Preparing next-gen pilots for a new era

“We need to have adaptability skills across our pilots,” says leading aviation training specialist and commentator Adrianne Fleming. Adrianne has over 30 years’ experience in flight training and is the founder and chief flight instructor of the Moorabbin-based flight school TriStar Aviation. “How do you train a person to be able to do something that they’ve never done before? But those are the type of pilots we’ll need,” she says.

With that in mind, Fleming argues that flight training should be at the forefront of industry advancement and technology, rather than an afterthought. “I work under the ‘first taught, best taught’ banner. I don’t think we should teach something to somebody that they have to unlearn throughout their career, so we need to make sure that we have the cutting edge coming back into training.”

Fleming says she’d also like to see pilot training become “more learner-centric”, rather than focused on sheer number of flight hours, and checking boxes. She says that current competency-based training (CBT) models – widely adopted in the Australian flight training industry, and overseas – can fall short of ensuring that trainees have a deep understanding of their flight systems.

“As an examiner, I get a snapshot of a certain situation,” she says. “But how do we know that if tomorrow, the situation changes, the person is still competent?” She adds that she is looking to ensure that her trainees are capable of handling a situation that they may never have faced before, and “our system doesn’t actually allow for that.”

Malcolm Good is the director of flight operations at UNSW and oversees the Flight Operations Unit at Bankstown Aerodrome. His unit oversees the hands-on aspects of flight training, both on the ground and in the air, under UNSW’s Bachelor of Aviation degree.

“Competency-based training gets a bit of a bad rap, because it’s implemented so differently among organisations,” Good says. He adds that from the outside, this can sometimes look like churning students through the pipeline, meeting minimum standards in a “box-ticking exercise”, rather than ensuring a deep understanding of the fundamentals. Good says CBT should be relied upon in early training to help students “focus on core skills” and reduce cognitive overload in the cockpit.

Undisputedly, technological advancements, automation, and AI integration are all set to be critical elements in the aviation industry of tomorrow. This is why UNSW has ensured it invests in the best and brightest flight-training technologies, backed by its fleet of modern Diamond DA40 and Piper PA44 aeroplanes, all fitted with next-generation Garmin G1000 integrated glass-cockpit avionics systems that support navigation and internal displays.

While technology rapidly changes the operating environment, Good says, it doesn’t change the fundamentals of flight, and future pilots need to be prepared to understand both deeply. “Before automation, pilots were taught to control the flight path of the aeroplane, monitor the environment, perceive what’s happening, project it into the future, and then make decisions on that basis. And they’re still required to do that, even with automation,” he says.

Qantas head of checking and training, captain Andrew Stead, also says the airlines need pilots who know their systems intimately. “These aircraft are now getting more and more complex – when I saw the Garmin G1000 for the first time, I thought ‘I’m going to need a big instruction manual for that’. It just demonstrates the level of intimacy and knowledge our people are going to need.”

Further, Stead notes that the airlines strongly encourage the use of automation “to its full capacity” and says he had seen excellent, advanced autopilot systems in his time. “But they weren’t perfect in all scenarios,” he warns. While technology has seen significant improvements in communications and navigation, Stead adds that certain approaches can only be performed by manual flight. “You will always need those foundational manual pilot skills, because you need them when things go wrong. It’s about how you maintain that, develop that, but then work in that environment.”

While the foundations of manual flight are essential, new-age technologies can make flight training more accessible, allowing students to focus on what’s important. “I think there’s a cost barrier to aviation,” Stead says, “but technology is actually starting to reduce that cost burden, so we just need to understand how to engage with it better.” For example, Good notes that UNSW has recently acquired a VR simulator, which is proving to be really useful for training scenarios, but also serves as a reminder of how critical the human element is.

“The VR is really good for cognitive rehearsal and for procedural fluency systems training,” he says, noting that it helps to build a strong understanding of checklists and workflows. “But we know it can’t replace the instructor,” he says. “At the ab initio stage, students need to learn the feel of the aeroplane and perception”, which simply can’t be replicated virtually. “You still absolutely need the instructor.”

Advanced technologies such as AI, Good says, are better suited to students who are further along in their training. “AI can really sort the evidence, so if we’re talking about evidence-based training, AI can continuously monitor control inputs, it can monitor scan patterns, it can time how long decisions take to be made, and it can dynamically adapt the scenario in the simulator based on the trainee’s performance”.

He likens this to the “learner-centric models” that Fleming discussed, with these technologies able to understand where a trainee pilot is standing and where they need to focus. “I think that’s the space where AI can have a huge impact – later in training where more scenario-based and evidence-based methods should be used”.

Stead reveals that Qantas is also utilising VR technologies, seeing particular benefit in its use for the ongoing training and development of the airline’s experienced pilot fleet. “The cost to train is very high in a traditional model, whereas this lowers the cost,” he explains. “It means we can give people a lot more time in this environment.” He says the technology also serves as an answer to learner-centric models, noting that many people are visual learners.

“We can even send people home with headsets, and they can go practice at home,” he says.

Ultimately, all flight training programs are intended to develop trainee pilots into educated aviators who are prepared for industry. For Stead, airlines like Qantas are looking for well-rounded candidates who are comfortable operating complex systems and, crucially, can navigate multi-crew environments.

“Most of our instruction for ab initio students is, by necessity, almost always solo. But when we move into the airline environment, nothing happens solo,” he says.

This means that, in addition to foundational knowledge, the airlines look at a candidate’s “decision-making, their communication as well as leadership and teamwork”, Stead says. It is essential for students to know their capacity, or “cognitive overload”, he adds, and then ensure the correct systems, supports, and ability to collaborate are in place to operate safely.

Navigating the paradox of a risk-averse, safety-critical industry alongside rapid technological advancements poses unique challenges for modern flight training. Yet, as AI, VR and advanced automation overhaul the flight deck, the consensus among industry leaders is clear: cutting-edge technology must enhance, rather than replace, foundational manual skills and core flight knowledge. By adopting learner-centric training models that integrate with next-generation tools, flight training providers can best position pilot candidates to excel in today’s operating environment and in the unforeseen industry of tomorrow.