a370
Ahlan wa Salan.
I have some experience in the Mid East region and met some very capable airline instructor pilots I'm indebted to. The term coined was the Rise of the Sycophant. Why were pilots who had NO business to be trainers in an airline with ab-intio cadet programs and rapid commands taking over the training departments?
- It's about the money. Not just the miserly training allowance but the rosters could be manipulated toward OT without management awareness. Bloggs needs a Cairo return to learn the books instead of a day in the Gulf doing high sector op's.
I'm surprised by how many line pilots, training pilots and management pilots are obsessed with money. It could be an expat issue too ? So whereas training was traditionally a selfless task, with Trg Capts bidding low hour trips with high sectors and inefficient layovers to cover book work, there was the emergence of the trainer who saw financial advantage as a priority to training delivery.
- It validates one's own mediocrity. This attracts the FCOM buereucrats. Where instead of SOP boundaries being operated within to deliver an airliner between A and B, safely, efficiently and with good morale, the pilot's inability to actually fly the aircraft with a high level of efficiency, and often due their own performance insecurities, SOP's could be micro-analysed to hide one's own inabilities.
- There were no unions in the Middle East so the TRG Dept was an easier avenue into management. You may have great attributes for management but you are a damaging trainer/checker.
- It's about another level of job security. The club mentality is human nature. Trainers checking other trainers was different to trainers checking line guys; though the sycophant will pick his target. So a Captain that is attracted to training in part or wholly, to protect his skin, will not have the capability to deliver high quality training to inexperienced pilots.
- The sycophant trainer is very easy to manage compared to the old school trainer who has an extensive depth of knowledge. So when a training program is cut to the bone, the old school trainers will resist until numbers are against them and they standout like black sheep in a field of Yes men.
Some airlines in the Middle East missed windows of expansion due slower command promotion. Quality of trainers affected pass rates if the command training system didn't evolve beyond one relying on good delivery. Tragically, a commercial drive, inevitably led to standards being dropped amongst other factors. I'm guessing the newer, rapidly expanding airlines of the Middle East, adjusted and tweaked their upgrade programs to deliver Captains along with other factors such as DEC's.
The final chapter perhaps, is when management becomes flooded with pilots who have said Yes all the way up the greasy poll to supervisory positions. I wasn't in the Middle East long enough to observe the impact of having trainers motivated for the wrong reason, though it's probably an industry wide complication.
It would be a mistake not to recognize the many, mostly or some very good trainers, depending on who you work for. It doesn't help if the system failing in your airline with high failure rates. This ain't the trainer, it's the system ! Try training a pilot who is stressed to the eyeballs by the system ! Anyways, a great counter to sycophants is to honestly celebrate and acknowledge the good ones. Ask a cadet who was their best trainer. Tell the trainer, don't be jaded by the system, and an acknowledgement is probably going to benefit many.
Last edited by Gnadenburg; 3rd Aug 2016 at 04:10.