Originally Posted by
beached az
Recommendation.
Do yourself a favor and drive up the Gouburn Hwy to Shepparton.
Gawne Aviation are very reasonable price wise and extremely professional.
I've done 2 renewals with them in the past, most recent last Oct. I would happily go back.
Their Examiners are ex airline drivers with loads of experience (not some young 'sausage factory' graduate) and some interesting war stories as well
Good Luck
BAz
Are you serious?
Sausage factory graduate?
An IFR flight examiner is required to have a range of IFR experience that isn’t just limited to flight training. For instance, they’re also required to demonstrate IFR flight experience in charter or RPT. So, the idea that you’ll find an examiner to be merely a sausage factory graduate is simply laughable. If you’re suggesting that the examiner had been trained in a ‘sausage factory’ and is thus somehow deficient is obnoxious. It’s akin to boycotting a Doctor because he studied medicine at a university that you have a personal grievance with. It’s none of your business the route the professional took in their path to achieving their qualification.
From recent industry exposure with respect to the mentoring of a new examiner, I can confirm that CASA indicated a preference for the examiner undergoing mentoring to be mentored by a more recent (younger) post-Part 61 examiner. I dare say, that if you talk with your average pilot in the industry, they might likely indicate a younger examiner be more likely to operate and conduct the test ‘by the book’ acting in an objective manner rather than from the influence and understanding of the past.. There are plenty of older examiners with ‘an axe to grind‘ and a ‘point to prove’. “I know best” etc. I’m not suggesting they are all like that at all, not for a minute! However, I respect that If CASA issue an examiner rating to a pilot, then that pilot should be able to conduct the task of performing the test in an unbiased manner.
Further, I’m pretty sure most professional pilots that seek an IPC aren’t after a ‘war story’ either.
Also, for the record. What is wrong with sausage factories? The world needs sausages. In my job, I have the ability to see the product of students from various flight schools. Some of those larger schools provide outstanding sausages of consistent quality that are well suited to the aviation environment. Just because a flying school has an ‘aero bar’ with an old ‘club members board’ on the wall, and a pilot lounge that smells like old people; doesn’t mean it produces good quality pilots. Personalisation is one thing, sure, but to type-cast that environment as delivering better pilot training is categorically false. As far as instructor quality goes, there are both outstanding, and lacklustre instructors in both environments. Horses for courses.