Pilot-drain - The new aviation crisis
 

Carmel Egan
August 27, 2006

AUSTRALIA faces a looming aviation crisis because it is not training enough pilots to replace retirees and experienced pilots who are lured overseas by better pay and conditions.

Small operators say the shortage of trainees and qualified pilots has already started to bite on rural and regional services and will soon affect larger carriers.

The Royal Flying Doctor Service, aerial ambulance and emergency medical services, fire-fighting, Coastwatch and agricultural operators are already struggling to find or retain qualified pilots, according to the Aircraft Operators and Pilots Association.

The essential services have to compete with the pay, conditions and career opportunities offered to young pilots by overseas operators, particularly small Asian-based airlines, according to the association.

A growing demand for pilots across the Asia-Pacific region, particularly in China and India, is behind the shortage.

Aircraft manufacturer Boeing predicts that 89 per cent of all new aircraft deliveries will be to the Asia-Pacific region over the next 20 years.

Boeing's 2005 market outlook estimated that 102,000 new pilots would be needed to support those aircraft deliveries to China, India, Asia and Oceania up to 2024.

"The employment market for pilots has changed considerably over the last five years," said Stephen Lansell, aviation and communications manager for the Royal Flying Doctor's western operations.

"We have gone from an enormous glut to getting towards a famine," he said. "Organisations are finding they recruit people who get the experience and are then poached by another organisation by offers of the next level up."

Flight schools believe a generation of would-be Australian pilots is being discouraged from committing to courses because the flight component of training is not covered by the HECS program and can cost between $50,000 and $100,000.

Students are also being attracted to more financially rewarding professions, such as law, at the same time as airlines are moving to cut salaries of the most senior of Australia's 30,000 active commercial pilots.

But while fewer local candidates are applying for licences, thousands of international students are being turned away because of a shortage of flying instructors.

"Flying schools are poaching and squabbling over flight instructors," said Wendy Dow of TVSA flying school at Moorabbin. "What is scary is that when (instructors) get to the mid-level of their careers, they are being sucked up by major airlines to fly."

International training standards have also been changed, allowing students to be fast-tracked through new simulator-based licensing systems with minimum flying hours, in an attempt to meet the looming international shortage.

"The long-term impact in Australia is that we will start to lose our ability to supply essential aviation services," said John Lyon, a director of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association.

"Society takes aviation services for granted. They believe that somehow or other it is going to work. Well, it's not going to work," Mr Lyon said. "It's not just pilots. They are going to lose their infrastructure. If we don't have young blokes and girls taking up flying, where are all the agricultural pilots going to come from?

"Training pilots has always been seen as the province of an exclusive group. It is seen as a rich boys' toy. Well, it ain't. Little airplanes mean a hell of a lot.

"What we are facing is a real problem and it is getting closer and closer. I am very concerned about this," Mr Lyon said.

Pilot shortage?

What pilot shortage?!?

It's hard to believe there will ever be a shortage at the bottom end but you have got to admit there are far more opportunities out there right now than what there was at the end of 2001 (for example). It is a cyclical emplyment industry and right now it is looking very good for some of the middle order batsmen :) I have to shake my head at even some of the first job experiences I have seen...:suspect: It is almost as though some people are skipping some rungs of the old ladder altogether! Of course in a few years time it will probably be the other way round again...

Sure is a heap of flight instructor jobs going! Seem to be drying out, especially at Grade 2 and above!

Id like to see Jet* and Virgin have to pay more to keep there pilots haha :}

Aussie

The reason why some pilots have gone overseas is because of the lack of jobs in Australia. Where operators such as the RFDS require such inflated high experience before considering an applicant, then no wonder they have trouble trying to attract someone to live in the outback. Why fly a Kingair or PC12 in the bush competing with millions of flies for your steak and eggs when you can go overseas and fly to exotic destinations and stay at top class hotels on a better salary and this is available with less flying experience than it takes to qualify for the RFDS.

There is a great world of flying outside of Australia where the pinnacle ambition of so many young pilots is restricted to flying ICUS in a Navajo from Thingalongjaba to Bullemakanka until a command on a C210 at Marble Bar comes up.

First of all one has to read that article very carefully before saying there will never be a pilot shortage in Australia. It’s not saying that. What it is really saying is we are experiencing a looming shortage of experienced pilots. Big difference.

Secondly there is a hidden agenda behind it.
They are using the looming shortage of experienced pilots as an excuse to try and get the government to fund through the HECS scheme, pilot training. With the articles information coming from AOPA Australia and a large number of flying schools being members of this organisation, it is quite obvious what is going on here. After all AOPA is lobby group.

...and god bless 'em! :ok:

Yes, and what is wrong with that? If HECS can be used to get you through law, medicine, an apprenticeship or basket-weaving, why not through a CPL? What's so special about flying? Oh, that's right, pilots actually LIKE their job, so they deserve no assistance turning professional?

Who wouldnt have loved to charge up flying training to HECS like a uni degree is done.

If a Doctor can do it, and even the damn Lawyers that invented AWA's, we should be able to as well. :mad:

As for the pilot shortage (if it is really as bad as the whinging now), bring it on. Refuse upfront endorsements or look elsewhere. Bought time the public subsidises the low cost operators with their airfares and not the employees. :=

My 2 bits worth.....:ok:

Ron & Edna Johns

I didn’t say there was anything wrong with it. I was just pointing out what the article was really about. It isn’t about pilot shortages. It is about getting pilot training included in the HECS scheme.

For the record though I believe it is probably in all our interest to keep the supply of pilots as tight as possible. The last thing we want is an even greater oversupply of unemployed pilots to put even greater pressure on our already pressured T&C. People should think long term at the ramifications of supply and demand on our career and not be so short sighted at the possible instant gratification we could get if flight training for a CPL was included in the HECS scheme. Until new CPL’s are limited each year by CASA (which will never happen), the high cost of training is the only thing that will keep them in check as well as the fact there are many other professions that pay considerably more than being a pilot. And yes I do think there are way too many flying schools competing for too little business. Something needs to give here as well.

Pilot shortage in OZ' !!!
 

I have been back in Australia for almost a year now, searching for a pilot position with any company out there, including the RFDS with no avail. Now it has gotten to the point where, again I am having to go and search overseas, which I have already had some more positive response from. With few thousand of flight hours, most on a jet, international ops. and zero response in OZ. And the funny thing about all this is that I am not the only one in this position.
:ugh: :( :ok:

Safe flying to all.

;)

IMHO HECS would worsen the pilot shortage!
 

Why?

If HECS were introduced for pilot training, it would not simply be a case of an unlimited number of trainees being government funded. Rather, it would of course be on the basis that it applies to other degrees, namely limited places.

As a result, like any other Uni course, candidates would have to COMPETE for positions available. If you were unsuccessful you would then become FULL FEE PAYING. This would reduce the total number of trainees due to two major factors:

1. At the moment trainees enter the industry blissfully unaware of whether they have what it takes for THAT airline job. No barriers to entry is what has historically created the oversupply. Under a HECS funded regime, those that failed to secure a place would themselves begin to question their own abilities to succeed in the profession before turning a prop in anger;

2. Even if not discouraged by 1 above, "full fee paying trainees" would compare themselves to the goverment funded candidates and many would baulk at having to pay many times the cost. In reality costs would be exactly what they would pay now, but only perceptions count and the comparison would deter them.

So, IMHO, AOPA's lobbying is short sighted and doesn't take into account what the end result of HECS funded training would be - namely far less pilots entering the profession. I say bring it on and fund it with HECS. The greater the pilot shortage the better. It would absolutely gut the flying training industry. But from AOPA's perspective, be careful what you ask for...

In reality AOPA should be lobbying CASA to change the entry requirements to airlines. The reason people are getting jobs overseas is because they CAN!!! They don't have insanely highly MINIMUM requirements. People in Europe are walking out of flying schools straight into Jets. While I think that is probably not the safest option, there has to be a happy medium between that and what we have here which is quite frankly insane. People all round the world can safely fly big aircraft without 500 hours on a busted arse piston twin.
Similarly insurance companies need to come to party as well as they are part of the problem especially for GA operations. You might also want to ask the RFDS why they have a multi requirement when they operate single engine aircraft??

The other consideration is the amount of money that is invested in aviation
License cost say 60K + Larger Twin Endo 2.5K + Turboprop 10K + Jet 35K
There's 107 000 dollars and 8 - 10 years of your life just to get into Jetstar. Not to mention all the associated stuffing around and pressure on your personal life etc. Until you get into a Major airline you probably won't see a salary over $55 000 if you are lucky.

Young people want to be pilots because the view from the cockpit is the best in the world. Rarely have I met students in other professions with such a compelling love for their job. Look at it this way. A student pilot sits in the classroom and studies elementary aerody then with sunnies on like Tom Cruise and headset swinging in the breeze, he swaggers to his Cessna and follows the theory lesson with an hour in the air doing the vicarious Biggles thing and master of all he surveys from 3000 ft in the training area. It is quite a turn on and any pilot who is honest with himself will admit they love the job because of the view from the cockpit.

Another student decided he loves animals and wants to be a veterinary surgeon. He does some ground theory at University and his first practical lesson starts when he swaggers to a farm with his stethoscope swinging in the breeze, pink rubber gloves dangling from his overalls, and then sticks his hand up a brown cow's arse, for the love of one day being a real vet. Like I said, it is whatever turns you on!

Which is why there will never be a real shortage of students wanting to learn to fly.

neville_nobody

The requirements in Australia are a direct result of supply and demand for new pilots, insurance and client requirements. It has quite often been said you can shake a tree in Australia and a dozen pilots will fall out of it. This is vastly different to Europe where there is hardly any GA to speak of and the exorbitant prices to learn to fly there mean at times the demand for new pilots out strips supply. To say that Australia needs to catch up with the rest of the world is a little naïve. Australia will dance to its own tune based on the market forces at play there, just as Europe will because of the market forces there. You are trying to compare apples with oranges.

Pretty obviously because there is no equivalent Hiperf S/E turboprop like theirs elsewhere in Oz, but there's plenty of what is basically the same ype of op, albeit in twin turboporps, which is the type of experience they want. I don't see many commercial PC-12s around here part from RFDS...

The RFDS want multi time because they operate multi engine a/c. Go figure. The only section of the RFDS that is solely s/e is the central section.

What is happening here and what we are seeing in the aeromed world is a pool of reasonably experienced pilots drying up very quickly. The likes of Pearl, RFDS, Air ambulance etc are dropping there entry criteria where possible BUT, what that translates into is new pilots taking a lot longer to check to line. In some cases, many months as oposed to 3 or 4 weeks.

This is the reality at the moment and it will only get worse.

Beware of anyone in the cockpit with a pair of pink rubber gloves :uhoh:

I completely agree.

I beliieve that I was once told by friends in RFDS West Ops that their aviation and Comms manager, told them there a heaps of experenced pilots out there, that is why they didnt get much of a pay rise, well how the wheel turns.