Not that long ago it was someone who was in love with the art of aviation that would do what they could to secure their first job and build up skills through a variety of different routes in aviation. Military, GA (charter/instructing) etc
This is EXACTLY my point. Cadets are simply doing whatever they can to get their first jobs in the industry that they want to work in.
Simple reality is that GA jobs in NZ are hard to come by. Growth in the aviation industry is all in the airlines, no one hears about Eagle, Mt Cook or Great Barrier Air doing massive expansions.
The jobs are in the airlines. The paths to those jobs is through cadetships. And yet cadets are getting **** on because of it. How is that fair?
No. There is no documented evidence. Wanna know why? Because it's not in the airline's interest to do the research. They'd look like dills if it came out that cadets in fact WERE involved in a greater number of heavy landings, Captains taking control, bank angle warnings, etc. No longer could they hide behind their bold statements about cadets being just as safe as everyone else. No longer could they base their recruitment plans on two arms, two legs, a pulse and a wad of cash.
I agree, if these incidents are happening then the airlines aren't likely to want to publicise it. But what about the unions. The people who are actually speaking to the pilots being affected. Have none of them done any sort of research, even if its just based on anecdotal evidence, into issues around cadets performance. Surely it would give their case against the airlines much much more weight.
Traditional cadetships I fully support and believe it adds a good mixture of cadet, GA and military to the Pilot mix.
As I'm fairly new to aviation I'm unsure the difference between the "traditional" cadet programs and the ones of today. Any chance of highlighting the main differences?
(having cadets as copilots however was quite painful on the Metro, but they were very enthusiastic and had a great ability to learn. These guys were also the cream of the crop who were selected, not the ones who had the money)
I can assure you that none of the six of us doing the current course we are on are ones who have money. We have all taken on student loans and are living it rough on student allowances to get to where we want to be in aviation.
I can also assure you that we are all very enthusiastic to learn and are all more than capable of being great pilots. None of us are getting into this on just a whim because we think it would be fun to fly a fancy jet.
Again this all comes down to necessity for a large part. If the only option in town (or even in the country) is to be a cadet so that we can make a career out of flying, how are we being sellouts or scabs etc etc for doing so. Its not like we have much other choice.