sponsorship ???

[bafanguy]

Help a Yank get the big picture. I see the word "sponsorship" used a lot in these forums. What does it mean exactly in the context of flying in the EU ? I know some airlines, like LH, have ab initio programs ( called " cadet " in some places ). Do EU airlines have this type arrangement ? And what part does the military play in providing pilots to the airlines ? In the USA, it's the major ( and preferred ) source of pilots.

[scroggs]

Most of the EU majors have a cadet scheme which takes ab-initio students from their first flight to the right seat of an airliner at no charge to the student; this we call 'sponsorship' in UK (or we did, when it existed!). Many other airlines run schemes where the cost of training is shared between the carrier and the cadet - this would be 'part-sponsorship'. The numbers of pilots derived from these schemes is quite small in the overall market.

Military aviation in the EU is nowhere near as large as it is in the US (and has been contracting for many years), and a greater proportion of EU military pilots remain with the military for their entire career rather than leave for civilian aviation, therefore the military are now less important as a source of pilots - though still significant, and highly valued.

At the moment, the largest source of commercial pilots in the UK, and probably the rest of the EU, are those who have paid for their own training and are working their way up via night freight, para dropping etc to an airline cockpit - though some will succeed in getting employed in a 737/A320 directly from their CPL course.

I hope this goes some way to answering your question.

Scroggs

[bafanguy]

Scroggs,

Thanks for the info. With a "cadet" program, does this put people in the right seat with very low total flight time ? Is this a problem ? In the "self-sponsored" version, do people have to have more total flight time than a guy who came up through an airline-sponsored "cadet" program ?

[scroggs]

The cadet programs in Europe will put a new pilot in a 737/A230 (or similar) rhs with somewhere between 200 and 300 hours. It is possible, but not common, for the guy who pays his own way to do the same.

These hours are similar to those held by a military pilot on reaching their first squadron (I had about 330 on reaching mine - but I'd been through both the fast jet and multi engine training programs) . I don't hear people suggesting that those guys are a problem, and I don't see why they should be a problem for us - as long as the training, and future supervision, is adequate.

Scroggs

[raysalmon]

The situation in the U.S. is changing though. Although military candidates are still looked upon very favorably, over the last few years, the tables have turned and now US airlines are seeing proportionally more civilians in new-hire classes (for those that are hiring)

Ray