Rob,
in my opinion the complaints concerning any company, be that a flight training one or otherwise, have a definite relationship with the size of the company, and more often than not this relationship tends towards the exponential rather than the linear due to many reasons, including more people-to-people contact (thus more chance of someone rubbing you up the wrong way) and criticism of the company in the public domain being more obvious ( hence more people are aware of others with similar problems and are more inclined to make their grievances publicised as well).
I never said that Oxford was perfect, but I don't believe such a quality can exist in a flight training organisation, as the things that govern the quality are so variable and subjective. Most people will base their opinion of a F.T.O. on whether or not they find employment after they have completed training with it, those gaining employment singing its praises, those not so fortunate tending to criticise it vehemently - with the 'real picture' lying somewhere in between and only revealed by the truly honest, somone willing to say the quality of the training, coupled with natural ability, assisted greatly in their employment, or someone willing to say that they really didn't put the effort in or didn't have what it takes. Either way, someone who definitely has the required competency will make it to employment, as sure as someone without the required competency, but with shed loads of money to throw at Oxford, wont. Some people will fit an airline's profile, others never will - sadly you do not know which bracket you are in until your money is spent.
As for myself being naive, or trying to pull the wool over others' eyes, I can assure you neither is the case. I spent several years researching the FTO scene on various forums and by talking to many pilots before deciding to jump in. The reasons I chose to go to Oxford are many and can be found, no doubt, in the thousands of posts regarding Oxford in the server. Hopefully, any wannabee is going to have the common sense to thoroughly research the available F.T.O.s before deciding which one suits them. Regardless, they must remember that every F.T.O. wants their money and are not in the business for the fun and enjoyment of training another fATPL. Pprune is a fantastic source of information to aid one's choice but because of the nature of the beast, there are always going to be views from entirely different ends of the spectrum and it is imperative that they should sort the wheat from the chaff.
I have to admit I was worried about the change in conditions that caused some of them to leave. It is, probably, another example of mangers/shareholders wanting to increase their profit margin by cutting costs in all areas and a balance has to be struck between doing this and exasperating your employees. Situations like this are part-and-parcel of any wannabee's future airline career so it is something that is better to be accustomed to sooner, although as an airline pilot, I imagine you are in a stronger position, unions et-al than you are as an instructor at a F.T.O. As I wasn't there at the time I don't know their exact reasons for exiting, but I'm sure that it is better for all that they did rather than not being happy with their conditions, and I wish them every success in their new venture. However, I am sure that the Oxford management know that the onus is now on them to ensure that they offer a competitive package to entice and retain the quality and experience personnel that their training business is centred on. I have found all my instructors to be fantastic and make the huge volume of work that bit less painful ( hell, one of them even uses his ears as a permanent feature to remind us of profile drag (sorry, Del)
).
Whether Oxford can aid my employment is ultimately decided by airline recruitment managers. The figures for the APP look good so far, albeit the class sizes have been relatively small as a result of the market being very subdued when these students started ( respect to all of you, you have been rewarded for your bravery). The interesting times are ahead, to see if Oxford can place all the students in the larger classes. You are correct in stating that this success has coincided with an upturn in the market, but that is always going to be the case. No matter how great any F.T.O is, they cannot place students if there are no jobs available. Obviously other F.T.O.s are placing students, in addition to Oxford, and that can only be a sign of a healthy market for all wannabees, and long may it continue.
The facts are simple enough. In times of war and economic instability, gaining your first pilot job is incredibly difficult, if not impossible. Conversely, in economically stable and peaceful times the pilot market is always going to grow, allowing more opportunities. Unfortunately, when times are good, this leads to a situation where every man/woman and his/her dog jumps on to the training ladder to chase their dream. Apart from very rare situations this means that the number of pilots always greatly outweighs the jobs, meaning a lot of people have spent a lot of money for nothing. The secret to increasing your employment potential is to know when to jump on to the ladder. Get it right and you could be laughing, get it wrong and it can ruin your life.
The costs that go hand-in-hand with self-sponsorship are unbelievable. Most sane people wouldn't go out and spend £80,000 on a Porsche just because they could. That would be crazy enough if you did have the money but unbelievably so if you didn't and were paying in the form of a loan. Sadly, when it comes to flight training , people don't look at it in this way. They look upon it as the price you have to pay be to become a pilot, but this is only true if you are lucky enough to do so. When all the jobs are gone and your dream crumbles around you, you are left with bugger all, except maybe high interest rates. At least with the Porsche you could have had a hell of a lot of fun AND the car would still hold some value.
It would be fantastic if the C.A.A. followed Oxford's lead and posted figures detailing the number of pilots being employed, from what schools they trained at, the numbers undergoing training etc, in a truly open environment, so that wannabees could get an accurate idea of the job situation. At the end of the day if they want it bad enough (and these are the type of people we want in the front seats), they will still go for it regardless, but it would put off those who might be doing it just for the perceived income, status, those being pushed into it by peer or parent pressure, and maybe present a life-saving eye-opener to those who really, really cannot afford it (I sure feel great sympathy and have great respect for those who have to ask their parents to offer their house as a guarantee for a loan, that's a massive and extremely scary ask, I know that I could not risk seeing my mum lose her home, which is why I waited to start training when I could afford to self-finance, even though it puts me outside the airlines' preferred age group). Sadly we know that the C.A.A. will not do this, for it would lessen both it's profitability and that of the F.T.O.s., meaning that there are people sitting in the big building at Gatwick watching a computer screen, looking at people chasing their dream at huge personal expense, knowing that statistically the majority will never know airline employment.
I am a realist and agree that you cannot expect the industry to train precisely the numbers it needs, not least because the market is so dynamic and changes on a day-to-day basis, but I believe it is fairly obvious that there will never be any more pilot shortages ( indeed, some pilots argue whether such a condition has ever existed). I need to make it clear that I am not asking for a quota, as such a thing would clearly be illegal, but ready access to all relevant information on the 'real' market opportunity, to enable those with niggling doubts, or those with their heads in the sand (or cloud), to make an informed decision. With the cost of housing seemingly headed skywards I don't know how fATPLs are going to be able to buy a decent house and pay off their loan in the future, and this can only lessen the attraction of quality candidates into the pilot sector. There are sure going to be CBs ahead for many wannabees.
Anyway, this thread has diverged somewhat, I'm sure the pros and cons of the above can be dealt with in future, dedicated threads, so I'll attempt to bring it back on-line with an update from Oxford's MD on the Seneca situation ( if you'll pardon my obvious copywriting
).
Regards
VC10 Rib22
SENECA FLEET RECOVERY PLAN - LATEST as at 01 April 2005
Further to our communication of 17 th March, this is the current (and now thankfully very positive) status regarding the OAT Seneca IFR Flight Training fleet.
5 of the original 15 OAT Seneca II aircraft are fully serviceable and are back in operation. 1 of them is currently having replacement wings installed with a further 4 to be re-sparred within the next 8 weeks.
In order to bring the fleet back up to full strength for immediate training purposes, our Fleet Manager in co-operation with the CSE Aviation engineers, has worked doggedly to bring the OAT Seneca III aircraft back into training service and has also leased a number of additional aircraft.
As of this morning 1 st April: 7 Seneca aircraft are fully operational with an expectation of 9 aircraft available for training by Monday 4 th April and then up to a strength of 14 aircraft by the 8 th April. 2 additional aircraft will be added to the fleet week commencing 11 th April with a final aircraft added at the end of the month bringing the OAT Seneca fleet to a total of 17 aircraft by the end of April.
OAT Fleet Mix – Week commencing 4 th April 2005
Seneca II ---------------------------------------------- 9 Aircraft
Seneca III --------------------------------------------- 5 Aircraft
In the interim, we have also made contingency arrangements for some of our Modular customers who were planning to enrol with us in April. These customers will now complete their MEIR training at another high quality FTO under the auspices of an OAT Pilot Manager. These Modular students will then return to OAT to complete their MCC and JOC training.
Considering the sheer scale of the problem presented to us in early March, for the recovery actions to have been carried out so expeditiously to bring the OAT training fleet back up to full strength in less than 4 weeks is a real testament to the dedication and commitment of all staff at Oxford . Furthermore, the backing and support of our parent company, BBA Group plc was most welcome – a good reason why our customers should be able to justify the confidence in deciding to train with OAT when such totally unexpected events occur!
I would like to take this opportunity to thank both our customers and staff for their incredible goodwill and patience during this challenging period.
I will continue to maintain an update on a regular basis.
Anthony Petteford
Managing Director