PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Is the Cadet Pilot extinct down under?
View Single Post
Old 8th Oct 2020, 01:07
  #54 (permalink)  
Keg

Nunc est bibendum
 
Join Date: Apr 1999
Location: Sydney, Australia
Posts: 5,583
Received 11 Likes on 2 Posts
The demise of cadet programs has been predicted in Australia for decades and yet they keep rejuvenating- albeit in slightly different forms given that these days they’re mostly self funded.

The reason for them re-occurring is that they fill a need. Sure, the ‘need’ fluctuates depending on underlying economic conditions (both global and local). At the moment that need is precisely zero.

Certainly the airline has a lot more control over the final product using cadets and generally the desire for cadet courses invariably occurs when the pilot supply is getting a bit tight and forcing airlines to look at candidates that previously would have been deemed ‘not competitive’. Given the lag of getting the courses set up and running it’s no surprise that invariably the initial graduates tend to be graduating just as the industry goes into a downward trend.

Are there better ways of doing it or producing a better pilot? Perhaps though pass/fail rates at airlines would likely indicate that for command at least there is no discernible difference between cadets and non cadets and so the ‘better pilot’ is likely only in the formative years within an airline environment.
Keg is offline