From where I'm sitting the people trying to get black guys and girls flying sound very white (by name that is) to me:
South African Airways New Pilot Training Program.
South African Airways is on the brink of introducing a radical new pilot training programme, which will see trainees taking their place as co-pilots after 70 hours actual flying time.
The bulk of the training - 250 hours - will take place in flight simulators, which allows trainers to slash actual flying hours in a real aircraft by more than half. SAA spokesperson Jacqui O'Sullivan has confirmed the details of the new programme.
The cost-cutting initiative is part of efforts by the national carrier to introduce more black people into its pilot ranks.
Called a Multi-Crew Pilot Licence (MPL), the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) is currently drawing up programme standards and regulations, which could be ready in mid-2007, according to Captain Colin Jordaan, general manager of SAA's flight operations.
However, pilot associations around the world, including the Airline Pilots Association of South Africa (Alpa-SA), do not support the MPL, saying the safety of passengers will be compromised.
Jordaan said in an interview this week that the initiative would fast-track the num-ber of black pilots employed by the national carrier. At present, the airline employs just 66 black men and women pilots out of a total of 796.
SAA's target, introduced in 1996, was to have 300 black pilots by last year.
Jordaan said the new type of licence would be "a heck of a lot cheaper" to implement than the airline's cadet school, which costs SAA R750 000 per person for the intensive 18-month course.
SAA already owns four simulators required for the new training and would thus only be paying for electricity and maintenance costs, he added.
Jordaan said the airline was intrinsically involved in the ICAO steering group drawing up the MPL regulations and that information was fed regularly to the South African Qualifications Authority to ensure that the programme, when implemented, would comply with the country's training regulations.
"We will be able to take a person off the street and train them in our simulators for between 12 and 18 months.
"They will then be able to move into the right-hand seat of a Boeing 747 as co-pilot," Jordaan said.
He said the course would be designed specifically for airline flying and would not devote any time to "unnecessary aspects" such as using topographical maps.
The course would entail just 70 hours of flying time in a real aircraft as opposed to the 200 flying hours required in order to get a commercial pilot's licence.
MPL graduates would only be able to fly in a "multi-crew environment" for the first few years, he added.
Opposition to the plan has been widespread, with organisations such as the European Cockpit Association (ECA), representing 29 professional pilots' associations, saying that the MPL risks downgrading the standards of commercial flight training when aircraft are becoming increasingly complex and when air traffic is expected to rise substantially over the coming years.
"Downgrading of these standards can not be accepted in an industry that relies on a permanently increasing safety profile and which faces numerous challenges over the coming years," the ECA said.
Alpa-SA president Harvey van Rooyen said he was concerned that while simulations could be useful, weather patterns such as storms could not be simulated.
The new licence was "obviously about costs" and Alpa-SA did not believe that 18-year-olds off the street would be able to handle intensive pilot training.
More thought should be given to taking in university graduates who were PC literate and had certain "technical advantages", said Van Rooyen.
"It is a little bit of a leap forward and people are just assuming it will work but I have my reservations. Flying is not monkey see, monkey do. You need to create people who can think under pressure. [/I][/I][/I][/I]