What % of US pilots have an aviation related degree?
It seems the degree is required because the regulator can't write decent exams or can't stop handing out the answers.
How about this for an answer?
Return the CPL/ATPL exams to a written answer format rather than the multi guess kind. Make damn sure the questions are relevant and require a depth of knowledge to answer rather than good short term memory.
A degree course is not required to fly a Boeing...we're not designing the bloody things after all.
Simplistic I know...they're often the best solutions though.
As for the ATO system?
Scap it....with the best intentions in the world an ATO who demands a high standard won't get called to do tests...or at the very least will only be called for the above average candidate. The fewer tests the ATO does the lower his income will be.
Alternatively, and because I know CASA aren't going to change the ATO system...that would cost the Govt money after all...ATOs to be assigned to a number of schools...the schools get no choice about who turns up to test a candidate. When one ATO retires/resigns his ATO approval a new ATO, from a bank of aspirants, is appointed to take over that batch of Flying training organisations...no freelance ATOs.
In order for a person to qualify for an ATO slot...when one becomes available..he/she must meet certain minimum guidelines.
1/. Wide industry experience...not just a grade 1 with 10000hrs in Cessna 152/172...in fact a grade 1 Instructor rating doesn't even need to be a qualification. A candidate could be an ex airline trainer/checker for instance who many never have held an Instructors Rating.
2/. Attends and passes a course in standards and ethics. A course accredited but not run by CASA...it is after all a standards and ethics course...it should be run by people who understand the course content.
CPL flight test to be in a complex aircraft and be at least 4 hrs long with landings at a primary airport, an MBZ and an ALA. The ALA should be testing enough so that if conditions are not right the applicant can show good command judgement and refuse to land. Obviously if he choses to attempt a landing and that is overidden by the ATO he just failed the entire test. CPL flight test preceeded by a searching oral covering air leg, aircraft systems/limitations, privelideges of the licence, etc.
Perhaps it wouldn't even hurt to make a MECIR a requirement for issue of a CPL. It could be incorporated in the CPL curriculum in such a way that it doesn't raise the cost inordinately....certainly an intelligent course designer could write a CPL/MECIR curriculum that has an overall cost less than the current CPL + MECIR.
20+ yrs ago my CPL 'curriculum' included lots of low level VFR navex and lots of 'general handling' to bring my skills up to a commercial 'standard'...time which could have been better spent I feel. Although the above example CPL flight test is exactly what I got 20+yrs ago. Perhaps in that pre GPS world the heavy biass towards traditional Nav skills was not missplaced.
People these days are spending in the order of 3-4 times what I spent getting a CPL but don't seem to be getting much bang for their buck.
A limitation on how many times a candidate can resit the CPL/MECIR test might be usefull too.
Last edited by Chimbu chuckles; 10th Jan 2005 at 01:16.