Just another thread of bleating and moaning from todays generation - including the older grey haired variety of Oz pilots, about ab-initio pilots going directly onto big acft.
REF -
Hamble College of Air Training was a flight training centre in
Hampshire.
During the late fifties it became apparent that there was going to be a shortage of ex military pilots who would be available to crew British civil aircraft. The two (then) state owned airline corporations, BOAC and BEA, in collaboration with the Ministry of Aviation, proposed a flying school based loosely on the
Royal Air Force's officer training college at
Cranwell. The site chosen was a small airfield at
Hamble, Hampshire in the Southern
United Kingdom, used at the time by
Air Service Training and
Southampton University Air Squadron. The first course of cadets began training in 1960.
The college continued operations until the mid-1980s:
British Airways (the merged
BOAC and
BEA) announced the closure in 1982 and in 1984 the land was sold for development and the equipment disposed of.
For the first few years of operation the course lasted two years: later courses were shortened to eighteen months. Cadets were accepted equally from the ranks of school leavers and university graduates: previous flying experience was not a requirement. Following fifteen weeks of ground study, ab initio and, later, advanced flying training commenced.
Ground training included aerodynamics, astronavigation, meteorology, propulsion and many other disciplines. Flying training commenced after fifteen weeks, initially on
De Havilland Chipmunk aircraft, progressing to twin engine experience on
Piper Apaches. A graduate would leave the college with a British commercial pilot's licence and a "frozen" airline transport pilot's licence, which could be converted into a full ATPL after further examinations and having accumulated the requisite flying hours.
So this system has been going since 1960 - that's 53YEARS AGO !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !
Do you bleaters/moaners still believe the ab-inito system is un-safe ?
Do a google search and list the number of incidents/accidents that the root cause has been attributed to a CADET/Ab-inito pilot.
AND - then do a little history search - on 19yr old B17 Capts who with ONLY 300hrs TT flew their B17s - with full crew across the Atlantic - in winter, at NIGHT to Ireland or Scotland, then continued onto bombing operations.
Remember, today's generation of ab-initio pilots have the benefit of the last 65yrs of aviation evolution in navigation facilities, instrumentation and safety, AND the study of accidents that have identified weaknesses of the past and have made today's aviation operations more safe.
Ciao