The Next Generation

Increasingly, subjects such as crew resource management (CRM), threat and error management and multi-crew coordination arebeing recognised as pivotal to safe operations. For student pilots destined for direct entry into the airlines, these areas of study are growing in demand from the airlines that will employ them.

Similarly, the complex systems of advanced aircraft and the procedural nature of modern flight operations can be a far cry from a three hour solo navigation exercise in a single-engined piston aircraft. There is no doubting the need for all pilots to learn the fundamentals of flight, but their future employers also want their training to bear tangible relevance to their flightdeck duties. The chasm between the two styles of flight needs to be bridged, but the means of transition need to be carefully implemented to ensure a complete and balanced graduate is ready to become a first officer.

To this end, QantasLink and UNSW have collaborated to meet the challenge. Both institutions have an exemplary track record in their respective fields and together they have developed a program to meet their needs.

From the ground up

The University of NSW has been involved in aviation studies for more than 20 years. It is the only one of the ‘Group of Eight’, Australia’s leading research universities, that offers a flight training option.

The head of the School of Aviation at UNSW, Professor Jason Middleton, recalls when the university was first approached to provide studies that culminated in an aviation degree. After careful consideration the university agreed with the proposal but stressed that training must be full-time and the program must be of the highest standard. It is a framework that the university has adhered to ever since and has led to a sound reputation in flight training circles.

The task of training those pilots falls upon the UNSW Flying Operations Unit, based at Bankstown Airport. Equipped with a modern fleet of aircraft and an impressive synthetic trainer, this is where the practical flight training component of the undergraduate’sstudies takes place. At the unit’s head is the director of flight operations, Brian Horton, an experienced check and training airline captain with a wealth of instructional experience in general aviation as well.

Many graduates of the UNSW program have progressed to careers with QantasLink, but both the university and the airline recognised that there was potential to formalise the process further. Each party had relevant expertise it could bring to the table, and through a robust process and over a good deal of time the opportunity to become a ‘QantasLink Approved’ student was developed.

The next step

QantasLink’s chief pilot, Captain Nathan Miller, was integral to the new scheme from concept to realisation. He recognised what was needed in a new recruit to an airline and appreciated that the step between flight training and line operations as a first officer was more of a leap.

Equally, Captain Miller recognised that every institution has its own strengths and that the existing relationship with UNSW offered the best oppurtunity for the two entities to bring their skills to the table. While UNSW had a sound track record of primary flight training and education, QantasLink possessed the real-world experience in flight operations that would greet the new first officer.

Pilot cadet schemes are by no means a new idea, but what QantasLink sought was a tailor-made product through close collaboration with UNSW. Course content would not only focus on such skills as multi-crew operations, but it would be even more finely honed to directly reflect operations flying the airline’s 74-seat turboprops. This would be supported by a new state-of-the-art virtual procedure trainer that replicates the Q400, as well as a multi-crew coordination simulator, and by receiving direct input from current QantasLink pilots.

The concept took a good deal of time to reach full maturity before its recent launch, but now UNSW aviation students will have the opportunity to be considered as ‘QantasLink Approved’ through the course of their flying degree studies. If selected, the trainees will have their progress monitored by the airline and undertake the UNSW’s new Graduate Diploma in Advanced Flying. This course will encompass such topics as multi-crew coordination and advanced systems specifically tailored to the Q400.

A cultural shift

At the launch of ‘QantasLink Approved’, Captain Miller spoke of necessity being the mother of invention. The airline saw the needfor its prospective pilots to be better prepared for the right-hand seat of a complex airliner and resolved to facilitate this through its ties with UNSW.

In listening to both QantasLink representatives and excited UNSW student pilots, it is apparent that the vision is shared. This common goal is important as Captain Miller also cited that “the airline’s people are the very heart of its culture”.

Through the airline taking ‘ownership’ of its grass roots and using its operational pilots to mentor the next generation, the airline’s culture can be embedded at a very early stage. Expectations and procedural clarity can be instilled before the students ever sit in a Q400. Consequently, by the time the graduates undertake actual line training they are already a part of the airline’s culture, freeing up valuable ‘brain space’ to focus on the actual flight training in a relatively familiar environment with some familiar faces.

This scheme does not simply represent an amendment to thetraining syllabus – it represents the potential for generational change. This smooth transition from fledgling student to the flightdeck may well meet the goals of the program in the immediate term, but it also serves to create a cultural shift that will be mentored down through future courses over the coming years.

The next generation

The collaboration of UNSW and QantasLink on this latest venture would seem to be a logical progression. Built upon an established relationship, it combines their specific fields of expertise to provide high calibre training, targeted at a specific goal. This offers both the organisations and the student pilots within the scheme a degree of clarity for the road ahead.

As the first students become ‘QantasLink Approved’ there will be an air of excitement in the short term. However, more than this, such a scheme demonstrates the airline’s focus on its future, its culture and the next generation.