The Bunglerat
3rd Oct 2006, 07:18
Having taken a year's hiatus from GA instructing to enjoy a taste of life in the flight levels, I recently offered (in hindsight against my better judgment LOL) to assist on a short-term Chinese cadet contract - in order to help satisfy a company requirement for additional command hours with my new employer.
Let me say once and for all: Any employer out there who overlooks a pilot for a job - just because he comes from an instructing background - is incredibly narrow-minded and ignorant to say the least.
Now I'm not talking about the weekend hack who does nothing but hours and hours of circuits in a C150/ultralight etc, I'm referring to instructors trying to fly multi-engine/IFR with someone who barely speaks English, has no situational awareness to speak of, and who basically has to resort to managing the entire operation himself - or become another statistic.
It has been quite a few years since I shared a cockpit with a Chinese cadet, and whilst I mean no disrespect to the Chinese or any other foreign student group, I'd simply forgotten just how much bloody hard work it is trying to deal with busy ATC, busy traffic patterns, detailed instrument approaches with combined multi-engine asymmetric procedures - whilst simultaneously trying to babysit an inexperienced student through an exercise that is clearly beyond his ability to cope with - and made no easier by the fact that neither ATC or myself can ever fully understand what he is trying to say in turn. Couple this with the fact that all sorties have to run to a strict timetable (just like the airlines) with penalties for late departures and other delays, and it is simply beyond me as to why there are still so many operators out there in aviation land who continue to snub drivers from an instructing background.
When I compare this type of flying with the charter work I did, let's see now... Plan the flight, greet the pax, do some quick number-crunching to adjust for fuel/payload because someone brought an extra suitcase, put them onboard, fly from "A" to "B" - and then sit on my arse for the next 5 hours reading the paper while they bugger off to their appointment. Absolute bliss in comparison!
I'm not discounting the importance of charter ops or the skills required to do it, but it took a break from instructing to help me realise beyond any doubt that the guys who have to do this sort of work really get a raw deal in the Oz aviation industry. There are some really good drivers out there who are being discriminated against - for simply no other reason than they instruct. I just hope that one day attitudes will start to change - and employers will realise that a professional pilot is exactly that - regardless of flying background.
Let me say once and for all: Any employer out there who overlooks a pilot for a job - just because he comes from an instructing background - is incredibly narrow-minded and ignorant to say the least.
Now I'm not talking about the weekend hack who does nothing but hours and hours of circuits in a C150/ultralight etc, I'm referring to instructors trying to fly multi-engine/IFR with someone who barely speaks English, has no situational awareness to speak of, and who basically has to resort to managing the entire operation himself - or become another statistic.
It has been quite a few years since I shared a cockpit with a Chinese cadet, and whilst I mean no disrespect to the Chinese or any other foreign student group, I'd simply forgotten just how much bloody hard work it is trying to deal with busy ATC, busy traffic patterns, detailed instrument approaches with combined multi-engine asymmetric procedures - whilst simultaneously trying to babysit an inexperienced student through an exercise that is clearly beyond his ability to cope with - and made no easier by the fact that neither ATC or myself can ever fully understand what he is trying to say in turn. Couple this with the fact that all sorties have to run to a strict timetable (just like the airlines) with penalties for late departures and other delays, and it is simply beyond me as to why there are still so many operators out there in aviation land who continue to snub drivers from an instructing background.
When I compare this type of flying with the charter work I did, let's see now... Plan the flight, greet the pax, do some quick number-crunching to adjust for fuel/payload because someone brought an extra suitcase, put them onboard, fly from "A" to "B" - and then sit on my arse for the next 5 hours reading the paper while they bugger off to their appointment. Absolute bliss in comparison!
I'm not discounting the importance of charter ops or the skills required to do it, but it took a break from instructing to help me realise beyond any doubt that the guys who have to do this sort of work really get a raw deal in the Oz aviation industry. There are some really good drivers out there who are being discriminated against - for simply no other reason than they instruct. I just hope that one day attitudes will start to change - and employers will realise that a professional pilot is exactly that - regardless of flying background.