In demand

School locations have grabbed the recent headlines with Qantas announcing the establishment of the first of its two new schools at Wellcamp Airport, west of Toowoomba.

The location of the second school is yet to be announced.

‘Picking a flight school is best done with a bit of research.’

Virgin, meanwhile, has announced it is setting up a flight school at Tamworth which, at one stage, was considered by many as a possible Qantas pick.
Tamworth appears to be an ideal location with BAE winding down as Defence moves it initial flight training to RAAF Base East sale, Victoria.

Geographically, the city is well placed with stable weather, a control tower, good country for navigation flights, several runways, and a town big enough to support both flight students, instructors, aircraft engineers, support staff and their families.

Virgin is not the only Tamworth entrant.

CAE, previously better known as CAE Oxford, is moving part of its flight training operation to the city. The other part is located at Moorabbin where nearly two dozen Cessna 172 aircraft grace the tarmac in company with a number of Piper PA44 Seminole twins and a pair of Beech King Airs.
The CAE requirement is that a zero-experience student, typically from overseas, will get his or her PPL on the fixed pitch propeller-driven Cessna 172 and then go on to fly the Piper Seminole.

That will result in the PPL holder getting a CPL that embraces retract, constant speed propeller, twin engines and an IFR ticket.

The move of both CAE and Virgin Australia at Tamworth can only be good for the city – and for the use of facilities left over from the ADF wind down.
The establishment of the flight schools does, however, throw up questions about instructors.

CAE, for example, is advertising for flight instructors on a regular basis. As fast as they get an instructor to log good twin IFR times they are off to an airline. Thus there is a constant demand for new instructors.

The CAE experience will, no doubt, be repeated at the new airline owned flight schools which will need instructing staff, both for flying and for ground school. And not just new-start, grade three instructors but instructors with some experience – experience that can be passed on to the students.

This is going to be the interesting part. Will there be enough experienced instructors available join a new start airline flying school? No doubt a typical instructor will be required to have META, DF, spin, working with children approval, Cert IV in TAE, NVFR, CIR and, maybe tailwheel, and aerobatics.
If the regular adverts on the AFAP jobs website seeking experienced flight instructors is any indication then there is going to be a problem getting enough qualified and experienced teachers.

This, in turn, could mean that the airline schools may have to import instructors. But wait: the United States is screaming out for instructors and even importing some from Australia.

It could also mean that the airline schools will have to pay top dollar to get and hold the right people. Maybe they will have to dangle the carrot of ‘stay with us for a time, and then fly with our airline’.

The future for flight instructors, with experience and the right credentials, looks promising.

One other issue for consideration is what happens to the training for Virgin currently undertaken by Flight Training Adelaide once the Tamworth school is established.

Also key will be the types of aircraft used in the training programs.

The tried and true Cessna 172 may still be available, and from Piper the PA28-181 is the mount replacing the PA28-161. Meanwhile, from left of centre, we see the new players: the Grobs, the Diamond singles and twins, the Cirrus SR20 and SR22.

Whatever the new trainer is it will have a glass panel. It may be that some of the new trainers will be RA or LSA types or derivatives. The next question is whether they be powered by avgas or jet-A1 (diesel)?

One can be assured that the sales reps from the various aircraft brands are already knocking on the doors of the airline flight school operations departments.

INSTRUCTOR TIP OF THE MONTH.

To ensure that you have your ASIC card and licence with you when you go flying, always leave them with, or attached, to your headset bag. A good headset bag will have a side pouch in it. Good for your licence. The ASIC card can be clipped or strung around the bag handle. That way when you go flying you will always have your ASIC card and licence to hand.

Contact Dave: [email protected]