Indonesia recruits civil servants to offset pilot shortage

[flying.monkeyz]

Indonesia has started to train civil servants to become flight instructors to meet demand for pilots in its fast-growing aviation industry.

JAKARTA: Indonesia has started to train civil servants to become flight instructors to meet demand for pilots in its fast-growing aviation industry, the transport ministry spokesman said on Saturday.

Indonesia is booming with an emerging middle class increasingly relying on air travel across the archipelago of 17,000 islands, with up to 900 new planes set to be delivered to the country in the next decade.

However, Indonesia has been slow to train pilots and flight instructors and has been forced to recruit foreign pilots in recent years.

Indonesia now has 6,000 to 7,000 pilots. It has dozens of flight instructors and produces 400-500 pilots a year, but the number is short of the aviation industry demand of up to 800 pilots a year.

"With this situation it is difficult for airlines to utilise their planes to the fullest," because the planes need to fly frequently for the airlines to make profit, transport ministry spokesman Bambang Ervan told AFP.

To meet demand, the government has started recruiting civil servants to train as instructors for its flying schools this year and in two or three more schools it planned to build in the coming years, he added. They are recruited from various government departments but have no flying experience.

The pilot shortage has raised concerns that exhaustion and lack of experience that may lead to accidents.

Last month, a Lion Air plane missed the runway on the resort island of Bali and crashed in the sea.

There were no fatalities in the dramatic incident which is under investigation but it has highlighted the problems of an aviation sector facting a lack of experienced crew to meet fast-growing demand.

Indonesia recruits civil servants to offset pilot shortage - Channel NewsAsia (http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapacific/indonesia-recruits-civil-servants-to-off/663274.html)

[A37575]

To meet demand, the government has started recruiting civil servants to train as instructors for its flying schools this year and in two or three more schools it planned to build in the coming years, he added. They are recruited from various government departments but have no flying experience.


Presumably that means the new instructors will be given a basic learn to fly course before being "promoted" to qualified (:E) flying instructor. This will inevitably lead to the blind leading the blind...

[jack s]

teaching to fly is fine !.. who will teach them ICAO Level 4 English ? :ugh::ugh::=

[training wheels]

Presumably that means the new instructors will be given a basic learn to fly course before being "promoted" to qualified (:E) flying instructor. This will inevitably lead to the blind leading the blind...

and not much different from what we have in many parts of the world where 250 hour CPLs become instructors.

In Indonesia, however, you'll find flying schools use instructors who are active airline pilots with thousands of hours under their belt. NAM (Sriwijaya), Wings Flying School (Lion and Wings) Nusa Intl (Aviastar), Merpati Pilot School and the government flight school STPI (Garuda) all have current line pilots instructing at their respective schools. And from what I know, new instructors at some of these schools have also been given the opportunity to fly the line and gain experience whilst they start to instruct.

[camel]

So the experienced Airline pilots....who we hear may be be flying 120++ per month are also doing instruction on top of that ? ah ok .....:hmm:

[Iver]

The civil servants probably have modest wage requirements unlike Expat pilots - so a natural target for recruitment. You won't see me on a Lion Air flight in the future... :eek:

[training wheels]

So the experienced Airline pilots....who we hear may be be flying 120++ per month are also doing instruction on top of that ? ah ok .....:hmm:

Well, that's not the case where I am .. FTL are monitored and always well under the limit.

[jack s]

FTL are monitored and always well under the limit.:=:=:= for a fact Lion Air crew over fly the FTL every month as there is no rostering system in the airline;the crew is sent sms text messages on flt they operate the next day... :mad:

[StudentPilot479]

:rolleyes: Good reading comprehension Jack. May I suggest you re-read the entire sentence, not just the last clause?

You would make an excellent journalist as you have already mastered the art of using partial quotes to completely misrepresent what someone else has said for your own ends.

[training wheels]

and for the record, I don't work for Lion Air, Jack ... :rolleyes:

[CDRW]

and for the record who do you work for , TW.

[lee_apromise]

Probably an airline starting with "m" :E

[msian1147]

'Less Buleh, Less Bull****' - dgca's new motto :}

[jack s]

dont work for TW or M or AA.... worked with Lion some yrs ago...:ugh:

[fullforward]

Hi Mata,

Sorry mate, I've read your post twice and I still don't have a clue what exactly you mean. It's obvious that English is not your mother language so would you care to further elaborate, in the sake of clarity?
Or have some native speaker to help you?

[flyhardmo]

So Indonesia is crying for pilots. An obvious supply vs demand issue, yet people still line up for the pay to fly scheme :ugh::ugh::ugh:
What is wrong with you people?

[NEWYEAR]

There so many unemployed pilots from Spain willing to go to Indonesia that shortage can be eliminated. Most of them highly qualified in glass cockpit. They could share their experience and make a good job all together.

[jack s]

Indonesian pilots concerned over safety - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=sv-cyF9nqLU)

[Gtr21]

@jack you said you worked for lion a while ago ?? i am sure even then they had a roster, they never followed it but none the less had it, and the schedules are received 1 day in advance.
but as of last month lion air pilots are flying 85 hours and if they are over that they can reject schedules as from the mouth of the chief, and for the 1st time ever you have consecutive days off !!! ;)
@flyhardmo there is no p2f schemes in indo anymore.
@iver the guys who are joining the program to be pilots are more than likely never gonna see the left hand side, all the guys even older gentlemen from navy/airforce are trained as FO and will remain there ( the younger ones who can fly and are not above 50 i presume will get their shot )
@msian its not bhule or indo pilots that causes bull****, 90% of time its the administration
@camel the captains or even fo's who are instructors at flying school don't go over hours, they normally take a few weeks off from commercial ops to go down to these schools and teach
@newyear i heard a lot of Spanish guys went to garuda crj, and they are still hiring
and lastly i agree with trainingwheels , i have flown with some of the indo instructors and they were great, they can provide you with information about line flying.

[cyrilroy21]

I heard the Indonesia will soon remove the " 250 hours on type " rule very soon and now a certain consultancy in delhi has started accepting students again for an A320 operator in Indonesia

Any truth to this rumour ?

Edit:

Please dont send any pm's asking for more info because I dont have any....

[VSGJ]

Highly unlikely specially after Lion crashed.

[Captain Dart]

Which time ? :hmm:

[captjns]

Limited time folks! Act now and they'll throw in a free Jet Sea Plan rating folks:ok: