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Age: 41
Posts: 683
Announced a couple of days ago, EOI from training providers to operate the Virgin Australia Group of Airlines Flight Crew Cadetship in partnership with Skywest Airlines.
And may this wonderful opportunity earmark what will be the downward pressure on terms and conditions.
Cadetships are wonderful programmes that help alleviate the pressure on improving terms through attrition. Jetstar,Qantaslink,Cobham and Rex all know what advantages these programs bring to their organisations.
Cadetships are wonderful programmes that help alleviate the pressure on improving terms through attrition. Jetstar,Qantaslink,Cobham and Rex all know what advantages these programs bring to their organisations
Yep the airlines spin money all the way through. They make money on the training they then get cheap captive labour who's careers they then have complete control over.
I feel for guys just starting out in GA as these cadet courses are starting to block the career progression of GA pilot's. The more cadet's there are in regionals the less jobs available to guys from GA.
Cadets thru this program will be for the ATR, and the back seat of the 777. Maybe even straight into a window seat on the jungle jet. That's the rumor from on top the operations management mountain.
Can imagine how welcomed their going to be by the ATR crews when they realize the halfwit in the seat next to them can move up to Virgin Australia and they can't.
JB, some parts of the Qantas culture/business model need to stay at Qantas.
This can't be right. From reading these pages Virgin has been specifically designed to make pilots happy. It's the model to which all currently profitable airlines must aspire. There must be some mistake
Really?... I've flown with plenty of useless former GA and Military pilots!
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2 years my application has been in at Virgin... thousands of hours turbine..... never got a call. Let's just hire cadets instead.
Maybe you are not what they are looking for?
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This can't be right. From reading these pages Virgin has been specifically designed to make pilots happy. It's the model to which all currently profitable airlines must aspire. There must be some mistake
When did Virgin return a bigger profit than QF?, (mind you the current QF management is flawed) $550m for a year isn't bad, even with the use of cadets.
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I feel for guys just starting out in GA as these cadet courses are starting to block the career progression of GA pilot's. The more cadet's there are in regionals the less jobs available to guys from GA.
There have been cadetships since.. who know's when, and plenty of pilot's still got jobs in Airlines... I feel sorry for people becoming pilots too.... why would you want to invest your life in this crap.... evidently driving a garbage truck pays more! ($300 per night)
Your comments sound like a typical manager who only looks at the dollar sign. How you can say a cadet would be a better pilot than someone with experience is beyond me. There may be those strugglers out there that can't fly and maybe some naturally talented pilots who don't need experience, but the majority of cadets are sh#t. Just ask any real Captain. There are so many things you can't teach with flying, and it's only the times when you push the limits is when you learn different aerodynamic situations. You can't really push the limits with krusty old captain like you in the left hand seat of a jet, and the auto-pilot will fail on you one day.
Flooding the market with cadets to cope with a pilot shortage is not the answer. Treating poeple right to attract the right people is the answer and keep your experienced pilots is the only answer....
Virgin will still have a need for large number of pilots from GA, MIL and Regional. Company is saying only a small number of cadets will be employed each year. They will not put cadets into the RH of any jets until they reach an appropriate experience level.
Regarding the Skywest Captains seeing the cadet FO move over to Virgin, well if they had of been smart and allowed the Virgin Australia pilots who wanted to go over to the ATR via the EOI, then a door would have opened. Now the door is closed and there will be no short cut for them.
How you can say a cadet would be a better pilot than someone with experience is beyond me.
That's NOT what standard said, he said,
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I've flown with plenty of useless former GA and Military pilots!
And he is right, there are plenty of them out there and I have seen my fair share, so much so, I would much rather a welltrained cadet in the right seat of my aircraft, than a GA pilot that slipped through the cracks. However, I have seen my fair share of the reverse situation. In the end if you are right for the job then it does not matter if you were a cadet or you came from GA.
I have examples of such if you care to know, but I won't put them here incase they are identified or i get identified. It would defeat the purpose of an alias.
Last edited by Stiff Under Carriage; 9th Oct 2011 at 10:17.
GAFA, I am a Skywest pilot and we have had no say in the Virgin ATR project, it was just foistered upon us from above. Due to the way our industrial agreement is written our senior mangement had no choice but to put the ATR pilots on the seniority list, all ATR positions were advertised internally however few guys took up the offer as most of us want to be domiciled in Perth (thats why we joined Skywest) and all new pilots have gone to the bottom of the seniority list based on date of employment. We as a pilot body had no say in the "EOI" that you mention, in fact its the first that I have heard of it. I doubt the majority of SWA guys currently in the company would have had any problem with it as it does not affect them in any way, those who want to work for Virgin have left and gone already, the rest of us are happy were we are (well as happy as a pilot can be!) As to how the cadetship would work I dont know as none of the line pilots have been involved or had any input.
Virgin Australia Cadetship 2012
