In One word or less do these guys have a valid Type rating or not? do they have a frozen ATPL? and are they being line trained?
How do they operate without a valid type rating.
They only have a PPL
and they are not being line trained ,
Im going to assume this is not a wind up.
The minimum requirements to apply for a course are a Frozen ATPL, which now can be obtained with around 230-250 hours. Multi Crew Course also needs to be completed BUT can be added to the TYPE RATING course itself.
So, once you have a frozen ATPL, you can PAY MORE MONEY to a TRTO that will then put you through the TYPE course. Remember, you are paying yourself, not an employer so the TRTO has some moral issues with whether they will actually tell you you are more likely to shag the pope than have a successful airline career........ besides, they know there is not and endless supply of P2F candidates so anyone with cash is better than no one.
Once you have finally completed the Sim and Ground School part of the course, you have to do the base training....... essentially 6 circuits in the aircraft. Once this is complete, you get the type stamped on your licence and then the airlines that wish to have a 250 Hour unknown in the flight deck, allow you to pay them for the privilege of their training until such time as you reach the magic number of hours that you have previously paid for 300-500 by the looks of some programmes. Then you go back on the dole because in the meantime, some other candidate has found a bank or rich uncle to allow them to go through the same process you have so you are replaced by one of your own.
In the old days.............late 1990's you got a PPL, built up your hours and experience, probably becoming a Flight Instructor on the way and dealing with newbies and the errors they would demonstrate on the way. During this time you have got multi engine qualified and possibly your multi IR on the way. When you had 700 hours, you could do your CPL exams. Once you had a CPL you could apply to the airlines but generally they wanted 1500-2000 hours experience.
In fact if you look at a recent advert for a Mid East airline, they want 3000+ hours, some of it on aircraft heavier than 40 Tonnes.
Now, you can just buy your way in the flight deck of an A320 with 260 hours and get 500 hours of training with trainers that have already admitted on this thread that they dont like training you.
A UK operator has already had serious incident with one of these candidates landing the aircraft. The AAIB notes several points in his training where his abilities were in question but still he was not chopped. Why? Possibly through the fact that as he had paid to be there, they were morally obliged to complete the training and hope that he would become someone else's problem later.
Have there been many more near incidents? We will never know.
One vicious cycle sees the money go from the candidates pocket to
The TRTO, which then divvies it up to the ground instructor and the TRE's that come in to do the sim training......... ive heard at rates of £900 a day but that might not be totally right
Then it goes to the company that provides the aircraft for the base training.............. and the TRE that conducts the base training
Then it goes to the company that you buy the hours from.......... and the TRE / LTC that conducts your line training
As a matter of interest, The TRTO's use a lot of the TRE's of the companies that the candidates eventually go to fly for
So Candidate is happy as he gets a Type and 300-500 hours RHS time in a Jet.
TRTO is happy as it is making money from the candidates dream of being a Real Jet Pilot.
TRE's are happy as they are making a lot of extra wonga
The company is happy as its now got a revenue stream in the Flight Deck rather than an expense.
Problem is........... the fare paying public are not asked if they like this practice and they are not given the choice to travel or not in an aircraft that statistically is more likely to have an incident. Even more likely to have an incident if it was the same aircraft training a full time employee that at any stage could/would be sent for retraining or chopped.
The AAIB accident report for the Kos incident alluded to the fact that the airline should have discontinued his training at several points but for what ever reason (MONEY?) didnt. All airlines if nothing else have a duty of care to their passengers and this one practice operated by the airlines involved are proving that they dont take this duty of care very seriously.
GW