https://amp.adelaidenow.com.au/business/sa-business-journal/cobham-has-launched-a-new-cadet-program-for-aspiring-pilots/news-story/3eb37bf11cc79cc55ee8ea877cfa0d3a

"The cadetship is funded primarily by Federal Government vocational and education training (VET) student loans"... Um funded...No. Great journalism there.
The cadetship is funded by the student... who has access to a loan. How hard is it to report accurately?

Bazza,
Other pilots are the ones comparing themselves to doctors. I beleive that it's a bit fanciful to make that comparison. Medical doctors have to do a long stint at uni (5 years I think) and then two years of residency and after all of that try to get access to a college. GP's, Surgeons, Anaesthetists etc. If they get into a college then a few more years of training and maybe then they can relax. If your lucky you will be finished by the age of 30.

If you dont make it through residency or college training you can be a supervised hospital doctor or you can go into research, administration etc.

If you dont make it into the cockpit with your 100k CPL yoy have far fewer options.

Pilotchute, I was basically making that point. Why are we comparing ourselves to a profession that has no resemblance to ours? Forget what other people get, we’re pilots and we should be more focused on making our jobs workable.

Contractual obligations
 

Woah, whats going on, the Border force contract has minimum requirements of experience and IRT renewals, no way a cadet would qualify to fly on these sorties unless Cobham extort the Government to make whole sale changes to their contractual obligations, or they commit to having a training pilot on every cadet flight, in which case there is no advantage. But hey it wouldn't be the first time they got away with conning the government.

And don't forget the $270 fee just to be hopeful of the pineapple!

The contractual requirements have been flexible in the past (e.g., residency, citizenship, IRT renewals), I don't see why they wouldn't accomodate something like this.

So how many decisions does an RPT jet pilot make each day? Level selection, final fuel load, which sector to fly and which meal to eat. Every other "decision" has been made for them by either the aircraft manufacturer, the regulator or their company. Think about it. Manuals are so prescriptive now that there is very little decision making in normal operations. Granted, with non normal operations the range of decisions widens but still mostly prescribed eg "land as soon as practicable" or " avoid icing conditions". Doctors on the other hand start with someone complaining of a "sore belly" then start from there.

I think Iccy must have taken something...

I would argue that a doctor has a lot of decisions made for them. A doctor would ask the patient more questions to get an idea of the symptoms, run some checks and narrow down the possibilities until they hopefully arrive at a diagnosis. They would utilise their knowledge of the human body and they would have ample resources and texts to refer to for assistance. This is very similar to how one might diagnose a technical issue in the aircraft by analysing the warnings, indications etc and diagnosing the issue and following the prescribed checklist. You could argue that a doctor doesn't have a checklist in front of them, but perhaps if they had to make big decisions in a short time frame whilst managing numerous other tasks at the same time, a handbook akin to a QRH might be beneficial.

4. One line NOTAMS or full text?
5. Intersection departure or full length?
6. Would you like poached eggs and bacon with hollandaise sauce on sourdough , or the cereal?

:{

We call it Eggs Benedict! :}

Yes Iccy, I am appalled! You should hang your head in shame! :{

Icarus,

I'm with you, no one rates a Pilot as high as a Pilot does.

For the love of god why do pilots keep thinking they're in the same league as Drs. Now, I'm not saying all Drs would make it as pilots, but if you looked at the requirements for Drs Vs Pilots I'd say it easily goes their way. Just to get into Uni for medicine you need to be in the top 2-3 %, then 6 yrs as it's post grad (as is dentistry and vet science), so you do your initial degree, then start your med degree, so 6 yrs at Uni, then your hospital training and that's at least 2 yrs.

Like I said I don't think every Dr would make it as a pilot (and not based on intelligence), but I'd bet you > 95% would piss it in and I'd say < 15% of Pilots would get through the Uni program for medicine. Far easier to train a pilot than a Dr, dentist, vet, engineer etc.

Not quite Dunning-Kruger, but on the way!

For the best reaction postulate that the job of pilot is a "blue collar" job notwithstanding most wear white ones. No formal education requirements only vocational training undertaken via self selection, if you can pay you can undertake it, not like medical school as you say. If you want a good idea of education levels read some of the maintenance entries in the DL/ML.

Well if you want to play that game there is a High Court Judge who left school in Year 10 and never did a HSC or went to university. So you might as well throw lawyers on that blue collar pile as well.:E

Really, how was this person admitted to the bar without any "formal study"? Do you have a name?

People who are comfortable with who they are and what they do don't spend time on the internet pontificating on whether their job is blue collar, white collar, professional, etc. Who cares?

Hi all

I see Cobham has advertised for FOs (EoI) on the Dash 8; out of interest how many hrs would FOs be flying annually? Is the Coastwatch job viewed as a viable long-term career option with a good work-life balance (cliché I know)?

Cheers

BE

Qantas, Virgin, Rex, Singapore Airlines Malaysia Airlines....all in that group using cadets.

Neville_Nobody,

Nice strawman / outlier argument.

Early life and education[edit]

Kiefel was born in Cairns, Queensland in 1954. She attended Sandgate District State High School, leaving at the age of 15 upon completing Year 10. In 1971, she completed secretarial training at Kangaroo Point Technical College on a scholarship. She worked as a secretary for a building society, an architect, and an exploration company before starting work as a receptionist for a group of barristers, Fitzgerald, Moynihan and Mack. During this time, she completed secondary school and began studying law.[3]

In 1973, Kiefel joined solicitors Cannan and Peterson (which became Sly & Weigall Cannan & Peterson and is now Norton Rose Fulbright) as a legal clerk. Completing her education at night, she enrolled in the Barristers Admission Board course and passed her course with honours.[4] In 1984, while on sabbatical leave, she completed a Master of Laws (LLM) at the University of Cambridge, where she was awarded the C.J. Hamson Prize in Comparative Law and the Jennings Prize. In 2008, she was elected to an Honorary Fellowship of Wolfson College, Cambridge.

You're comparing 1% of 1% of the population with the rest of us, nice try, but yeah....NAH!

No, the whole point of being a cadet was a "guaranteed" job with the airline once you completed the requisite training.

There are variations where the company stumps up the cash for training and then takes it out of your salary once you commence working etc... But in general, cadets need to cover the costs of training one way or another

@ Bazza Stub, AerocatS2A & 717tech

Thanks for the information and your perspectives. Certainly on the surface it seems an appealing job (flying wise anyway) but I understand the other factors can take the shine off even the best job if they become excessive.

Cheers

BE

For base captains this can be a problem, up to 110 hours, but for FO's no, you will not run out of duty.

In saying that, there's a lot of things that could very quickly change, I beleive there is more pilots on a hold file than there is off one.