How to fix the Australian Aviation Industry?

[Chris Higgins]

The problems of the Aviation Industry in Australia, are older than the pilot's dispute or sausage factory flying schools in the Hunter. They stem from a distorted truth that in Australia, people do believe that anyone can fly a plane, and that somehow, earning a pilots licence assures the user of a lifetime of luxury.

In a nation of tall poppies, the industry needs to assure the taxpayer that the costs of not being able to assure "just in time" deliveries, the delivery of overseas goods, the export of perishable domestic goods and the steady supply of overseas tourists would be of enormous detriment to each and every Australian.

On a completely different note, people who have nothing to do with aviation need to be reassured that our industry takes seriously, the general populations right to be protected from an aircraft falling on their heads!

I have just finished reading one of Steve Creedy's many articles in "The Australian". I know Steve from when he was a business and aviation writer in Pittsburgh for, "The Pittsburgh Post". In fact he had dinner at my house with his wife Nancy, when I was still an air-ambulance pilot.

In Steve's latest articles he describes an alarming trend of an increase in fatal accidents among general aviation pilots. What nobody seems to recognise is that many pilots who have come up through this inferior system may soon be at the controls of airliners.

What we have seen in Australia is a general dumbing down of the industry. What the Americans have painfully realized is that people of less than average intelligence make very poor pilots. They make bad decisions about flying, lifestyle choices, past-time behaviors and are bad ambassadors for their employers. We are now seeing the full swing of the pendulum with almost every employer requiring a Bachelor's Degree in Science or other objective field and a full college transcript outlining academic achievement throughout the full course of learning. Clearly being a Pavlovian Dog or a parrot at examination time will not cut it anymore.

American Airlines had a very stressful dispute with the pilot group in 1998. The dispute was resolved with some hardship to both sides, but one thing that was agreed upon was this:

Each passenger seat is worth aprroximately $30,000,000 in potential liability.

To gain some perspective on this:

When United had a compressor stall that almost led to a three-engine flameout from San Francisco in a 747, the perceived negligence on the part of the crew would have left United with a total liability of nearly four times their coverage!!

Clearly, "affordable" safety....isn't!

In Australia, we can no longer believe that the Approved Testing Officer Program is in the best interests of the industry. We can no longer allow the theory examinations to be held by anyone but CASA, and under lock and key, until scheduled examination dates.

We can no longer accept that flying schools that guarantee accelerated training are acting in our best interests and we can no longer accept the bull### that is coming from the mouth of our would-be dictator Dick Smith.

I call on everyone; PPL through to 747-400 Check and Training, to take a long hard look at themselves and ask themselves if there is not something that they should be doing?

All the best!

[cogwheel]

HEAR HEAR !

Well said Chris. It is something that ALL of us must make some effort on. It is time to look well outside the box for the answers are there, but we all have to help.

But I doubt if you can tell those with the egos, self interest or commercial interest anything. They just don't want to listen as they always know best.

The Cancer that you outline is now right across the industry and believe it or not it starts the very first day of flight training. The system just does not cater for this at all and now we see even training captains with airlines no better than a newbie instructor. It is only the SOPs and supervision within the large operators that keeps things on the straight and narrow. Heaven help the small operators and the unsupervised PPL.

Not good.

What we need is good leadership from all sectors of the industry that must work together for the outcome/s that are best for the industry - not the individual or any special interest group.

[Capn Bloggs]

There is one entity primarily responsible for this cancer within. Trivialisation of the culture of aviation, cost-cutting, harmonisation, affordable safety, infighting between regulators. Unfortunately, even if that entity was removed from the equation now, the damage has been done. It is now longer possible to reply on people's professionalism and good airmanship to "do the right thing". CASA has to draw a line in the sand and legislate and bring this rot to heel.

[Chocks Away]

mmm, yep Capn Bloggs,
Sadly, " good airmanship " can now be seen on display in the Aviation Museum...

[thinking pilot]

Your a breath of fresh air Chris Higgins, unfortunetly we live in a world the believes experience is of no value at all.

[OZBUSDRIVER]

Chris Higgins Got any spare seats, I think I could learn a lot from you.

Regards

Mark

[TIMMEEEE]

Cheers Chris..........great posting.

I suppose one good start would be to recruit Lee Kwan Yu as immigration minister so he could have the likes of Dick Smith, Anderson and Max Moore-Wilton designated as "Undesirables" and hence deported.

Secondly get rid of those lobbying, self important weekend warrior twats at AOPA and the lunatics at CASA that decided upon the NAS as our saving grace and mantra.

As for all the numerous Air Nav charges, taxes, rates, levies etc
why not just add a few cents per liter to the price of gas.
User pays and you can sack about three thousand public servants that administer the tonnes of paperwork required under the current system.

Yes Chris, the lunatics really are running the assylum !!

[cunningham]

Can you believe we all work in an industry where the owner/CFI of a flying school (if approved of course) can conduct flight tests on his/hers own students !!
How many driving schools test their own students !! There is something seriously wrong here.

[DirtyPierre]

Chris,

I just wish we could get you in the "Air Safety Directorate" that JA would like to form. At least we'd have one sensible, logical person involved without an agenda to follow.

We at AsA could learn a lot from you.

DP

[Kaptin M]

What we have seen in Australia is a general dumbing down of the industry. What the Americans have painfully realized is that people of less than average intelligence make very poor pilots. They make bad decisions about flying, lifestyle choices, past-time behaviors and are bad ambassadors for their employers. We are now seeing the full swing of the pendulum with almost every employer requiring a Bachelor's Degree in Science or other objective field and a full college transcript outlining academic achievement throughout the full course of learning. Clearly being a Pavlovian Dog or a parrot at examination time will not cut it anymore.This has been a WORLDWIDE trend - not restricted to only Oz, and the USofA.
Those of us who have been in the industry for more than a decade or two :E have been crying STOP this obvious and deliberate degradation of SAFETY for at least the past decade.
Although we control the aircraft, unfortunately we have NO control over the quality and experience level of the applicants accepted, and resultantly there has been a dilution of both.

In my opinion, a primary "check" of most company's standards were the pilots' unions, which generally worked on a seniority system (ie. a pilot had to work his way up through the ranks - year by year, type by type - before becoming eligible for command upgrade).
In their rush to plug looming pilot shortages, and to knock salaries down, and to boost managements' payouts, the (pilots') unions became the prime targets over the past decade and a half.

So WHO will eventually pay?
The shareholders, of course!
Insurance premiums MUST rise as accidents and incidents become more commonplace, and experience levels in the cockpits are drastically reduced to show a saving in the short term, thereby resulting in increased bonuses for the airlines CEO's.

[proplever]

:E :E :E :E :E

Can't we just get rid of Impulse?

Look out in the bunker!

[Eurocap]

Chris,

You've hit the nail right on the head. Congratulations, it is about time somebody made the statement.

To take the theme further all pilots need to also realise that the experience they have is only related to the environment they are in at that moment in time and if that is less than normal then they are at risk.

So many times we hear an obituary of an "experienced" pilot saying that the accident should never have happened; that the pilot was so experienced and so on.

In actual fact most of these accidents are caused by a lack of experience in the environment of the moment, a new type or unfamiliar with terrain with the weather conditions experienced at that time, or having less than desirable current IFR approach experience, etc, etc.

We need to be aware, as "experienced pilots" that there are many times when our experience is limited and beware of the warning signs to prevent us from becoming an additional statistic.

Food for thought!!!

[megle2]

E'cap,

Thats just it. None of us have much experience at the real thing
but are fortunate to be subject to a Training and Checking system but there are many that have no real ongoing training.

Sadly we don't make progress in the lower end of aviation, was asked this week if I knew any junior instructors that wanted a job?

The offer - $10 an hour in C172 / PA28 , free accom in regional town.

Combined hours are about 60 hours a month and you would have to share the hours with the other instructor.

[Agent Mulder]

And what is the AFAP doing about this?

Nothing, as usual!!!!!

[trafficwas]

a thoughtful post.... and Mulder you to take it to the gutter.
What have you done?
thought about furthering the profession?
No.
Shoot at those who try

[Chris Higgins]

I have found your responses overwhelming and very supportive. Even Agent Mulder has a point.

When I was my airline's union safety representative in JFK, the union played an enormous part in recognising training failures and even recruitment standards at my employer. These standards have started to filter down, but it's an exhaustive process and one where the pressure must be maintained on all fronts, so that we do not give in to the expedient commercial agendas. We live in a McDonald's society, where flying schools are starting to sell training that should come with an, "order of fries to go".

Yes, I agree that flying schools that advertise, "Examiner on Staff" and other conflict of issues, should not be allowed to continue with such practices. There was a news item about four years ago where an examiner in Arizona did five commercial flight tests in one day and three students had accidents or incidents, one involving a fatality less than a month later! Clearly, how is it even possible to do the paperwork or even an oral examination and preflight work on more than one or two?

I just finished flying a tour with a first officer that had quite strong views about everything that was wrong with the company, the industry, and even the way our customers were being served. The same pilot was shocked at how active a role I took in finding cleaning crews, an overnight maintenance facility to clear a deferral on a lav sink and that I would change my release to uplift fuel through Jackson Hole, Wyoming saving the company almost $1.32 per gallon.

The truth is, we all must ask ourselves what it is we bring to the industry and if it is our work place, (let's stop being exclusionary of PPLs), show our peers and our employers what value added behaviours come through being professionals. Private Pilots can help by getting instrument ratings and filing wherever they go. They can brush up on their radio skills if lacking and rather than consult with the experts down at the bar, find experienced and current instructors to reguarly measure their competency.

Remember, we live in an industry that thrives on self-determination and survival at the outset. Our skills at general aviation level are honed as individuals, which is why the old TAA only hired candidates with experience as flying instructors. At the professional level, it's very easy for things to break down into a bar brawl, we each have strong personalities. "Send a boy to sea, it'll make a man of him".

We can not let such individualism prevent us from finding amicable solutions to a problem, that up until now, appears to be growing.

[Chris Higgins]

On a completely different note, we had to take one of the Hawkers into Raytheon Atlantic City for a repair on an Air Cycle Machine last week.

I got talking with a group of about a dozen or so Air Traffic Controllers who are working with the FAA on software interface programs. The talking spilled over into the evening over quite a lengthy dinner.

I told them that Australia was running Class E Airspace without full enroute radar coverage. They told me point blank, "That's the craziest @#!%# idea we've ever heard in our lives". They felt compelled to inform me that it'll never work and that we'll end up with a midair in the not too distant future.

So much for copying, "the American system".

[69s]

Get rid of the Xspensive hangers on ..............the PPL CPL's..... the CPL PPL's........ the student professionals .....the nothing pro's ........the practicing no medcal/no AFR types.....the noisy rrrrrs's........the list goes on..........:ugh:

Don't forget one of the great danger's ....The so called "academic" ....bleth hith thuperior nolledge