More than meets the eye

We punched holes in the sky with a Cessna 172 and later a Cessna 182. We flew in G airspace, in controlled airspace, had numerous engine ‘failures’, practised forced landings to other pilots, hopped in and out of unsealed strips, flew in less than blue skies, stopped at a few places for lunch, just like a commercial charter would do, threw diversions at him, put him under the IF hood, gave him scant time to plan and get the aircraft prepped up for a simulated commercial flight and he got bulk briefings on commercial flight planning and post flight de-briefings.

We had more than one flight booking cancellation due to weather, indeed so many that I called him ‘Rainman’. I even threatened to hire him out to farmers in the dry west of the state – ‘rain guaranteed’ was to be the motto on his business card.

And when he went home I stayed behind at the school writing up his student records, checking his logbook, doing the end of month sign-off and planning the next flight.

Finally he made good and after some nine commercial nav training flights he passed the CPL test in October 2012.

Jay was then into an advanced aviation study course while he chased a multi-engine ticket, an instrument rating and his ATPL subjects. It all took time as any budding CPL will fully appreciate.

We had lunch recently and chatted about him recently taking up an offer to fly with a carrier operating Boeing 787 aircraft. He actually got two offers, two days apart. One from a bigger airline and the second from an airline that had only been operating for a few years but had solid backing. He chose the latter offer on the basis that he would in all likelihood move to a command position sooner than he would with the bigger airline.

Jay also made comment that he had rewritten his resume and instead of having his hours, only several hundred, at the top of the sheet he chose to first highlight his other studies and attributes. He submitted this new format and got a reply only a few days later. He puts this down to the new format of the resume.

A little thanks goes a long way The flight instruction business is a strange one. It is not the world’s most overpaid job and you are typically teaching students to get a commercial licence that will enable them to earn more than the instructor. As any flight instructor will know the job is not one of just pushing throttles but involves an increasing raft of ground work. Then there are the constant e-notification updates and this week’s CASA changes to the system. Part 61 and all that it embraces has not helped. And for every hour of flight time there can be up to two hours of ground work. To do all this and stay in the flight training business can be demanding, particularly if one is not just a short-term hour builder.

Sometimes the job of a charter pilot can seem more appealing – just the weather and the employer to contend with and then go home and switch off. The instructor often goes home to more hours of work. All the work that an instructor does to get their charge over the line and with the commercial ticket in hand is not seen by the student.

Some students will not end up with a commercial licence. Some will get the licence but never get a job. Both can be attributed to a lack of drive and determination. John Wayne would say a budding commercial pilot needs true grit.

My former student has what it takes and that has been proven in him getting not only his CPL but also an airline slot and with minimal experience. His attitude and presentation, I think, have helped him get that job.

And I particularly appreciated him chasing me up to say ‘thank you’.

Flying instructors at large will recount how they put in work and then extra work to get a student his or her licence only to then have them walk out the door and never be heard from again.

It is always very pleasing to hear from a past student and hear of their flying success, and to know that I played a small part in that.

Contact Dave by email: [email protected]

John Wayne would say a budding commercial pilot needs true grit.