Thanks for the reply,
In regards to fairyland, (and I will be diplomatic about what I say here) there may be some people who will sell the "dream". I am one of those people, however I will also sell the reality also. I constantly get calls from people willing to give up their career doing whatever it is they are doing for a flying job, and the flying school going after the dollar will convince them that they are making the right choice.
I will never and I ensure that others don't either forget what they have spent and been through to get where they are. I will never tell someone that you can do all this in 12 months and get a starting salary of 50 K plus. We all know it is a bloody hard slog to get going.
As far as graduates from purely commercial flying, we have a very high standard. However, as with anything, people can get to a standard and then quickly fall away. I have great issues with the whole 12 month thing. I don't believe there is enough time to properly consolidate. Most things are learnt by Rote, so when there is a 3 or 4 weeks theory break then most students can't fly! I also have great issues of getting people to 'test ' standard knowing that they won't be 4 weeks later and potentially dangerous, not because they are foolish, but because they lack the natural ability.
I know when I am training someone that they will be a pilot or make a great pilot. But I am generally not at liberty to crush someones dream by saying so. Heaven forbid they might snap into gear and make things happen - then where would I be?
There is a hell of a lot to get through in 12 months and I think it could be better spread over 18 months, but that is not up to me. However, a fact of life is that alot of the students in the course are straight out of school and if you look at the ones who do do well, they are usually the older ones with more life experience, or the ones who are paying for it themselves in part or wholely. (spelling??) It takes a lot of dedication and discipline to go straight from school into a course like that. No teachers holding your hand anymore.
ATPL subjects are clearly the stumbling block. They are hard. And when you have no idea about what some of the terms you study mean or are, it makes it hard. Only by being out there and getting some experience can you start to understand and come across these terms and then understand their relevance.
Maturity and responisibilty are hard to come by when your young, we have all been there. Just today, someone decided to try and fly into the rain and low cloud to get to Rotto. They had to divert and land at Perth. Their pax would not go on to Jandakot when the weather cleared. Why did they press on when they could clearly see it was a no go situation? Maturity and life experience.
As far as ripping people off from previous posts, we don't. Students who turn up to lessons unprepared are the ones who usually suffer the budget blowout. We see it all the time. The number of times an instructor will come into the room holding their head in their hands not knowing what else they can do because their student doesn't put any effort in is heartbreaking. Beleive me we care because strangely enough it does reflect on us and we do want you to succeed.
I am going on but there are a lot of reasons why people fail and succeed or just get lost half way. There are responsibilties. But I can assure you nonetheless that RACWA is dedicated to getting you to where you want to go in the quickest and safest time possible. Very few people don't finish their flying. 10% is probably a close guess. But why only 10% getting their diploma? Things just don't come on a silver plate...
