Flight Instructor Selection
I had a discussion with colleagues recently about the way we in the rotary wing world select and train flight instructors.
If we try to pin down 'Aviation Industry Best Practice' we can run into a conundrum. In the airline world (yes I know what you are going to say but I did say the 'aviation industry' without specifying the helicopter world) they do it like this:
1. Selection - you need to be recommended by the current training community.
2. Psychological Assessment - Visit to the 'trick-cyclist' to decide if you have the core qualities required for this demanding task.
3. At least one, maybe two 4-hour sim checks.
4. Technical exam - do you know your stuff?
If you pass that lot then you can qualify to instruct only after a comprehensive training course, months of mentoring and the regular checks to keep you up to scratch.
The question is "what do we do in the rotary world? Does any operator come even close to that degree of attention to detail when creating a new TRI?" I don't think so.
Your thoughts and contributions would be appreciated as i am trying to justify the assertion that we should also be adopting that approach because I have a feeling that the current systems employed are not producing what we need for trainers working on these complex new types. What exactly is the helicopter industry 'best practice'?
G.