At the cross roads

Where will our new pilots come from?

The aerial application industry stands at a crossroads for pilot training – do we achieve fundamental reform of our pilot training system, or do we expand our use of international pilots – taking advantage of the availability of Canadian and US pilots in their off-season?

We have got to this point through a combination of poor government policy and lack of equality for the aviation training task, increasingly complex and costly training and licencing rulesets, a changing fleet mix that has seen the general demise of smaller aircraft for inexperienced application pilots, a lack of will from many operators to provide seats and supervision for pilots entering the industry and a perceived lack of loyalty from new pilots to employers who have helped them.