Originally Posted by
NGsim
Because airlines have a (comparatively) huge amount of resources to deal with individuals like that. I hate to tell you this but a CPL with 250 hours barely knows the basics of flying a light aircraft let alone something more complex.
There’s lots of small regional airlines in the EU as well, they only have a small number of aircraft and nowhere near the resources of, say a Lufthansa to run a fully fledged cadet program, but they manage to crew their aircraft.
The problem is with the initial CPL training in this country. After gaining a CPL you aren’t even really trusted to fly a light 4 seater piston single in charter ops without additional training and quals. For jobs that barely even exist anymore as GA is dying. Most regionals thought they’d just be able keep employing pilots with a few thousand hours of multi piston time. But those aircraft (along with the singles) are just not there in the same numbers as they once were.
Flying schools in the EU and most of the world can get you up to a standard to fly RHS of a turboprop or jet after 250 hours. Through a combination of proper selection and focused training.
It’s up to schools in Australia to change their mentality to match that. The shortage now is for multi crew airline pilots, not GA charter pilots. That’s what the ab-initio training should reflect. If the schools here aren’t producing that level of student then of course airlines will look to employ pilots from overseas.