The new rules -
1. The daily roster is no longer easily accessible by students. One has to go to the flight school premises to view it. It has always been put up in the canteen notice board, since forever. Now, however, the CFI thinks we are too lazy and incompetent, so he wants us to get some daily exercise. If you want to double-check something on the roster, or if it changes after you've left from flight school - too bad, go back walking in the 50 degrees heat on your own to re-check, because there is no vehicle to take you there.
2. We now have a new No-Show penalty implemented. People who need to fly a dual check sortie (after an absence from flying of more than 15 days) need to pay the hourly rate for it in case they return after a period more than the authorised leave period. It matters not that they would've had to fly the same sortie even if the leave had been authorised. Ka-ching! goes the NFTI register with this...
3. As if life here wasn't hard enough already, what with only 2-3 aircraft available for the last two weeks and the ongoing DGCA exams, everyone is now made to attend the morning briefing. This would've been beneficial had the topic of briefing actually been something new. Oh, but how can the powers-that-be at NFTI do something useful for a change. No no! They must keep talking about approaches and landings all the time. Favourite topic of discussion - crosswind landings. Must have been discussed almost 20 times in the last two months. Try crosswind takeoffs for a change...
Yesterday was 2 hours about stalls and how they happen aerodynamically. Out of the 20 students sitting in the room, all except one had gone solo and done stalls and studied them umpteen number of times. Yet, our chief had no hesitation in spending 2 hours on the topic.
There is no discretion exercised in dealing with students. Knee-jerk reactions to everything are the way things work here.
4. Those who do not attend the above mentioned briefing will no be put on the roster for that day, or the next, or any following day till a written explanation is submitted. Whether or not that explanation is accepted is a whole different matter. Two students have been brushed-off in the last two days, despite them not being shammers. I guess the chief is looking for excuses to reduce the number of people trying to fly every 4 days on the only remaining aircraft that are serviceable. Shame, and pathetic way to handle things.
It's horrible, the way things are being run here. The average number of flights that a student gets per week has dropped down to 1 or 2, over the last month and a half. Unless you have an instructor or the chief's blessings. In that case you might get slots everyday. Nobody else is paying for the course you see, we're all shammers except these instructor/chief favourites.
Great institute... God only knows whether the IndiGo thing will actually work out for anyone except the cadets. An NFTI graduate who is now employed at IndiGo (but not flying with them yet) came for his brother's admission here a couple of weeks ago. He said the backlog of pilots due to the Kingfisher fiasco means that the people who had joined the airline from NFTI with him (in early 2011) have still not flown anything except the simulators. People who have passed out from NFTI since then have been put on-hold by the airline. They will be informed when their requirements come up, which is unlikely before mid-2013 looking at the present situation.
That's the confusion in the minds of cadets at present... should we keep believing the IndiGo dream and stay put here, hoping it will work out? Or should we quit NFTI and move to another school where the training is likely to be better and the management treats us like paying customers rather than wild dogs who need to be kept on a leash with crazy new rules everyday?
World-class institute! Sheesh! And then the marketing team keeps roping in new fools everyday, who are NOW willing to pay over 40 lakh rupees to study here. I will categorically state that anyone doing so is a completely brainless buffoon! Unless you have some limitation that doesn't allow you to train overseas, you're the biggest fool on the planet if you decide to join NFTI, unless things change here overnight. Become an IndiGo cadet if you fancy your chances. Doesn't guarantee anything because all you get at the time of joining the course is a letter of intent - an expression of the intention to hire you when you successfully complete your course in the required time and with the required performance. IndiGo will then think about hiring you provided they have the availability and capacity requirement. Remember this - there is no letter of employment, only intent. Makes you feel so much better already, doesn't it?
This situation reminds me of the movie 'Three Idiots' where Aamir's character tells someone to chase excellence, not success. Similarly, people should chase high-quality training, not a brand name being mismanaged to hell in the hope of getting employed with an already over-staffed airline. ENJOY!!!
