Centaurus
24th Oct 2012, 02:10
I was going to title this The Virgin and the ADF but decided that someone would transpose ADF into Australian Defence Force and before I knew what hit me I would have Julia Gillard on the phone accusing me of being a misogynist...
Having said that, I was browsing through my local historical aviation library and came across a couple of old books that stirred my interest. The first was called "The Probable Cause" - by Robert J. Serling. The opening blurb stated "behind every airline crash there is a mystery that must be solved.' The book, first published in 1962, is about airline accidents and apart from the serious side there is humour, too.
For example: One one stormy day, an ATC centre had its hands full with impatient crews demanding approach clearances, landing clearances, taxi clearances and takeoff clearances. Tempers were getting short and the harried controller took drastic action.
"Attention all flights," he called out. "Dismount, re-group and prepare to fight on foot." Several pilots showed up at the control tower that night and offered to buy him a drink.
............................................................ ...............................
On another occasion, one captain allowed the stewardess to ride the jump seat on her first flight during an instrument approach. When the plane passed over a radio check point, an instrument known as the ADF (Automatic Direction Finder) reversed to indicate it had passed the signal.
The curious stewardess watch the ADF needle reverse through 180 degrees.
"What's that?" she asked.
"That's the virgin indicator," the captain explained. "It does that whenever there's a virgin present."
The girl was silent for a minute.
"Captain," she said suddenly, "if you're using that for navigation, get it fixed."
............................................................ ................
The other book was written by an Australian pilot John Radge and called "Commercial Pilot - the First 500 hours." The author was an instructor at Bankstown in 1990 and worked as a charter pilot in the NT as well as acting chief pilot for various companies. His book was well written and ideal for new pilots wondering how to get started in the first 500 hours. However there was one paragraph that raised my eyebrows and that was at Chapter Three, under the sub-heading of The Airline Cadet Path.
He wrote: "For airlines (Qantas and Ansett), to protect themselves against the pilot shortage they took the initiative to provide career tracks for pilots. This coincided with the realisation that qualified people coming from GA were not suitable for airline work. These people had flown single pilot (as opposed to a multi-crew environment such as an airline) for all of their commercial flying and to transition them into a multi-crew environment proved difficult. Teaching an old dog new tricks proved expensive, time consuming and not generally effective.
............................................................ ......................
I must say that although the author wrote that opinion well over 15 years ago, (perhaps quoting Qantas at the time), nothing could be further from the truth. In the many years I have been associated with flight simulator training, I have experienced very few significant problems with GA single pilot IFR pilots learning to fly jet transports or multi-crew turboprops. With modern simulators, it takes very little time for single pilot IFR pilots to learn to handle the basics of hand flying a jet, operate the autopilot flight management systems and then switch to the other seat to undertake the duties of the first officer or PNF.
The cadet system turns out competent crews even though they may be bereft of real life flying experience. Unlike what the travelling public might hope, those of us who have pilot licences know that flying an aeroplane is not exactly rocket science. But to say that experienced single pilot IFR charter pilots are deemed generally to be unsuitable to be airline pilots would be laughable if the author wasn't serious about what he said. That opening line spoils an otherwise quite a good book and makes you wonder about the rest of the information he offers as fact.
Having said that, I was browsing through my local historical aviation library and came across a couple of old books that stirred my interest. The first was called "The Probable Cause" - by Robert J. Serling. The opening blurb stated "behind every airline crash there is a mystery that must be solved.' The book, first published in 1962, is about airline accidents and apart from the serious side there is humour, too.
For example: One one stormy day, an ATC centre had its hands full with impatient crews demanding approach clearances, landing clearances, taxi clearances and takeoff clearances. Tempers were getting short and the harried controller took drastic action.
"Attention all flights," he called out. "Dismount, re-group and prepare to fight on foot." Several pilots showed up at the control tower that night and offered to buy him a drink.
............................................................ ...............................
On another occasion, one captain allowed the stewardess to ride the jump seat on her first flight during an instrument approach. When the plane passed over a radio check point, an instrument known as the ADF (Automatic Direction Finder) reversed to indicate it had passed the signal.
The curious stewardess watch the ADF needle reverse through 180 degrees.
"What's that?" she asked.
"That's the virgin indicator," the captain explained. "It does that whenever there's a virgin present."
The girl was silent for a minute.
"Captain," she said suddenly, "if you're using that for navigation, get it fixed."
............................................................ ................
The other book was written by an Australian pilot John Radge and called "Commercial Pilot - the First 500 hours." The author was an instructor at Bankstown in 1990 and worked as a charter pilot in the NT as well as acting chief pilot for various companies. His book was well written and ideal for new pilots wondering how to get started in the first 500 hours. However there was one paragraph that raised my eyebrows and that was at Chapter Three, under the sub-heading of The Airline Cadet Path.
He wrote: "For airlines (Qantas and Ansett), to protect themselves against the pilot shortage they took the initiative to provide career tracks for pilots. This coincided with the realisation that qualified people coming from GA were not suitable for airline work. These people had flown single pilot (as opposed to a multi-crew environment such as an airline) for all of their commercial flying and to transition them into a multi-crew environment proved difficult. Teaching an old dog new tricks proved expensive, time consuming and not generally effective.
............................................................ ......................
I must say that although the author wrote that opinion well over 15 years ago, (perhaps quoting Qantas at the time), nothing could be further from the truth. In the many years I have been associated with flight simulator training, I have experienced very few significant problems with GA single pilot IFR pilots learning to fly jet transports or multi-crew turboprops. With modern simulators, it takes very little time for single pilot IFR pilots to learn to handle the basics of hand flying a jet, operate the autopilot flight management systems and then switch to the other seat to undertake the duties of the first officer or PNF.
The cadet system turns out competent crews even though they may be bereft of real life flying experience. Unlike what the travelling public might hope, those of us who have pilot licences know that flying an aeroplane is not exactly rocket science. But to say that experienced single pilot IFR charter pilots are deemed generally to be unsuitable to be airline pilots would be laughable if the author wasn't serious about what he said. That opening line spoils an otherwise quite a good book and makes you wonder about the rest of the information he offers as fact.