Implications of the Multi-crew Pilot Licence

Basically, the Australian MPL would involve taking a zero time budding airline student and having him or her obtain a total of 240 hours total flying training time. This would include up to 70 hours flying training in aircraft, with a reported 10 hours solo, the rest being in advanced simulators.

People training for the MPL will focus on large aircraft flying skills, crew resource management and threat and error management throughout their training.

The new training will be able to produce a graduate in less than a year, a far cry from the current and traditional route to an airline seat.

This is a licence for which pilots would be trained from scratch to be qualified airline pilots so long as they fly in multi-crew aircraft – which of course they all do anyway.

The need to train aircrew will be very important to countries such as China and India in order to produce the staggering number of pilots they will need in the next 20 years far quicker than is currently possible. The airframe makers, including Boeing and Airbus, will also be right behind the MPL as its introduction will ensure that aircrew will be available to fly their newly built products. At present, airliners can be produced quicker than its takes to train crew to fly them.

The new proposals have fuelled debate about the pros and cons of the MPL.

Many experts and pilot associations view this initiative with serious concern. While recognising the need to adapt the current training methods to new technologies, they believe that replacing real flying hours with simulator time cannot be the answer.

Some pilots say that simulators are good to teach system operations, but claim that real flying is needed to learn airmanship; the very basis of safety. It is clear that after the introduction of the MPL there will be ‘fine tuning’ of the licence, based on experience, to ensure that it meets its aims.

Safety research over many years has indicated that failures in teamwork are a major contributor to airline accidents. One reason is that traditional methods of training pilots emphasise independence and individual skills.

Already a number of Australian based flying training organisations have taken advantage of the new training regime with courses that commenced in late 2006.

CASA has advised that it will have regulatory cover in place to enable the issue of an MPL at the completion of the first training courses, expected to finish in October 2007, based on a 48 week course.

Interestingly, there is no requirement in the ICAO standards for an MPL pilot to ever fly solo.

While the MPL is still in its infancy its introduction raises a number of considerations.

Will pilots with logged actual aircraft time still be able to enter airline flying and if so how? Will the current GA training fleet be reduced as a result of the introduction of increased advanced simulator use? Advanced simulators are expensive to operate. Who will fund the MPL student training and will it mean that a student will be tied to a particular make/model of airliner and airline? Might airlines have to sponsor an MPL student? Will the supply of MPL pilots see a reduction in the size of pilot pay cheques compared to now? Will this reduce the number of applicants for MPL training? Will there be enough applicants for conventional CPL flight training to ensure the supply of pilots for GA and non-multi-crew flying? How long will an MPL first officer be required to be in the right seat before moving to the left seat? Will the captain be required to hold instructing qualifications to carry out his C&T role? Will we see a decrease in instructors? In the past instructing has been seen as a path to the airlines.

All questions that will no doubt be answered in the fullness of time.

The MPL introduction could also see the establishment of a limited number of flight training schools owned by the major airlines to provide enough aircrew for their own operations.

One thing is clear; the introduction of the MPL may see an end to the present attitude of some GA operators who exploit their pilots saying that they are getting ‘cheap hours’ on the way to a well paid airline job. o Contact Dave at flyer02@ optusnet. com. au