Pilot Licence level. There are only three Integrated Commercial Schools . . . NASA, AFTS Sydney and Adelaide. Integrated Schools are so named because their training programme for theory, flight and ground simulator lessons are closely coordinated to make the learning processes and attainment of skill and attitude most effective. These three schools, unlike the others, have to meet very stringent requirements before the Rating is approved by the DofA.

Barney Fernandes believes that the real advantage of Integrated School Training is the ability to complete the course on time. With Departmental examinations, you have to wait four months for the next one if you fail. Not so at an Integrated School!

The biggest problem experienced by Barney as he worked towards getting AFTS an Integrated Rating was the writing of the Syllabus, to make sure the ground-sequences were in keeping with the flying to be done. It was like a jigsaw puzzle to put together. A large amount of time was consumed by the setting of examination questions for eleven subjects! The normal Commercial ANO has only six subjects. The school wrote a large series of multiple-choice questions, knowing that if they wrote 200 questions, they may be lucky enough to get 100 of these approved by the DOT.

The acquisition of good staff was also a problem for Barney Fernandes . . . staff with military aviation or airline experience who had something tangible to ‘give back’ to the industry.

Barney’s 2-I-C at the school is Ken Andrews, a retired Wing Commander, who used to fly Mustangs. People of the calibre of Ken Andrews are as scarce as hens’ teeth now.

Ken was Officer Commanding the Central Flying School at Point Cook for a time. He’s known Barney since 1950 and is a very capable and experienced aviator. He joined AFTS just prior to it getting the Integrated Rating. Then there’s Ray Kitchen, the Chief Ground Instructor, who was actually Barney Fernandes’ own Instructor at East Sale when Barney was seconded to the RAAF for training in 1950. Ray was a flight lieutenant in those days! He subsequently joined Qantas, where he became a Check and Training Navigator. Ray has been with AFTS since leaving Qantas about five years ago.

During this time, Ray Kitchen has earned himself a superb reputation as a dedicated teacher, a reputation perpetuated by the results of his students. He especially loves teaching Meteorology, which perhaps explains the fantastic results achieved by AFTS students in the last DofA Senior Commercial Met. Examination, held in November 1982. Ray Kitchen achieved a 100 per cent pass rate, with a class of twelve students!

Then there’s Ben Cook, also ex-Qantas. Ben was the Chief Navigator with the national carrier at the time they decided to phase out Navigators on the flight deck. Along with Ross Le Plastrier, who was before his retirement the Flight Operations Ground Training Controller at Qantas, these men form the backbone of a formidable flight-training scheme.

With men of this calibre instructing AFTS students, it’s little wonder that the Malaysian Airline System decided to send 30 students to AFTS for a sixty-week course of training to CPL and Class 1 Instrument Rating standards. All 30 cadets graduated to a high standard, and have since returned to Malaysia to fly Fokker F. 27s!

Barney speaks highly of Malaysian cadets, saying that they are easy to train and that this is mainly due to their polite and disciplined background. MAS, like many other world airlines, is feeling the economic pinch and has therefore temporarily suspended training of further courses of cadet pilots. Barney is confident however that when the world airline industry starts to pick up, and MAS is once again showing a profit, then the Malaysian cadets will be back again at AFTS.

He is also quick to point out that although Qantas cannot perhaps officially ‘endorse’ AFTS operations, they certainly have given enormous support to AFTS efforts to raise pilot training standards.

NASA, Barney’s friendly competition, comes in for a little gentle criticism from him. NASA accepts Form 4 High School students, whereas AFTS only select from HSC graduates in possession of at least 250 marks, with Maths and Physics being preferred subjects.

In 1981, Barney Fernandes decided to expand AFTS and open in Adelaide, at Parafield. And he changed from Pipers and Cessnas to what the AFTS staff and students refer to as the ‘wide-bodied single’, the Aerospatiale Tobago! Other schools graduate their students on aeroplanes of this calibre, whereas AFTS commences training with the constant-speed prop 180-hp single!

They’re relatively expensive to buy and operate, but as Barney keeps on saying . . . ‘ Give them good equipment and expect them to match the standard. ‘ The AFTS ab initio training aeroplanes are four-seaters, enabling the operation of a buddy system, where a student can sit in the back seat, and get additional exposure to the radio and procedures, without actually paying for the hours. The aeroplanes are fully IFR, with three headset positions, including intercom. The student sitting in the back seat is also listening to the Instructor’s pattern; it means a tremendous amount of extra learning is going on.

Student cadets do a total of 140 hours on the Tobago and 27 hours on the Duchess aircraft. Beechcraft always makes expensive aeroplanes, but they’re good, with big cockpits, in which Barney can stash lots of ‘goodies’ in the form of advanced avionics. He’s equipped the cockpits of the Duchess aircraft similar to an F. 27, with 2 VORs, 2 ADFs, 2 COMMs, ILS, Glideslope, DME, HF radio with upper-sideband mode, three-axis autopilot . . . the lot . . . everything a professional pilot trainee could ever want in an aeroplane!

Three major decisions were made by Barney at about the same time. The first was to standardise on the Tobago and Duchess, then the move to Adelaide, and finally the launching of a separate Private Pilot School at Bankstown. Students at the AFTS Private Pilot Course are not to be mixed in with those doing Instrument Ratings, or Commercial Training. They have aircraft, instructors, and facilities which are exclusively their own. This setup may be the only one of its kind in Australia, but there are very sound reasons for it according to Barney, who believes that the PPL phase of any pilot’s training, that is: the first 70 hours’ flying, is the most important flying he or she will ever do in their lives.

Barney says that all his plans to upgrade the AFTS facilities were continually rejected by DofA in Sydney, and he’s gone through years of frustration and considerable expense. He had plans drawn up for an attractive double-storey building which he wanted to erect on Airport Avenue, adjacent to his Ground School, the Bankstown Aviation College. The building design had wide verandahs all round and was typically Australian in character. The plans alone cost over three thousand dollars, but the proposal to erect the building was not approved. The Airport Avenue location is supposedly very prestigious, but used aeroplanes are sold there in the spot Barney wanted his double storey building, giving the area a look similar to ‘Auto Alley’ along Parramatta Road.

This uncompromising attitude to the AFTS development plans may have upset less formidable persons, but Barney’s Service background enabled him to accept these decisions with good grace, and still come up smiling. He could see the logic in the Department being able to develop Bankstown Airport according to their long-term ‘master plan’. The only real effect the decisions had on AFTS operations was to curtail the company’s growth at the time. But one subject Barney feels very strongly about is flight safety, and when any bureaucratic decisions jeopardise flight safety and the economics of the operation, it is a bitter pill that just will not go down! Barney says ‘For years I have been asking the Department to maintain our aircraft parking area. After all, we have always bought brand new aeroplanes, and it is soul-destroying to see huge dents in the props and tail-planes caused by the horrible surface of our parking area. ‘ To date, this hazard to AFTS operations still exists, and perhaps it is due to the fact that even though the area has been used for parking for about twenty years, it’s still not a ‘designated parking area’ on the DofA ‘master plan’. Another item also not on the magic ‘master plan’ is the AFTS BP-fuel bowser, which they are not permitted to have repaired or replaced. As a result of this, AFTS aircraft have to use the central refuelling facility, which dispenses fuel at retail prices. This fuel facility is also a long way from the AFTS base of operations. In 1981, which was a fairly busy year for AFTS, Barney Fernandes investigated the financial penalty being imposed on AFTS by their not being able to refuel at their own bowser and was horrified. The loss was in excess of fifty thousand dollars!

But AFTS operations had to continue, particularly as they had a training commitment to an overseas country.

So in January 1982, Barney started Integrated Pilot Training in South Australia. As is typical of the man, Barney Fernandes didn’t just ‘sneak away’ across to Adelaide, he took the time and trouble to write the Director (NSW Region) of DofA a letter setting out the reasons why the school was moving its Integrated Commercial Pilot Training course. Almost immediately, the last course of 16 Malaysian trainees was moved to Adelaide to begin instruction. The cadets successfully and happily completed the advanced phase of their CPL/Class 1 Instrument Rating course of training with a ‘minimum of fuss, and a saving in costs. ‘

Barney can’t stop talking about the potential of South Australia in making his dream come true . . . the establishment of a national Civil Aviation College in Australia. ‘This would make the air-pilot profession truly professional’ says Barney. ‘We have to start at the grassroots in the education and training of young Australians who seek to fill the highly responsible positions as Aircraft Captains in our Air Transport industry!’

Barney sees the entire Adelaide operation as ideal for his purpose. He in fact believes that the NSW Region of DofA may have done him a big favour by ‘evicting’ AFTS out of Bankstown. He regards the whole situation as being quite providential.

Since commencing operations at Parafield, that is, in less than twelve months, AFTS has gained formal recognition from the South Australian Government. AFTS is perhaps the first non-manufacturing industry to move to South Australia that the non-political ‘Industries Development Committee’ has given a financial grant, under its ‘Establishment Payments Scheme’. The South Australian Department of Trade and Industry is fully ‘on-side’, with regular visits being made by them to the AFTS operations, ‘just in case they can be of any assistance to us,’ says Barney.

The South Australian Region of DofA is also the most cooperative, with Mr Bill Chegwidden, the Director, and all his staff being most helpful to Barney right from day one. ‘It’s the same with the South Australian Institute of Technology,’ says Barney. This establishment is located at an area known as ‘The Levels’, which is immediately adjacent to Parafield Airport. It’s a College of Advanced Education with a beautiful campus. AFTS has classroom accommodation there, and full use of all other facilities. All academic study is done in this superb educational environment. The Institute provides a tertiary level of education to young Australians and overseas students seeking to enter other professions and has shown that it is more than willing to do the same for the air pilot profession. In seeking the affiliation of AFTS with the South Australian Institute of Technology (SAIT), Barney Fernandes has taken a significant step forward towards upgrading the standard of professional air-pilot training in Australia, so that it keeps pace with the latest in modern aviation technology.

Barney was quick to get away and speak with Mr Collin Freeland, the Secretary of the new Department of Aviation soon after it was formed. He is most encouraged by the receptive and helpful attitude of Mr Freeland, who apparently told Barney that ‘Any initiative or any effort to improve the standard of pilot training in Australia will get my full support!’

It’s usually the case that an aircraft distributor seeks to acquire or start its own Flying School, but it seldom happens that a Flying School takes on a distributorship for the type of aeroplane it operates at the school.

AFTS recently became the Australian and Papua NewGuinea distributor for the entire range of Aerospatiale light aircraft. The French-made aircraft known as the Tobago, Tampico and Trinidad are now marketed by AFTS subsidiary Flight Safety Products Pty Ltd. In addition to these three types, a new 161 hp constant-speed propeller version is being built especially for the new Australian distributor, and will be marketed as the ‘Taralga’. Barney Fernandes personally researched this name, which is aboriginal for ‘native companion’. Taralga is also a small town in New South Wales, and as Barney sees it, is most appropriate for an Australian version of the aircraft, at least, much more so than another West Indies island name.

Perhaps the most exciting single element of the marketing approach to be adopted by Barney Fernandes with the new franchise is the offer of free tuition for a period of twelve months for every private buyer of a new or used Aerospatiale aeroplane from Flight Safety Products. Barney is prepared to give slow learners more time if necessary, just to make sure that everyone who buys the Aerospatial product can fly the aeroplane safely, with knowledge and good sense. It’s not a ‘sales gimmick’, but a genuine offer, which deserves much praise, as the cost of the tuition will come directly from the distributor’s profit margin!

It’s certainly a marketing strategy that should undoubtedly contribute towards the improvement of Australia’s flight safety status in General Aviation. It’s also just one more step towards total professionalism in the Pilot-Training sector of our aviation industry.