Virgin- RAAF
Longjohn.
I don.t want to knock people who lack experience or knowledge of the airline training system. I would just hope that you are enlightened by my post.
I did my DC9 endorsement training with Hawaiian airlines. as at the time no one at Ansett had the experience, later I became a training captain on type.
I did my B727 simulator and endorsement training with Ansett as at the time we had been operating the type for some time and had our own simulator and experienced training captains.
I did my B767 engineering at Ansett followed by the first B767 simulator at Boeing Seattle. We returned to Australia with Boeing training captains and they remained with the airline until a sufficient number of Ansett people were sufficiently experienced on type to take over the training roll. They returned a year later to audit our progress and rectify any problems we may have had.
At the same time we were able to feed them with our technical knowledge and operational experience. to the advantage of the whole B767 community.
Now to answer your questions.
The Ansett simulator is still operating profitably because of the business it gets from other airlines who do not have their own.
Its not necessary to own a simulator to run an airline, you just need access to one. When you have sufficient a/c of the one type it may be economical to buy your own.
Endorsement.
Engineering is either done in house or at a contractor.
Simulator. 12- 4 hour sessions resulting in a type endorsement
recognised by CASA. This can be in house or at a recognised contractor. My son did his at Qantas [ prefered by BJ] others have gone to the US.
Next is line training and this is what the RAAF pilots are doing with Virgin Blue.
You take a recently endorsed pilot, licenced by CASA and give him
sufficient operational line training as a captain or f/o to satisfy the standards manager of the appropriate airline. In this case the RAAF.
Experience.
Given the
"relative" low experience of the RAAF pilots, exposure to the Virgin training captains can only be beneficial.
I would think that most Virgin training captains would
have approximately 20 years domestic experience and 10 years international, with many years in the training roll.
I do believe the PM will be well catered for.