AoC number

188

Primary domain

OP

Secondary domain

PERS

Description

Current check-and-training systems developed to maintain flight standards on earlier generation aircraft may not necessarily cover all issues relevant to operation of advanced aircraft. Training is evolving from a skill-based instructional and examining activity; to one that uses scenario-based training to integrate risk management, aeronautical decision-making (ADM), situational awareness, and single-pilot resource management (SRM).

To quote IFALPA, which ran a workshop on best practices for pilot training in 2012, pilot training programs revolved around “two basic needs”:
The first was the need to focus on basic flying skills from the beginning and continue to practice these throughout a professional pilot’s career. The second was the need to enhance training programmes to account for added demands on pilots brought about by increased automation, emerging technology, high-density airspace, and globalization. In a world of growing competition, we need to improve and increase the amount of training a professional pilot receives, not diminish it. The gradual erosion of training time will have a delayed effect as the older generation of pilots leave the left seat and take their experience with them. According to CAE forecasts, airlines will need to produce 70 type-rated pilots a day, on average, to meet increasing demand and account for attrition; if these officers lack training to handle aviation’s increasing challenges, the safety of operations will be at increasing risk.

Other agencies have begun to take action in this area. NASA is currently assisting American Airlines in developing new training protocols, sitting in on their flights and offering suggestions based on observed areas of weakness. The project began in 2016.

Research must be pursued to:
• define the changing profile of job qualifications needed by applicants
• devise efficient methods and tools by which to select qualified candidates without high attrition costs
• develop and validate advanced training delivery systems that meet future staffing and training requirements
• create cost-effective new equipment training guidelines and procedures
• provide integrated team training for all aviation operations
• address training for mixed fleet and multi-cultured crews
• evaluate and remediate skill decay for diagnostic and complex operational tasks

Potential hazard

  1. Lack of in-flight situational awareness, decision-making, and inadequate risk management if training methods are not effective.
  2. A single unsatisfactory demonstration of a test event will result in suspension of the check ride or simulator session.
  3. Failure to identify risks beyond an emergent or abnormal procedure. There are enormous cultural difficulties in satisfactory implementation of CRM: authoritarian captains, subservient first officers (not permitted to touch the controls), and emerging trend of some pilots to reject CRM because of the perception by captains that CRM – flight by consensus – is being abused by FOs?

Corroborating sources and comments

February 4, 2015: Rapidly-growing Asian airlines race to find qualified pilots

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/rapidly-growing-asian-airlines-race-to-find-qualified-pilots/2015/02/04/fdf15a7c-ac9c-11e4-8876-460b1144cbc1_story.html

July 30, 2014 – Boeing forecasts huge need for pilots over next 2 decades

Boeing on Tuesday forecast worldwide demand over the next two decades for 533,000 new commercial pilots and 584,000 maintenance technicians. The projection fuels the debate on whether a pilot shortage is looming.

http://seattletimes.com/html/businesstechnology/2024193368_boeingpilotforecastxml.html

14 NBAA Top Safety Focus Areas: http://www.nbaa.org/ops/safety/top-safety-focus-areas/index.php

NBAA Safety Committee member Steve Charbonneau pointed out that “up until now, nobody has really put together a safety program that specifically addresses the skill sets required of business aviation pilots.” Today’s recurrent training process basically recertifies pilots rather than teaching them new skills or sharpening old ones. For the last year, the Safety Committee has been working with industry stakeholders to examine how recertification can be improved.

2014 – The Pilot Pipeline Program gives Tulsa, Oklahoma’s Spartan students the opportunity for employment as a commercial pilot at American Eagle Airlines. Students selected to enter the American Eagle First Officer Training Program will receive a $10,000 signing bonus for a two-year commitment and a guaranteed interview with American Airlines for future career development. With the competition for trained pilots increasing as many of the nation’s pilots are reaching the required retirement age of 65, national airlines are starting to fill those positions with pilots from regional airlines, according to Spartan College president Peter Harris.

The screening program for military pilot candidates performs an important function in identifying individuals who have the skill set for flying. This screening process weeds out a lot of unqualified individuals. Screening processes for civilian crew may not be able to afford this luxury if the desire is to quickly qualify the large number of commercial pilots needed in the future. The regular flying that happens in the military sector during training and operational missions has only a limited parallel in the civilian air transport arena.

See also, Bent, John, “Future Needs – Pilot Selection & Training: Some contemporary airline challenges,” 2011; International Association of Flight Training Professionals

http://iaftp.org/wp-content/uploads/papers/Bent-Future_Needs_Pilot_Selection_and_Training.pdf

Learmount, David, IN FOCUS: Loss of control – training the wrong stuff? Flightglobal, January 2012

http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/in-focus-loss-of-control-training-the-wrong-stuff-367220/

To address this issue, Airbus is launching a revised training program that “… takes pilots back to basics with the A350.” The first three days in the A350 simulator will be about letting the pilots find out that it is “just another aeroplane”. Without using any of the sophisticated flight guidance systems they will be able to find out how it flies and what that feels like. See:

http://www.flightglobal.com/blogs/learmount/2012/09/airbus-takes-pilots-back-to-ba.html

http://www.ifalpa.org/store/IPTS.pdf (Best practices for pilot training circa 2012. To quote: “In the workshop, there were two key themes that permeated each aspect of pilot training. The first was the need to focus on basic flying skills from the beginning and continue to practice these throughout a professional pilot’s career. The second was the need to enhance training programmes to account for added demands on pilots brought about by increased automation, emerging technology, high-density airspace, and globalization. In a world of growing competition, we need to improve and increase the amount of training a professional pilot receives, not diminish it. The gradual erosion of training time will have a delayed effect as the older generation of pilots leave the left seat and take their experience with them.”)

https://www.nasa.gov/feature/langley/nasa-works-with-airline-to-improve-pilot-training-and-cockpit-displays (NASA is currently assisting American Airlines in developing new training protocols and cockpit designs, acting as observers on their flights and translating what they see into new programs; circa 2016.)

http://www.pilottrainingreform.org/2011/10/industry-responds-to-pilot-training-reform-projects/ (Apparently there’s a whole agency dedicated to pilot training reform. Their last meeting was in 2011, but it gained a lot of traction in the aviation industry. FIND THIS REPORT!)

http://www.cae.com/uploadedFiles/Content/BusinessUnit/Civil_Aviation/CAE-Airline-Pilot-Demand-Outlook-Spread.pdf

Last update

2017-08-28