Teresa m'dear
Good to see your bristles are still intact.
I don’t disagree with a lot of what you say.
I don’t agree that a self funded cadet scheme is the most appropriate way for things to go, in this country.
My bristles are raised when people with little experience of the concept or what happens by necessity, in other parts of the world, blacken the reputation of all cadets, by declaring that cadets are dangerous. World experience clearly shows that that is not the case. Cadet schemes are not a new invention, they have been around in various forms for nearly 50 years, that I am aware of. Some are good some are bad. Some put guys into the back seat, for eons, others put them into a window seat straight up. Sure the Left seat workload can be increased by such procedures, however with proper mitigation by use of properly qualified and experienced left seaters, by and large it runs successfully.
The point is, dear Teresa, the pilots of Australia wish to make a point about the mendacity of J*'s proposal to employ cadets from home and OS when we have a large pool of experienced pilots of the home grown variety, available. I totally agree, it is an insane concept. If they mount an argument based on emotion rather than sustainable fact, they will come to grief. Fight the proposal on grounds of social or industrial equity, something quantifiable. Rather than “ I had difficulty with a 310 at 500 hours so why should anyone else be any different”. Joe blow will simply tell you to piss off and get with the rest of the world.
Given a proper structure, quality training and meticulous mentoring and supervision, it can work. I suspect J*, on past history will be reluctant to devote the resources required.
Fight to ensure that the regulations, should they come to pass, are adequate to ensure the safety of the operation. This requires CASA to grow some balls and dictate, how it should occur, rather than taking it up the rear and doing what is asked. If proper conditions and requirements are put in place, and monitored by CASA, it will soon become apparent that it is quicker and cheaper to bring on the hordes of qualified guys already in the field. Once the economic scales are tipped, the scheme will disappear.
SS
PS How much time did the cadets who went through your original airline employer’s scheme spend in the back seat before they got a window seat?? Was that a dangerous operation?
PPS My background is originally GA. I was not a cadet. I was not Airforce. My parents did not pay a cent for my training. I had over 5000 hours when I joined airlines and have something over 25,000 now. I carry a torch for no-one. I believe I have seen enough to make an informed judgement. I believe that, for this argument to be sustained it needs to change direction away from emotion and towards sustainable facts.
SS