Massive Pilot Recruitment on the Horizon

The situation has been as mobile overseas. In the 12 months to February 1987, US jet airlines took aboard almost 6000 new pilots and flight engineers; a sum of 10,500 recruitments is expected through the whole of 1987. In the UK, British Airways has now instituted one of the industry’s most far sighted plans for pilot training. In the meantime BA is stop-gapping with trained and moderately experienced UK CPLs from other airlines and the much denuded GA sector of the industry.

It is in the area of pilot training plans that European continental carriers are also investing heavily for their long-term requirements, particularly airlines such as Lufthansa, Swissair and Alitalia. In contrast Qantas and the Australian domestics are making no overtures to the taking on of ab initio pilot training programmes for the future: such would amount to a re-introduction of the Cadet Pilot training schemes of the sixties. At the end of the day our airlines doubted the cost effectiveness of the schemes and apparently the doubts carry through to the present.

Instead Qantas, Australian and Ansett will continue to recruit from GA and the Defence Forces. Accordingly, the RAAF has severely felt the pinch and has reacted with an increase in return-of-service time from 6 to 8 years; nevertheless, pilot establishments remain down, almost critically so in the fighter and maritime squadrons, until the training inertia catches up. This is not to say that the airlines are bleeding the Services dry- Qantas has been taking ex-Service pilots at the rate of 1 to every 5 new recruitments and does not see the ratio increasing.

Although Qantas has part financed CPL training through selected flying schools of redundant Flight Engineers for employment as Second Officers, it shies away from supporting a particular Australian training organisation, preferring a policy of impartiality. According to Capt. Terrell, Qantas’ recruitment plans are indicative of having a ‘faith in numbers’ of available pilots who are willing and able and yet the relatively high rejection rate of applicants has been the cause of cautious concern by Qantas of the flying standards of GA sector pilots.

On the other hand, the overseas airlines which are instigating ab initio pilot training programmes are demonstrating a policy towards the guarantee of sufficient pilot levels to man future and expanded fleets. Further, training methods, hardware and software, have come a long way in the last 25 years and there is little doubt that airlines who are investing in ab initio training are including an improvement in basic product as a programme objective.

The European Airlines’ Training Programmes

The Lufthansa/Swissair Futura programme for the training of airline pilots, which commenced in mid-July is an example of the above. The Futura concept is based upon the learning of timeless basic pilot skills together with the operation of state-of-theart electronic installations and computers – with emphasis upon quality of training and cost effectiveness.

The programme structure is unique in the details of reduced aircraft flight hours and inclusion of full flight simulator hours (with a contemporary cockpit layout). The course content for Lufthansa consists of an initial 100 flight hours in a Bonanza, 30 hours nav trainer and 70 hours in a Baron at Phoenix, Arizona. This is followed up at the Lufthansa Commercial Pilot’s School in Bremen, West Germany, by 40 hours on the Full Phase I Rediffusion Piper Cheyenne IIIA simulator and then 20 hours on the Cheyenne IIIA itself – chosen because of advanced cockpit systems, high performance and transferable handling qualities.

It can be seen that the programme cost effectiveness lies not in capital but in operating costs. A simulator, at approximately DM14 million (about A$12m), is roughly double the price of an aircraft; at a planned utilisation of 3500 hours per year though against 1400 aircraft hours, one simulator hour comes out at about 50% of the cost of an aircraft flight hour. Additionally Lufthansa’s simulator operates around the clock irrespective of the prevailing European weather conditions.

The Lufthansa Pilot School is purchasing three of these simulators. Total capital outlay (simulators, four Cheyenne IIIAs and a training complex) amounts to DM11O million (about A$100m). Hourly operating cost economics – for the number of student pilots the school will train – was the driving factor for the transfer of ab initio flight training to simulators; the transferal has been realised largely because of the advances in simulator technology and the application by Rediffusion of transport aircraft simulator hardware and software to smaller aircraft configurations. Also Lufthansa discloses that ecological (air and noise pollution) considerations were further reasons for the choice- understandably so in the high density and environmentally sensitive lands of middle Europe which have some of the most stringent noise level limitations on GA aircraft worldwide.

Lufthansa plans for the 24 month syllabus to graduate 165 pilots per year for the airline (with a projected washout rate of 4-5%) to meet its crew requirements to the turn of the century. The Bremen centre is designed to take a total of 280 pupils a year. As comprehensive as the system is, the planning is none too soon – last year Lufthansa took 30 BA pilots on contract to fill empty right hand seats on fleet aircraft.

Although Lufthansa was solely responsible for the establishment costs of Futura, both Swissair and the Luftwaffe will, under a 10 year agreement, contribute to the operating costs at Bremen and Phoenix. The programme can be broken down into stages: I – Bremen, Ground instruction, 3. 5 months; II – Phoenix, Ground/ flying instruction, 150hr F33, 5. 5 months; Ill – Bremen, Ground (CPUIR)/flying 30hr 858, 4 months; IV – Phoenix, Flying instruction, 65hr 858, 2. 5 months; V – Bremen, Futura, ATPL Exam, 40hr PA42 sim, 20hr PA42, 16hr jet trainer, 8. 5 months.

Alitalia has also purchased the Cheyenne IIIAforits own pilot training programme, for training a maximum of 100 pilots a year its choice of programme structure reflects the subjective nature of programme selection and cost analysis. Captain Alberto Sekules, Alitalia’s Director of Operations, sees the Rediffusion simulators as being too expensive (for its in house student numbers) for ab initio training and believes that cost effectiveness can be enhanced without sacrificing quality by judicious use of aircraft flight hours. The advantages of simulators are seen to be in the realm of advanced training, for instance DC-9-30 conversion is now done entirely on simulator. Alitalia’s ab initio training syllabus includes 70 hours on the Cheyenne. With student numbers building, Alitalia has been working with Cheyennes at over 200 hours per month, including about 70 hours circuit flying. A tortuous test for the Cheyenne, designed as anything but a trainer and one which the aircraft are performing well.

British Airways

BA has contracted the British Aerospace (BAe) Flying College at Prestwick in Scotland to undertake ab initio training of initially 100 cadets per year, commencing November 1987. Prior to the College becoming operational, a further major contract for cadet pilot training for Cathay Pacific was secured. The training program structure will follow a more traditional GA-based composition: the course breaks down into 50 hours on the Swiss AS202 Bravo, 105 hours Warrior (plus 20 simulator) and finally 45 hours Seneca (and a further 20 simulator) – all followed by line-oriented fight training in a BAe 125-700 simulator. Start to finish takes 70 weeks and will cost BA about £50,000 (A$125,000) for each graduate. BA, in order to assist selection and minimise the washout percentage from an enormous application base, has invested heavily in the selection process to arrive at a batch of tests covering coordination, aptitude and psychological profile.

The United States Airlines

United States carriers are meeting the pilot demand requirements with an approach different to that of the Europeans. American professional pilot training has traditionally included a ‘College training’ components for which there have been established many university flight training departments. Some of the large American airlines are planning for the future by investing in new or expanded College programs – not to train cadet pilots from ab initio for their own fleet, but to train a pool of pilots whose progress has been fully monitored and from which they can employ as needs require. Such systems are aimed at ensuring quality and maintaining hiring flexibility (possibly to allow for demand fluctuations from planning levels), and could be described as the human equivalent of a full-traceability industrial quality control procedure.

The 10,500 new airline pilots to be hired in 1987 in the US are for both the large and regional airlines. It has been the regionals who have been feeling the effects most of all, as a greater percentage of pilote ie coming from the regional, following the military pilot availability drying up to some extent.

In an effort to stabilise and control pilot turnover, recruitment and retraining costs, there is emerging a move towards tie-ups between the large airlines and the many regional airlines in the US. One example is PanAm and regional PanAm Express, formerly Ransome Airlines until being purchased by PanAm. Out of the buy, PanAm has guaranteed all Ransome pilots at the time of purchase a placing with seniority with PanAm in the future, and for new Express pilots, preferential consideration for PanAm selection.

This system not only provides PanAm with performance monitoring for future pilot quality control, but at the same time it should protect Express from regional pilot raiding by other carriers.

Northwest Orient has meanwhile indirectly entered the commercial flying training business, with the joint establishment of the Northwest Aerospace Training Corporation (NATCO) by NWA Inc. , the airline’s holding company, and the University of North Dakota (U-ND) to conduct ab initio and advanced training- using the 70 strong aircraft fleet of U-ND’s Center for Aerospace Sciences. NATCO will not only take over Northwest’s internal training activities but will also be marketed to prospective customers at large, both in the US and overseas-therefore it is a facility formed with the objective of capitalising upon perceived general pilot shortages. Apart from the University’s aircraft, Northwest’s 12 simulators, including 11 full-flight units, are being transferred to NATCO.

Eastern Airlines, unlike Northwest, is not investing in hardware for pilot training: instead, it has initiated a Pilot Entry Program (PEP) through which student pilots will progress to a CPL with ME/IR and an associate science degree and the non-guaranteed prospect of employment as a regional airline pilot with an Easter affiliate, followed after two years by a position as an Eastern flight engineer. The program is aimed at a massive 4000 student enrolments a year.

All these establishments and programs will need vast student numbers and therefore will look worldwide for airline crew training business. Northwest sees NATCO students as paying their own way or sponsored by non-US airlines. Should Qantas requirements eventuate to that stage it would be hoped that Australian flying schools be contracted for training in preference to overseas training or hiring but it is a rumour which is occasionally heard.

The Australian Scene

Dealing only with domestic traffic, Ansett and Australian may be in a different basket to Qantas concerning future pilot requirements. The present traffic growth rate should increase in the deregulated environment following 1990 if, as expected, the American open skies experience is to be reciprocated in Australia.

Consider the US air trade statistics: In 1967 only one in ten Americans had ever travelled by aircraft. Twenty years later, one in three American adults flew at least once a year and this year the trade prediction is for a total passenger load of 450 million, almost twice that of a decade ago, when the US skies were thrust into deregulation. Commuting has possibly seen the greatest growth. James Kimpton, Ansett’s manager of aviation policy indeed sees the 8% per annum growth in the regulated environment rising substantially when domestic operation restrictions are lifted in 1990.

The US experience has also shown that areas with small traffic volumes do not generally benefit from deregulation. About 150 smaller destinations throughout the US have lost regular jet services, causing a loss of local economic growth. Australia is sparsely populated; many of its regional routes are chronically thin and their airlines’ fortunes have been turbulent, even in deregulated state environments. Australian Airlines’ divesting of Air Queensland not only demonstrates an example of fleet/ market mismatch and commercial non-viability but also releases more pilots for either airline duty or for the substituted ‘lean’ operations. On the South Australian regional air routes in just over 12 months Murray Valley Airlines, Opal Air and State Air all ceased operations, while Lloyd planned to move most of its fixed wing operations out of its own backyard.

Not surprisingly, a reasonably common denominator has been larger-capacity higher capital-value aircraft purchases. Kendell remains the exception and raises the question of regional airline subsidisation. It is possible that the future deregulated national environment may necessitate corporately subsidised national airlines. When it comes to matching any future competition, Ansett will be well backed financially and with fleet flexibility by its international aviation leasing group Ansett Worldwide Aviation Services (AWAS).

As a suggestion of the possible outcomes of Australian national airline deregulation, consider the services East-West might have been offering now if, four years ago, Bryan Grey had not been faced with draconian trading regulations. As it is Sir Peter Abeles has brought in, and out, to immensely consolidate Ansett’s position both nationally and regionally despite recent decisions by the TPC. It is a fair statement to say that not only will Australian Airlines’ recapitalisation need to continue to revive its future competitiveness, but new jet airline start-up operations will be needed for the trade growth benefits of deregulation to materialise.

In spite of present Ansett and Australian pilot recruiting, as of the very moment there is apparently little extra demand within the GA sector. This is indicative of a downturn in commerce in some GA areas (such as oil/gas operations support) and is reflected by experience requirements for GA vacancies. It is clear however, at the training level that numbers of experienced instructors are depleting and Grade Is are becoming a relatively rare commodity, all at a time when there is a definite upturn in student pilot numbers. The October stock market crash may well depress GA commerce in 1988 if the shockwaves seriously dampen industrial output and growth; it may also hiccup the national airlines growth in commerce though at the time of writing it was still premature to really suggest what economic situation might prevail a year from now!

Flying Training in Australia

For student pilots the choice of training establishment and course content within Australia is wide. The country has two integrated CPL schools – which offer a full-time integrated’ CPL ground school and flying course. Both have teamed with tertiary institutions to offer Associate Diploma courses.

Barney Fernandes and his Australian Aviation College at Parafield have led the way, with a course accredited by the South Australian Tertiary Education Authority and constructed after consultation with the airlines. The first Associate Diploma Course graduated in July 1987. The College has two intakes each year for the 17 month course, from which students graduate with CPL/CIR/SCPL subjects and Associate Diploma technical subjects which are undertaken at the adjoining South Australian Institute of Technology.

The 170 hour CPL flying is undertaken on Socata Tobago and Trinidad aircraft, whilst multi-engine Instrument training is conducted on the Beechcraft Duchess (total 40hrs, including conversion). 30 hours synthetic trainer simulator are also included. The integrated CPL training accounts for 40 weeks of the course, and the remainder is taken up with SCPL subjects, Instrument Rating and SAIT subjects, the latter being spread throughout the CPL part of the course.

The AAC has had an enormous spurt of interest in 1987, which is continuing into 1988, and is resulting in the largest course numbers ever. Concerning overseas training the AAC has trained Malaysian cadet pilots for MAS, and is an approved school by the Malaysian Civil Aviation Department. The Associate Diploma course may well mature into a Degree Course, a policy supported and approved by the SAIT board. With steady public funding in the future the program will be a continual and valuable source of professional pilots.

More recently the Civil Air Training Academy (CATA) at Cessnock in New South Wales has teamed with the University of Newcastle on a University-funded tertiary course, leading to an Associate Diploma for CATA CPL graduates (refer p10 Nov 87 AA).

Various other flying schools around Australia have meanwhile stepped up marketing efforts in order to capture a slice of the burgeoning increase in training demand. For example, the Royal Aero Club of NSW at Bankstown is steering a high profile – with apparent returns in the form of a doubling of flying hours in less than a year.

On the West Coast, the Royal Aero Club of WA has had business expanding in a big way, in part, but by no means all, due to America’s Cup activity; annual flying hour totals for 1985 and 1986 were 18,500 and 21,500 respectively – over the Club’s large fleet of about 20 aircraft.

The flying schools present a ‘packaged’ course with assistance for the CPL theory subjects, arguing that the introduction of CPL exams on demand has eliminated much of the benefit of an integrated CPL course. The assistance may only be in the form of tutoring: for the theory side a student can turn to TAFE correspondence or attendance courses, attendance at various tertiary institutions or private correspondence courses, such as those provided by Trevor Thom’s excellent Aviation Theory Centre, which can take the student right through from BAK to SCPL subjects.

Following CPL training, what opportunities prevail for the licence holder? Unquestionably, it is the first job that is hardest to catch. Presently the GA sector is opening up to new pilots at a much slower rate than the national and international airlines.

Charter companies are presently not interested in experience levels less than 1000 hours total, Supplementary Airlines are after logbooks with about 2000 hours inked. For CPLs graduating now, such experience levels may vie in 2-3 years time, whereafter airline demand and deregulation may well have made inroads into sought after experience levels for GA. Unquestionably also, a Flight Instructor rating serves to enhance the CPL’s chances as the number of combined training and charter operators around the country is much greater.

Having gained a FIR the first 100 hours of instructional time can be a long grind, and it is only after a further 150 minimum, and an advancement to a Grade 2 level that opportunities substantially open up. The central and northern outback areas of the country can provide seasonal charter and training work for low-time professional pilots, a lot of whom tend to gravitate to the region.

Between the main cities, night freight and bank runs using a variety of aircraft from C310, C402 to MU2s and others, provide a source of work for many pilots. Such positions are intermediate steps, requiring substantial experience, including multi-engine.

Having built up flying experience in GA, applications can be lodged relatively early with Qantas, Ansett and Australian. At present the Qantas minimum experience requirement for consideration is 500 hours in command, whilst that for Australian and Ansett is 500 hours total flying. Such minimum flying experience levels appear to be towards a policy of maximising the selection base, for in spite of it, the average Ansett recruit for example is stated by the airline as being 23-24 years of age, with approximately 1500 flying hours. Concerning age, only Qantas has an upper restriction which has been progressively moving upwards and was for a while much higher than the present 34.

Should the national base of pilot applicants be insufficient for the rapidly growing airlines in the near future years it must be impressed upon the Australian carriers to plan ab initio training schemes along the lines of the European carriers – and which can be presently undertaken by numerous existing schools around the country. An eventuation towards overseas recruiting would indeed be a sad oversight of the potential of Australian human resources