SAAF to outsource flying training?
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SAAF to outsource flying training?
Basic flight training to be outsourced
In an effort to continue containing costs, the South African Air Force (SAAF) announced plans to outsource basic flight training.
In an effort to continue containing costs, the South African Air Force (SAAF) announced plans to outsource basic flight training.
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I believe that a comment was made at the A109 ceremony at Bloemspruit on Wednesday in response to a question by the media.
I don't think a final decision has been made yet, but the SAAF seems to be looking at outsourcing the ab-initio training of fixed- and rotory-wing crew
I don't think a final decision has been made yet, but the SAAF seems to be looking at outsourcing the ab-initio training of fixed- and rotory-wing crew
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Air Force may hire outsiders to train its pilots
The South African Air Force may outsource its basic pilot training to eliminate unsuitable candidates and save on the costs. The move follows a drop in the quality of pupil pilots selected for training that has resulted in a higher failure rate in exams and flight tests, crashes and even deaths in recent years. Underfunding has seen the SAAF lose key personnel — especially technicians and pilots — to the civilian sector. This week the SAAF would only say that the “outsourcing of certain training needs is an option being investigated. It is, however, early days to even speculate whether outsourcing will be viable”. But experts say the move is not only necessary but should also be welcomed. A defence analyst told the Sunday Times the SAAF would almost certainly introduce some measure of screening for trainee pilots. “They need to find the people who will be committed to flying and not leave just because things are getting tough.” He said black air force pilots were being poached by civilian airlines that could offer higher salaries and were keen to nail their affirmative-action colours to the mast. An SAAF instructor said this week that the plan was necessary to weed out candidates who considered military flying as just another job. “Often, when they get to the SAAF they find they cannot live with the discipline and the high workload, but by this time expensive training on hi-tech aircraft has already begun.”
The paper added that the cockpit of a sophisticated SAAF trainer on a solo night, cross-country flight can be a lonely, and sometimes, scary place. “Unless he is alert and informed, nature and the complicated avionics and systems can conspire to gang up on the young pupil pilot. His isolation breeds uncertainty as he realises he is alone against the elements, with only his onboard technology to see him through. At the beginning of his training, he had failed to assimilate the volumes of knowledge with which his instructors had bombarded him. With intensive tutoring he managed to crack the required 40% pass mark. But now, alone at night, the pupil pilot begins to sense this was not enough. And it wasn’t. His air speed is inexplicably climbing and the attitude indicator says he is in a gentle spiral. His mind is overwhelmed with information, he needs time to sort it all out. But time is up, as is altitude. He runs out of both ... and dies,” the paper’s Roger Makings wrote in a feature article.
Minister of Defence Mosiuoa Lekota, in answer to a question in Parliament in 2003, said that pupil pilots in the SAAF would be allowed to fail all their exams, fail two repeat exams, and still remain on the course, in the interests of transformation. They could also fail two flying tests. Previously, trainee pilots had been allowed to fail only three subjects, and had to pass a repeat exam with a minimum of 60% — or be “washed” from the course. The relaxed standards, say top SAAF instructors and former fighter pilots, are nothing short of a death sentence, especially as the SAAF gears up for the introduction of its new Hawk lead-in fighter trainer next year, and frontline Gripen fighter in 2008.
In April this year a trainee pilot, 2nd Lt Oupa Jean-Claude Ramaiti, 24, who had failed two flight tests, was offered a chance to redeem himself although his instructors considered his performance sub-standard. He was sent on a night cross-country flight, got lost, and killed himself. The doyen of fighter pilots in South Africa, Dick Lord, who has written three books on the SAAF and its pilots, obtained his wings in the Royal Navy in the late ’50s. He became an aircraft-carrier fighter pilot and was seconded to the US Navy’s “Top Gun” fighter academy in Miramar, San Diego, for two years. Lord said this week that anyone who could not crack his or her exams the first time around simply did not have the right stuff to fly complicated aircraft. Lord, who retired from the SAAF as a brigadier- general, having commanded 85 Combat Flying School and the front line 1 Squadron, also spent much of his time as a fighter pilot instructor. “While a combat instructor in the Royal Navy, one young student had a poor attitude and only average flying skills. At weekly meetings the other instructors said he was ‘okay’. I wanted to wash him. The officer commanding thought I had a personality clash with him, which I admitted to. He was allowed to stay, although in my opinion he couldn’t fly.” Two months later the student crashed on a night flight — killing himself, his observer and writing off an expensive aircraft. “The tragedy is that this young man had been kept on because millions of pounds had been spent on his training. If they had listened to me he would now be eligible for a pension and a mother would not have lost her only son. The lesson is that flying is dangerous and only the top students should be allowed to stay in the fighter line,” said Lord.
A combat school instructor, who asked not to be named, said pupils who only managed 40% wouldn’t make it as fighter pilots. He said the requirements were a pass mark of not less than 60%. Two failures and the student was washed from the course. “We only accept the top 10% of the basic training graduates. Anything less won’t make the grade and ultimately is a waste of taxpayers’ money.” He said that anyone who could not achieve 60% first time around would not even be able to fly the hi-tech Gripen, let alone fight in one. A former fighter pilot with more than 4000 hours’ experience, who now flies airliners, dismissed the new standards as laughable. “A fighter pilot operates alone in a highly competitive environment. In combat, flying at the edge of the envelope, he needs to know 100% about his aircraft and weapons as well as those of his opponent,” said the pilot, who also asked not to be named. “When fighters close at more than twice the speed of sound, you don’t have time to think. You need total awareness, a superior intellect and lightning reactions. All that will save you is knowledge and skill. This is not the place for a forty-percenter, and you can bet your enemy won’t be a forty-percenter. This is when the inferior pilot dies.”
How do other air forces compare with the SAAF’s standards? Johannesburg schoolboy Luke Flemington applied to join the SAAF in 1995, but was turned down. Undaunted, he went to Britain and was accepted into the Royal Air Force. He graduated two years later at the top of his class. Flemington now flies Hawks, not quite as advanced as the aircraft the SAAF will receive next year. “In the RAF you have to get 75% for your technical subjects but for systems and emergency procedures it’s 100%. On my course no one failed. The average for all subjects was 97%. The RAF expects nothing less.” A dissenting voice was that of the Commissioner for Civil Aviation, Seboseso Machobane, who said: “In the civilian environment about 70% is accepted as a pass. In the military, for those who have not grown up with computers and the like, it would be acceptable to first bridge that gap and then allow for pupils to play catch-up through extra training. “Once this has been achieved, progress has to be monitored and shown to be steady. If this does not happen then the student should be washed,” said Machobane. The SAAF said that its pass mark for emergency training was 95% and for technical subjects, 80%. Management at its Central Flying School in Cape Town has been instructed to allocate additional hours of training to pupils who “experience difficulty”. It said that “learners” who develop at a slower rate are generally placed at units where they “have the opportunities to further develop in a multi-crew environment”.
Combat instructors say poor pay and promotion ceilings make the job of an instructor unattractive, with the result that numbers are dwindling. Lekota is on record as having called SAAF instructors racist for wanting to wash students, and has said that instructors from Zimbabwe will be brought in to eliminate racism in training. This, said the SAAF, was part of its regional co-operation exchange programme with neighbouring African countries. Talks are also being held with Zambia and Botswana in this regard. But black pilots are in fact making the grade in the SAAF, despite allegations from both sides. Just days before he died flying a Sasol Tigers aerobatic jet, Gabriel Ndabandaba, a former SAAF pilot who became an instructor as well as a member of the SAAF’s premier aerobatic team, the Silver Falcons, told the Sunday Times that there was no need to lower standards for previously disadvantaged candidates. “Making concessions to promote transformation is not necessary. We can do it ourselves,” he said. Another pilot to cut the mustard is Major Musa “Midnight” Mbhokota is in Sweden doing a conversion course on the new Gripen fighter, the first of which is due in South Africa next year.
In answer to what it takes to become a fighter pilot, he was quoted as saying: “It takes hard work, diligence and focus to be a pilot, even more so if you want to be in the elite corps of fighter pilots operating the world’s most modern, fourth-generation fighter aircraft in service.” That, and certainly more than 40% in flight-training school, the Sunday Times observed.
The South African Air Force may outsource its basic pilot training to eliminate unsuitable candidates and save on the costs. The move follows a drop in the quality of pupil pilots selected for training that has resulted in a higher failure rate in exams and flight tests, crashes and even deaths in recent years. Underfunding has seen the SAAF lose key personnel — especially technicians and pilots — to the civilian sector. This week the SAAF would only say that the “outsourcing of certain training needs is an option being investigated. It is, however, early days to even speculate whether outsourcing will be viable”. But experts say the move is not only necessary but should also be welcomed. A defence analyst told the Sunday Times the SAAF would almost certainly introduce some measure of screening for trainee pilots. “They need to find the people who will be committed to flying and not leave just because things are getting tough.” He said black air force pilots were being poached by civilian airlines that could offer higher salaries and were keen to nail their affirmative-action colours to the mast. An SAAF instructor said this week that the plan was necessary to weed out candidates who considered military flying as just another job. “Often, when they get to the SAAF they find they cannot live with the discipline and the high workload, but by this time expensive training on hi-tech aircraft has already begun.”
The paper added that the cockpit of a sophisticated SAAF trainer on a solo night, cross-country flight can be a lonely, and sometimes, scary place. “Unless he is alert and informed, nature and the complicated avionics and systems can conspire to gang up on the young pupil pilot. His isolation breeds uncertainty as he realises he is alone against the elements, with only his onboard technology to see him through. At the beginning of his training, he had failed to assimilate the volumes of knowledge with which his instructors had bombarded him. With intensive tutoring he managed to crack the required 40% pass mark. But now, alone at night, the pupil pilot begins to sense this was not enough. And it wasn’t. His air speed is inexplicably climbing and the attitude indicator says he is in a gentle spiral. His mind is overwhelmed with information, he needs time to sort it all out. But time is up, as is altitude. He runs out of both ... and dies,” the paper’s Roger Makings wrote in a feature article.
Minister of Defence Mosiuoa Lekota, in answer to a question in Parliament in 2003, said that pupil pilots in the SAAF would be allowed to fail all their exams, fail two repeat exams, and still remain on the course, in the interests of transformation. They could also fail two flying tests. Previously, trainee pilots had been allowed to fail only three subjects, and had to pass a repeat exam with a minimum of 60% — or be “washed” from the course. The relaxed standards, say top SAAF instructors and former fighter pilots, are nothing short of a death sentence, especially as the SAAF gears up for the introduction of its new Hawk lead-in fighter trainer next year, and frontline Gripen fighter in 2008.
In April this year a trainee pilot, 2nd Lt Oupa Jean-Claude Ramaiti, 24, who had failed two flight tests, was offered a chance to redeem himself although his instructors considered his performance sub-standard. He was sent on a night cross-country flight, got lost, and killed himself. The doyen of fighter pilots in South Africa, Dick Lord, who has written three books on the SAAF and its pilots, obtained his wings in the Royal Navy in the late ’50s. He became an aircraft-carrier fighter pilot and was seconded to the US Navy’s “Top Gun” fighter academy in Miramar, San Diego, for two years. Lord said this week that anyone who could not crack his or her exams the first time around simply did not have the right stuff to fly complicated aircraft. Lord, who retired from the SAAF as a brigadier- general, having commanded 85 Combat Flying School and the front line 1 Squadron, also spent much of his time as a fighter pilot instructor. “While a combat instructor in the Royal Navy, one young student had a poor attitude and only average flying skills. At weekly meetings the other instructors said he was ‘okay’. I wanted to wash him. The officer commanding thought I had a personality clash with him, which I admitted to. He was allowed to stay, although in my opinion he couldn’t fly.” Two months later the student crashed on a night flight — killing himself, his observer and writing off an expensive aircraft. “The tragedy is that this young man had been kept on because millions of pounds had been spent on his training. If they had listened to me he would now be eligible for a pension and a mother would not have lost her only son. The lesson is that flying is dangerous and only the top students should be allowed to stay in the fighter line,” said Lord.
A combat school instructor, who asked not to be named, said pupils who only managed 40% wouldn’t make it as fighter pilots. He said the requirements were a pass mark of not less than 60%. Two failures and the student was washed from the course. “We only accept the top 10% of the basic training graduates. Anything less won’t make the grade and ultimately is a waste of taxpayers’ money.” He said that anyone who could not achieve 60% first time around would not even be able to fly the hi-tech Gripen, let alone fight in one. A former fighter pilot with more than 4000 hours’ experience, who now flies airliners, dismissed the new standards as laughable. “A fighter pilot operates alone in a highly competitive environment. In combat, flying at the edge of the envelope, he needs to know 100% about his aircraft and weapons as well as those of his opponent,” said the pilot, who also asked not to be named. “When fighters close at more than twice the speed of sound, you don’t have time to think. You need total awareness, a superior intellect and lightning reactions. All that will save you is knowledge and skill. This is not the place for a forty-percenter, and you can bet your enemy won’t be a forty-percenter. This is when the inferior pilot dies.”
How do other air forces compare with the SAAF’s standards? Johannesburg schoolboy Luke Flemington applied to join the SAAF in 1995, but was turned down. Undaunted, he went to Britain and was accepted into the Royal Air Force. He graduated two years later at the top of his class. Flemington now flies Hawks, not quite as advanced as the aircraft the SAAF will receive next year. “In the RAF you have to get 75% for your technical subjects but for systems and emergency procedures it’s 100%. On my course no one failed. The average for all subjects was 97%. The RAF expects nothing less.” A dissenting voice was that of the Commissioner for Civil Aviation, Seboseso Machobane, who said: “In the civilian environment about 70% is accepted as a pass. In the military, for those who have not grown up with computers and the like, it would be acceptable to first bridge that gap and then allow for pupils to play catch-up through extra training. “Once this has been achieved, progress has to be monitored and shown to be steady. If this does not happen then the student should be washed,” said Machobane. The SAAF said that its pass mark for emergency training was 95% and for technical subjects, 80%. Management at its Central Flying School in Cape Town has been instructed to allocate additional hours of training to pupils who “experience difficulty”. It said that “learners” who develop at a slower rate are generally placed at units where they “have the opportunities to further develop in a multi-crew environment”.
Combat instructors say poor pay and promotion ceilings make the job of an instructor unattractive, with the result that numbers are dwindling. Lekota is on record as having called SAAF instructors racist for wanting to wash students, and has said that instructors from Zimbabwe will be brought in to eliminate racism in training. This, said the SAAF, was part of its regional co-operation exchange programme with neighbouring African countries. Talks are also being held with Zambia and Botswana in this regard. But black pilots are in fact making the grade in the SAAF, despite allegations from both sides. Just days before he died flying a Sasol Tigers aerobatic jet, Gabriel Ndabandaba, a former SAAF pilot who became an instructor as well as a member of the SAAF’s premier aerobatic team, the Silver Falcons, told the Sunday Times that there was no need to lower standards for previously disadvantaged candidates. “Making concessions to promote transformation is not necessary. We can do it ourselves,” he said. Another pilot to cut the mustard is Major Musa “Midnight” Mbhokota is in Sweden doing a conversion course on the new Gripen fighter, the first of which is due in South Africa next year.
In answer to what it takes to become a fighter pilot, he was quoted as saying: “It takes hard work, diligence and focus to be a pilot, even more so if you want to be in the elite corps of fighter pilots operating the world’s most modern, fourth-generation fighter aircraft in service.” That, and certainly more than 40% in flight-training school, the Sunday Times observed.
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They're making it easier and easier to further dislike them.
Any good news ever that came from these comics?
Think they could outsource running of the country too, but there's no other one in Africa functioning better...
Really, what's next? And the sad truth is, it's only the beginning...
Any good news ever that came from these comics?
Think they could outsource running of the country too, but there's no other one in Africa functioning better...
Really, what's next? And the sad truth is, it's only the beginning...
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If I have it correctly, the SAAF is one of the oldest and most prestigious Air Forces of the world, and was at one stage ranked as one of the best in the world, given the fact that they were operating old and outdated equipment, due to the once embargo's placed on SA. Can you imagine what it would have been like if they had access to equipment they have access to now... in the old days?
I have a couple of colleagues who dabbled with them around Sector 10 in the days gone by, and man, I love those campfire stories when they talk about how sh1t scared they were of being vaporised by the SAAF pilots.
Thank goodness there is none of that now! Can you imagine a Grippen on the tail of a Sukhoi 22?
I have been in African Aviation for long enough to know that the writing is now on the wall for the SAAF. Politics are getting in the way of fair judgement, and as I have stated before, Governments are wrong to push youngsters who grew up and suffer from the "hut culture" into a job they know nothing about, or have no interest in. It's murder in the first degree, because at some stage they're going to kill themselves and innocent others.
Privatising the training will lead to poor discipline in a non military environment, and make matters worse. In a civilian environment, military discipline cannot be enforced, and the moment the kid drinks his 3rd beer in the shebeen close to his school, confidence & ego accelerates to his head and he spiralls out of control, and who knows what wil happen next.....?
SA is not engaged in any conflict right now, so why don't they retain the expertise from the past en give the youngsters a good training. Should they not make the grade, the Government should allow the instructors to "wash" the students, instead of pushing them thru to become destroyers of equipment and killers of people later in their career, and this to satisfy transformation. Eesch, it's not right!
My advice to the Air Force Chief is: "Rome was not built in one day, and cement takes at least 30 days to cure" 
I have a couple of colleagues who dabbled with them around Sector 10 in the days gone by, and man, I love those campfire stories when they talk about how sh1t scared they were of being vaporised by the SAAF pilots.
Thank goodness there is none of that now! Can you imagine a Grippen on the tail of a Sukhoi 22?I have been in African Aviation for long enough to know that the writing is now on the wall for the SAAF. Politics are getting in the way of fair judgement, and as I have stated before, Governments are wrong to push youngsters who grew up and suffer from the "hut culture" into a job they know nothing about, or have no interest in. It's murder in the first degree, because at some stage they're going to kill themselves and innocent others.
Privatising the training will lead to poor discipline in a non military environment, and make matters worse. In a civilian environment, military discipline cannot be enforced, and the moment the kid drinks his 3rd beer in the shebeen close to his school, confidence & ego accelerates to his head and he spiralls out of control, and who knows what wil happen next.....?
SA is not engaged in any conflict right now, so why don't they retain the expertise from the past en give the youngsters a good training. Should they not make the grade, the Government should allow the instructors to "wash" the students, instead of pushing them thru to become destroyers of equipment and killers of people later in their career, and this to satisfy transformation. Eesch, it's not right!
My advice to the Air Force Chief is: "Rome was not built in one day, and cement takes at least 30 days to cure"
Gatvol
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SA is not engaged in any conflict right now, so why don't they retain the expertise from the past en give the youngsters a good training
Its not an uphill battle, its a matter of putting in the brakes so things dont go down hill any faster than they are already ..
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What you guys should remember is that Chief of the Airforce does not decide on pushing these policies through... They are forced upon him by the minister of defence who is forced by parliment for quicker transformation... If he says no, then he will just be replaced by someone who eventually will say yes..
It is the parlimentarians who should realise that you can not fast-track pilots (or other specialsed professions for that matter) of any type, ecspecially military ones who fly the tax payers equipment..
It is the parlimentarians who should realise that you can not fast-track pilots (or other specialsed professions for that matter) of any type, ecspecially military ones who fly the tax payers equipment..
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Eish...!
What I suggest Ajax 28, is for you to send a copy of this thread, up to this posting, to your OC, 28Sqn I suppose and to the Chief of the Air Force (hey, only the S. African, not the Zimbo one, hey.)!
Then, do not forget to write your name and rank on it, and mark it for their eyes only...and....
Voila! (French for: Haouw! I kant bileeve!),
You soon have command! (like with them...you'll probably agree that a change is overdue? hmm...?)
It's always a them-and-us case man! Seems like no-one likes this "parlimentarians" man, not even @grassrootslevel man.
Then, do not forget to write your name and rank on it, and mark it for their eyes only...and....
Voila! (French for: Haouw! I kant bileeve!),
You soon have command! (like with them...you'll probably agree that a change is overdue? hmm...?)
It's always a them-and-us case man! Seems like no-one likes this "parlimentarians" man, not even @grassrootslevel man.
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Too quick to respond or...
Eish Ajax 28, you may be right to think I'm stupid, so before you reply, I see you're current on C208 & PC12, so that makes you a........ pointer!
That's explains why you're up to something here!
(Hey, respect for the rest...Dappermuis ens.!)
That's explains why you're up to something here!
(Hey, respect for the rest...Dappermuis ens.!)
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Fact is, the political games and window-dressing wil continue for years to come. In April it will be 12 years with the ANC in power. Hell....why stop the gravy train now.
We all know the SAAF is heading downhill - fast. There are guys who are still trying to make things work, despite the political pressure. A squadron OC came to my house to ask me to join as an active CF member. I understand a number of old hands are being approached in this manner.
Although I am impressed with the individuals who are doing their best to keep things proffesional - me thinks it is only delaying the inevitable.
We all know the SAAF is heading downhill - fast. There are guys who are still trying to make things work, despite the political pressure. A squadron OC came to my house to ask me to join as an active CF member. I understand a number of old hands are being approached in this manner.
Although I am impressed with the individuals who are doing their best to keep things proffesional - me thinks it is only delaying the inevitable.
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There is also another rumour about.....involving the senior pale faces, and " voluntary " packages " offered " to them. The "beer" is soon to be without its well poured white head.
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Killing two birds with one stone ?
They should ensure that only lowest scoring, pushed through the system, pilots on the pupes course get to fly the presidential jet, that would be a great incentive to maintain standards and ensure that the polititians would keep their grubby hands out of aviation.
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